A tramp steamer, the Alum Chine, lay peacefully at her dock in Baltimore Harbor on March 6, while a gang of stevedores loaded her with dynamite for use in the Panama Canal. The boxes of the explosive were being transferred to the hold of the ship from cars which stood on a barge alongside. About 300 tons of dynamite were on board or in the cars when smoke was seen coming from below. Knowing the inevitable result the men leaped overboard with a rush but before all had reached safety the explosion came.
No words can convey any adequate conception of the terrific destructive power of such a sudden loosing of immeasurable force. The Alum Chine and the barge with its cars alongside disappeared. Other vessels in the vicinity were shattered. Men upon the deck of a new ship five hundred feet away were swept down like tall grass in a gale and a rain of fragments of iron and wreckage killed some, injured many and pierced the steel hull like shots from a cannon. Houses miles away were rocked to their foundations and windows were shattered without number.
REMARKABLE PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AN INSTANT AFTER THE EXPLOSION OF 300 TONS OF DYNAMITE WHICH HAD BEEN LOADED ON BOARD THE “ALUM CHINE” FOR SHIPMENT TO THE CANAL ZONE.
Immediate measures of relief were undertaken in behalf of the families of the thirty-one men killed and the fifty-eight injured. The Baltimore Chapter of the Red Cross held a meeting and appropriated $500 while the newspapers were equally prompt in collecting funds. By common consent the Federated Charities, with its experienced agents, was given charge of the gathering of the information necessary to effective action as well as of the actual relief distribution. The next logical step was the consolidation of all contributed funds from whatever source. Thus efficiency and community unity of action were assured from the start. With this beginning it may be confidently expected that the greatest possible good will result from the generosity of the Baltimore people.
Public Works and Relief in China
In general a report of relief operations published long after the public interest in the emergency which called for relief has subsided, is regarded as a good example of what not to read. When an exception is found, it is entitled to special notice, which accounts for this reference to the report of the Central China Famine Relief Committee, embracing an account of the relief operations in the famine district in China between October 1, 1911, and June 30, 1912. It will be recalled that the headquarters of the committee were in Shanghai and membership included many well known American and other foreign residents of China, as well as prominent Chinese citizens. Bishop F. R. Graves was chairman and Rev. E. C. Lobenstine, secretary, and Consul General Amos P. Wilder an active member. These three gentlemen are Americans. At the outset of its work the committee adopted a program stated in six articles. Two of these articles were:
“That relief be given only in return for work done, except in the case of those incapacitated for work.”