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Show GOVERNMENT U PROBE TRAiiEDY WASHINGTON THEATRE WRECK TO BE PROBED BY FEDERAL FED-ERAL GOVERNMENT Faulty Construction or Lax Inspeo tier I Will be Handled in Courts Attorney General Daugherty Says In Statement Washington-All the powers of tht federal government will be exercised to probe the Knickerbocker theatre catastrophe, which cost the lives ol manv a few days ago, it was learned Tuesday at the department of Justice. If the investigation shows faulty oi cheap construction and lax building inspection in-spection methods, those responsible will be charged with criminal negligence negli-gence and relentlessly prosecuted, At. torney General Daugherty has determined. deter-mined. Congress, the executive departments 'and the district government have joined in comprehensive inquiry into every phase of the disaster. Police Tuesday claimed that a careful care-ful checkup had decreased the death list to ninety-five, that several error and duplications had been discovered Sixty-two of the 144 Injured still are in the hosoitals. Six of the best army and navy construction con-struction engineers will investigate the construction of the theatre for the depantmen of Justice. Reports are current that concrete lit the walls and roof was in a crumbly state and that reinforcements were lacking. The report of the army-navy experts will be placed before a federal grand jury here, wMeh already has started an Investigation of the case. A coroner's Jury has been Impaneled and will start Its inquiry within a few days. Local building Inspectors have made preliminary tests. The prevailing opinion of engineers, such as Colonel Charles Keller, district commissioner, is that the weight of the snow on the roof would not have caused the roof t cave in with deadly effect If there had not been some fundamental defect In construction. Meanwhile the senate was expecteo to adopt a resolution of Senator Cap-per, Cap-per, Kansas, which calls for an in. qulry by the senate district committee particularly Into reports that a rm of profiteering contractors, iru league with local building inspectors, has been putting up cheap and dangerous 'build-intfs 'build-intfs here. The demand for a complete lnvest gation is most insistent over the stunned and saddened city which Tuesday buried ten of the dead. Meanwhile Mean-while the work of razing the remaining remain-ing walls of the theatre has started. The work is progressing slowly because be-cause of the danger of a collapse, which would bury workmen. South American diplomats Tuesday attended services for Mine. Virginia Feraud, sister of the Guatemalan m:n-ister, m:n-ister, Bianchi, held during the aftei-noon aftei-noon from the Guatemalan legation and St. Paul's Catholic church, after which the body was to be sent io Ventura, Cal. |