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Show ALLEGES ARSON TRUST EXISTS CHICAGO, July 19. Thnt there exists ex-ists a gigantic, country-wide at son trust, with headquarters in Kansas City, and representatives in nearly all the large cities, the members of which mako a business of sotting fire to buildings to enable the owners to collect largo sums of Insurance, was tho sensational charge made today by State Fire Marshal C. J Doyle, in an address delivered before tho Chicago Association of Commerce. "Tho country Is facing one of the most gigantic, organized arson conspiracies conspi-racies the world has over known," said State Firo Marshal Doylo. "The state fire marshal department of Illinois Illi-nois has united with the state flro marshals of Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio to wipe out the band of 15 men at tho head of this arson conspiracy. The head of the firebug trust Is In Kansas City, from which city the operations op-erations of tho entire gang are directed. di-rected. "The tentacles of this octopus havo extended, as the daring of thoso be- hind the plot has grown, into a dozen ' or more cities. They have b.ccn found nt work In Bloomlngton, Springfield, Spring-field, 111., Pittsburg, Cleveland. Buffalo, Buffa-lo, St. Louis. Chicago and othor-cltles. Two of tho gang havo been convicted aud a'ro now, imprisoncd'ln a southern city. Tho others will be behind the bars before long, If we are successful In following the clews we now arc working on. Tho firebug prohlom is one . of the most,- important which ,-confronts tjio country. Even without ih'q case of. arson the fire , losses, of the country are appalling. The fire-loss 'In thfs country nmounts to about ?500 a minute. min-ute. In Chicago tho loss Is .$5,000,000 a year, while in Berllu tho annual loss does not exceed $200,000. We need to ndopt the fire protection plans of European cities." |