CHICAGO DAILY TRIBUNE, March 20, 1937

• New London, Texas school explosion
• Odorless natural gas leak ignited

The front page has a six column heading: "Blame Gas or Nitroglycerin for School Blast" with subheads. A large aerial photo of the explosion site is on the back page with heading and text. (see images) 
Complete with all 38 pages, rag edition in very nice condition. A few small binding holes along the spine.

Background: On March 18, 1937, one of the deadliest disasters in American educational history occurred in New London, Texas, when an odorless natural gas leak ignited inside the basement crawlspace of the London Consolidated School, triggering a catastrophic explosion that killed an estimated 290 to 310 students and teachers. Located in the wealthy East Texas oilfield, the school had tapped into a nearby pipeline to obtain free "wet" gas for heating, allowing the undetected gas to accumulate until an electrical spark from a shop class sanding machine ignited it at roughly 3:05 PM, completely collapsing the building minutes before dismissal. The tragedy—covered notably by a young Walter Cronkite—spurred immediate rescue efforts by local oil workers and led directly to nationwide safety regulations, most significantly the mandatory addition of mercaptans (a rotten-egg odorant) to natural gas so that future leaks could be easily detected by smell.