The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
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| Holes in the Sidewalk Created by Jumpers |
NEW YORK, October 10, 1911
Present — HON. ALFRED E. SMITH, Vice-Chairman.
MR. SAMUEL GOMPERS.
HON. CYRUS W. PHILLIPS.
MISS MARY E. DREIER.
MR. ROBERT E. DOWLING.ABRAM I. ELKUS, Counsel to the Commission.
BERNARD L. SHIENTAG, Assistant Counsel.
The act creating the Commission was read by Vice-Chairman Smith.
The VICE-CHAIRMAN: The Commission being present and ready to proceed, we would like to hear from counsel.
MR. ELKUS: We all regret, of course, that Senator Wagner, by reason of his illness, is unable to be present and act as chairman of the Commission.
It is
unfortunate that the occurrence of a catastrophe is often necessary to awaken a
people to its true sense of responsibility. The Triangle Waist Company fire of
March, 1911, with its attendant horrors and loss of life shocked both city and
State. The loss of one hundred and forty-three lives in one factory fire brought
to the attention of the public with terrible force the dangers that daily
threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of
employees in manufacturing establishments in the City of New York and elsewhere
throughout the State.
Public attention was directed not only to the dangers which threaten employees because of inadequate fire-escape facilities, and because of the lack of precautions against fire, but also to the less obvious but greater menace of sanitary conditions.
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| Women who jumped from the flames |
[DELETED: Mr. Elkus continues his opening comments and asks Mr. Gompers to make a few remarks, at which point, the examination of witnesses commences.]
(PAGE 14)
MR. ELKUS: With your permission, Mr. Chairman, we will call Mr. Croker as the
first witness.
EDWARD F.
CROKER, called as a witness, being first duly sworn, testifies as follows:
Direct examination by Mr. ELKUS:
Q. Chief, will you tell the Commissioners just how long you have been in the Fire Department, what positions you have held, etc., so that we may have it upon the record? A. I was appointed fireman June 22nd, 1884, and went through the various grades of the department from time to time, until I arrived at the position of Chief of the department; I served in that capacity for twelve years and retired May first of the present year.
Q. During that time, did you make any study of the conditions of manufacturing in New York City, from a fireman's standpoint? A. I did, sir.
Q. Will you tell the Commissioners, briefly, just what occurred during that time that you were in the Fire Department - the changes that occurred, in the methods of manufacturing, the kinds of buildings formerly used, and the kind that are used at this time? A. The building formerly used, say twenty years ago, was the ordinary four and five story brick building, wooden floor beams, wooden floors, etc., up to the present class of buildings.
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| Others who jumped |
Q. There were no elevators in the old buildings? A. Very few; stairways ere used - wooden stairways, not elevators.
Q. Did they have fire-escapes - were they fireproof as a rule or not? A. No, sir. They have gradually improved to the so-called fireproof building, which consists of buildings that you are all probably acquainted with around New York to-day, from twelve to twenty-five stories high.
Q. These buildings from twelve to twenty-five stories are what are called loft buildings? A. So-called loft buildings.
Q. They vary in size from twenty-five feet wide to one hundred feet deep, or more? A. The average is fifty to seventy-five feet.
(PAGE 15)
Q. Wide, and the depth eighty-five or ninety feet? A. Yes, sir.
Now, in these loft buildings, there are usually a great many occupants, are there not? A. Generally there is a different occupant on each floor.
Q. And in some of the buildings is manufacturing carried on on each floor? A. Yes, sir.
Q. Will you give us an idea of the kinds of different occupants - the different kinds of businesses that will be found in a ten or twelve story building of the kind that you have referred to? A. Manufacturers of ladies' shirt waists, manufacturer of ladies' underwear, manufacturer of ladies' cloaks, manufacturer of ladies' suits, and the manufacture of clothing.
Q. All under one roof? A. All under one roof.
Q. Can you tell me whether or not these people use machines - many of them power machines? A. They all use machines; yes sir.
Q. How many employees are there in these buildings - in these buildings that you refer to? A. Anywhere from 150 to 300.
Q. On each floor? A. On each floor.
Q. So that sometimes in a ten-story building you will find the extreme would be, say, twenty-five hundred persons in one building? A. Yes.
Q. That would be almost a town in itself? A. (No answer.)
Q. Are these lofts open, or divided off by partitions - what kind of partitions are they? A. Most are open lofts, and they are divided off - if they are divided off, they are divided by 3/8 inch pins.
Q. Now, about the material used in the manufacture of goods in these buildings that you refer to - what about that? A. All inflammable.
Q. Now, about the method of egress in ingress in these buildings - what is there so far as elevators are concerned? A. It all depends upon the size of the building.
Q. Just tell us. A. Take a 50x100 foot building. If it is on a corner, it will probably have two stairways, one on each street, and a passenger elevator.
Q. Will you describe the location of the stairs with references to the elevator? A. The stairway is generally built around the elevator.
(PAGE 16)
Q. They wind around the elevators? A. They wind around the elevators.
Q. Now, as a rule, are the staircases divided from the elevator by walls and partitions? A. some are and some are not.
Q. Now, will you tell us about your experience in these buildings, if anything is done as a rule to protect them from fire? A. Generally there is nothing done. They use the waste, oils and such things as that; oily waste especially is very combustible.
Q. I believe a great many of these employees smoke cigarettes and cigars? A. It is almost impossible to stop it; a cigarette is a tonic.
Q. They consider it a tonic? A. They consider it a tonic.
Q. Tell us about the fire-escapes - of the things you have seen? A. Very few of the factories have outside fire-escapes; very few; they have very few outside fire-escapes, and where they have them they are inadequate. They use the stairways. They call those things the fire-escapes; they also use the elevators, and they call them fire-escapes. An elevator in a building is generally a fire shaft.
Q. Do you mean to say that under the law they can permit an elevator to be called a fire-escape? A. They don't permit it to be called a fire-escape, but they use it as such and mark it as such.
Q. In the case of fire? A. In the case of fire.
Q. Aren't they required in a ten-story loft building to have exterior fire-escapes? A. It lies within the discretion of the Superintendent of Buildings - that is, in what they call a fireproof building.
Q. In other words, if a building is fireproof, the Superintendent may not require them to have exterior fire-escapes; and in that case they are allowed to use the elevators and stairs? A. Elevator and stairs.
Q. In these various buildings where there are exterior fire-escapes built, access is had to them from the window? A. Yes, sir.
Q. What has been your experience, Chief, with reference to the use of these fire-escapes in case of fire? Are they used at all? A. A great many will use them, but they are not used to advantage. Women, and especially children - girls, such as work in these buildings, cannot descend them.
(PAGE 17)
Q. They cannot get down on them? A. Not readily.
Q. Is it your idea if they are to continue, they should be made with a regular staircase? A. With regular staircase, and made to extend away from the building - not close to the building.
Q. How far away? A. At least four feet.
Q. Is there any other suggestion that you have to give the Commission as to the use of fire-escapes? A. There have been some cases where fire-escapes, by being very crowded, have pulled away from the building. Fire-escape should be built into the building by having the floor beams extend out to the proper width.
Q. That is, the beams should extend out from the building and the fire-escapes supported on them? A. Supported on them.
Q. Now, about the terminus of a fire-escape - what has been your knowledge of that? A. A great many terminate in a court or in a rear yard, and it is absolutely impossible for the occupants to escape when they go down that far.
Q. That is, after they get down the fire-escape, they are in an enclosed yard? A. In an enclosed yard.
Q. What have you to suggest as a remedy for that? A. They should extend to, or have an entrance direct to the street; and in a great many cases, where the window is would make the best fire-escape by putting a door there, and running a bridge from one building to the other.
Q. From one roof to another? A. Or out to another street.
Q. From the rear of one building to the rear of another? A. By running a bridge.
Q. That would be very inexpensive? A. Yes, make a very good fire-escape.
Q. That means getting permission, of course, of both parties, does it not? A. I believe so.
Q. With reference to the window or door leading to the fire-escape, should the window be cut down and made a door? A. Yes, sir.
Q. That should be made to open inward or outward? A. Outward.
Q. And that should be made compulsory; is that your view? A. In all these cases, it should be mandatory. I find in my experience in and around these buildings, that a great majority of the people who occupy the various establishments would rather take a chance on the loss of life than spend five or ten dollars to prevent it.
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Q. Is that your experience? A. Positively.
Q. How about the shutters leading to the fire-escape? A. They should not be allowed.
Q. They should not be permitted? A. No, sir.
Q. A fire-escape window or door leading to the fire-escape be constructed? A. They should be set in metal frame.
Q. Do you recommend that? A. Yes, sir.
Q. Now, Chief, about the occupation of these buildings. In your experience in fighting fires, what have you found to be the condition of these buildings so far as their occupation is concerned - material and machinery on the floors - just tell the Commission what your experience has been. A. Some buildings you go into are kept nicely, but the majority of others you go in are unkept; they are dirty; they are unclean; their stock is strewed all over the floor. Where they use machinery there are no passageways whatsoever.
Q. Tell the Commission about the difficulties in fighting a fire of that kind. A. In a great many cases there is only about one door on that loft you can get in. Goods are piled up in front of the windows, in front of the doors, and you have got to use a battering ram to get into any of them.
Q. How about the passageways being blocked? A. Piled right to the ceiling. Many a time the firemen get into places in the night time and there is no room for a man to go through the passages.
Q. How about the passageway to a fire-escape? Do you find those blocked or open? A. Find them blocked.
Q. How about locked doors to the staircases? Have you found that? A. Oh, yes, plenty of them. The doors going to the roof are locked. They pay absolutely no attention to the fire hazard or to the protection of the employees in these buildings. That is their last consideration.
Q. What do you suggest should be done with reference to these locked doors, and things like that? A. There should be mandatory legislation to compel them to keep the doors unlocked during working hours. All doors should be opened up. Aisles should be kept
(PAGE 19) clear, obstructions should be moved away from doorways, and windows and so forth; and in case of any violations of such a law there should be a severe penalty attached to it.
Q. Imprisonment or fine? A. You can't make it too heavy. You have got a class of people doing business constantly, not only in New York City, with whom you've got to deal severely, and give them to understand that there is the law, and they have got to obey it, for the protection of property and the people that they employ. If you don't have drastic legislation you can't get anything from them.
Q. What have you got to say about wooden partitions? A. If I had my say I wouldn't allow a piece of wood in sight in any buildings of any description.
Q. You mean in the shape of a partition or a table? A. In the shape of a partition, or window trims or door trims, or baseboards - nothing at all in the construction of a building should be of wood.
Q. Tell the Commission your reasons for that statement. A. The reason is because all wood is inflammable and it only adds fuel to a fire which may occur.
Q. Well, do you believe that there would be less loss of life if those rules were followed? A. I do, sir.
Q. Were you present at the fire of the Triangle Waist Company building? A. I was, sir.
Q. And you made a careful investigation of that fire, did you not? A. Yes, sir, I did.
Q. Now, just a word about that. Was that a loft building of the kind you described? A. Yes, sir
Q. How many stories high? A. Twelve stories.
Q. And this fire was on one or more floors in that building? A. It originated on the ninth.
Q. And they had an out-door fire-escape there, didn't they? A. On the rear.
Q. And it led down into an enclosed yard? A. It led down into an enclosed yard.
Q. What did you ascertain were the facts there with reference to closed doors. A. Well, from what we could find - what was left of that place up there - I don't think there was any doubt there was a partition inside of the doorway leading out into the Green Street
(PAGE 20)
side of that building, and from the indication of the number of people we found
where that partition was, that door was locked, and the door that opened into
it, opened on the inside.
Q. Was it locked with a lock and key, or a bolt? A. A lock and key, but it opened in.
Q. Was it a wooden door? A. Yes.
Q. Now, you referred in you testimony to the fireproof building. What has been your experience as to these buildings being actually fireproof? A. They are only so-called fireproof, fireproof by name.
Q. What is the actual fact, do they burn or not? A. They are not fireproof. They burn and they make a hot fire.
Q. Who says they are fireproof? That is a provision of law, isn't it? A. A provision of the law.
Q. Then, as I understand you, Chief, the materials which go into making these buildings do not make a fireproof building? A. No, sir.
Q. Well, is it possible to create, to erect a fireproof building? A. Yes, sir.
Q. Of what material would it be? A. Brick, stone or terra cotta. Steel construction with metal trim and concrete floors. I would say eliminate wood, and use the steel trim and the concrete floors.
Q. Well, as I understand you, what makes these buildings known as fireproof buildings, non-fireproof is the fact that the trim of the interior floors are wood or inflammable material. A. Yes. Now, bear in mind the fact, counsellor (sic), that the shells of these buildings may be brick and steel, and that they are advertised as fireproof, just to fool the public. But the inside of the building contains inflammable material and burns with great intensity.
Q. So that when a fire occurs the inside of the building burns out and leaves the shell which is fireproof? A. Yes.
Q. And it is your recommendation that if they want to have a fireproof building, a building that is absolutely fireproof, they should not have any lumber in it? A. Yes, sir.
(PAGE 21)
Q. Now, can any reliance be placed upon these elevators as fire-escapes? A. No,
sir.
Q. Why not? A. Because they can only carry a very few people in the first place, and they burn up quickly and the heat and smoke become so intense that the operator can generally make only one or two trips after a fire starts.
Q. After a fire? A. After a fire starts, and it has been my experience that in the excitement, after they leave the floor in which the fire occurs, they generally leave the door open, and people walk into the elevator shaft.
Q. That is to say they leave the door open and unguarded, and people fall down the shaft? A. Yes, sir.
Q. Now in this Asch Building fire did that occur or did the people jump down the shaft as a means to try to escape? A. Well, we found them in the shaft. We don't know how they got there.
[DELETED: pp. 21-35 of Croker's testimony.]
(PAGE 35)
Q. With reference to saving life after a fire occurs, the Department does use
fire nets, doesn't it, where people have to jump? A. Yes.
Q. Have those proved useful, or are they not strong enough, or have they been able to make them strong enough? A. They are made as strong as they know how to make them, and they has (sic) been very satisfactory. We have never had one failure up to the Asch building.
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| After the fire |
Q. What happened there? A. They went through the net.
Q. What was the reason of that? A. The extreme height.
Q. That is because the bodies came from such a height the net could not held them, or did the material give way, or did the people who held the nets? A. Both; they all went in a pile together. It would be impossible to hold those people as they fell there; when they hit the sidewalk or iron gratings, the impact of their bodies was so great they drove right through the iron gratings into the cellar.
Q. Just describe to the Commission the fire nets used at the Asch fire. They are held by how many people, and how large are they? A. They are ten feet in circumference, and they are held by ten or twelve men, or more if you can get them around it, and you can catch - I have seen people time after time jump from the fifth, sixth or seventh floor and not get a scratch.
Q. In this case, although they were held by the same number of people, and the material was strong enough - strong as it could be - by the way, what are they made of? A. The best canvas that can be purchased, and they are hung on springs. When you strike into the net you do not get a sudden jar, but get a spring effect. The rim is heavy steel.
Q. In the Asch fire the net went right down with all the people holding it? A. Yes.
Q. From the impact of the bodies? A. Yes.
(PAGE 36)
Q. Have you any suggestion to make to the Commission with reference to the
different kinds of fire nets which would hold this impact of the body? A. I do
not think they could manufacture anything that would stand the impact of a body
from that height.
Q. Would it be possible to have a fire net on poles, for instance, that would give enough way to it, so that a body coming from a great height would be able to sag enough without breaking? A. The time you get that erected and ready for the people to jump, they would be burned to death. You have to have something for immediate use. They ought to have something there they can get at in case of necessity before the arrival of the Department.
Q. That is to say, there ought to be a way of getting out before the Department got there? A. Oh, yes; you cannot wait. Like the Asch building fire, they could not wait until the arrival of the Fire Department, even if we had the appliances. They were jumping out of the windows before the department arrived.
Q. So that as a practical matter if people are obliged to jump out of the windows of a loft building which is over five or six stories in height, there is no way of saving their lives? A. Well, I won't say five or six.
Q. I say above five or six, or seven or eight? A. Seven or eight stories high, if they jump, I don't know of anything you can manufacture that will hold them. I saw it figured out for a body weighing 150 pounds, they struck over two tons from that height when they hit the sidewalk. I don't know but it was over that.
[DELETED pp. 36-39]
(PAGE 39)
Q. The Building Department is responsible that the building is safe, and that
the floor has the carrying capacity? A. The fault in New York City is that there
is nobody responsible for anything. The Fire Department is not responsible; the
Building Department is not responsible; the Police Department is not
responsible; the Health Department is not responsible. If anything happens they
are all stepping from under.
Q. In other words, when anything happens, each one blames it on the other department, and it would be your idea, and your recommendation to the Commission, that the responsibility should
(PAGE 40)
be fixed upon some one particular head of some one department? A. Yes.
Q. And at the same time give him the corresponding power? A. The Asch Building fire started with the Fire Department. The Fire Department says, "Our records are all right; everything we ordered was complied with." The Building Department says, "Our records are all right." The Health Department says, "Our records are all right." The Police Department have not got through investigating yet, and I don't think they ever will and nobody is responsible. There are just as many factories in New York in the same condition as the Asch Building was and probably is today.
Frances Perkins, Labor Secretary under Franklin Roosevelt, withessed the fire. It dtrermined the course of her life
I remember that, the accident happened on a Saturday, I happened to have been visiting a friend on the other side of the park and we heard the engines and we heard the screams and rushed out and rushed over where we could see what the trouble was. We could see this building from Washington Square and the people had just begun to jump when we got there. They had been holding until that time, standing in the windowsills, being crowded by others behind them, the fire pressing closer and closer, the smoke closer and closer. Finally the men were trying to get out this thing that the firemen carry with them, a net to catch people if they do jump, there were trying to get that out and they couldn't wait any longer. They began to jump. The window was too crowded and they would jump and they hit the sidewalk. The net broke, they (inaudible) a terrible distance, the weight of the bodies was so great, at the speed at which they were traveling that they broke through the net. Every one of them was killed, everybody who jumped was killed. It was a horrifying spectacle. We had our dose of it that night and felt as though we had been part of it all. The next day people, as they heard about it in all parts of the city, they began to mull around and gather and talk.
I remember that Al Smith, who was not a governor at that time but a member of the legislature, a majority leader in the assembly, found that many many of these young people were residents of the same district he was a resident of and he did the most natural and humane thing. As he said: Why I did it just as I would if they had died of anything else, you know, you go to see the father and mother to try to help them. He went to the places where they lived; he went to the tenement they had occupied to see their father and mother and tell them how sorry he was or their husband, as the case might be, or their wife, to tell them of his sympathy and grief. It was a human, decent, natural thing to do and it was a sight he never forgot. It burned it into his mind. He also got to the morgue, I remember, at just the time when the survivors were being allowed to sort out the dead and see who was theirs and who could be recognized. He went along with a number of others to the morgue to support and help, you know, the old father or the sorrowing sister, do her terrible picking out.
This was the kind of shock that we all had and the next Sunday a meeting was called in the Metropolitan Opera House, which was a large available place and thereby this time we got a little sense of organization of something must be done. We've got to turn this into some kind of victory, some kind of constructive action, so this meeting voted to accept a sum of money of $25,000 which Mr. R. Fulton Cutting had telegraphed. He was ill in bed, somewhere in South Carolina with pneumonia, but he had telegraphed to one of the people who was getting up the meeting: "You must have a meeting. The citizens must take action about this. The citizens must do something and to start the ball rolling I will contribute $25,000 now and others will give more to start it. We must stop it. We must make sure that this kind of thing can never happen again in New York City, in New York State," I think he said.
So almost immediately at this meeting, people spoke, and I'll never forget this was the first time I ever had heard Rose Schneiderman speak. I think it is the first time I had ever seen her, as a matter of fact. She was an unknown little girl, a little red headed girl; she couldn't have been, -- well, she couldn't have come up to my shoulder. Very small type but with red hair, fiery red hair, and blazing eyes and pretty too, I mean. She had a (inaudible) but a voice that carried in the Metropolitan Opera House. Wonderful what a speech she made, and I remember how moved we all were by this girl who was a member of that union, you see, the Ladies' Dress and Waist Union. She was a member of that union and most, not all of these members because it wasn't a union shop, not all of these members but many of them were members of her union. Anyhow they were all eligible for membership in her union, and she took them all in with the most beautiful speech. I think it still exists. I had a copy of it once and I put it in somebody's archives somewhere. But it was -- it was a most moving speech and should be looked at because this was what a young girl, not in this country very many years, but she spoke very good English, she had had good training somewhere and she spoke without a trace of an accent. She made a remarkable speech which really stirred people.
- from Cornell University
Note: In contrast to the World Trade Center, when the entire U.S. military was mobilized for invasion of a country half a world away, the U.S. government was unable to convict 2 sweatshop owners down the block who had condemned hundreds to die in order to prevent the possibility of a shirt being swiped:
At the turn of the 20th century, poor working conditions and long hours were standard for most factory employees — especially for female workers. Male unions and employers kept women out of better-paying jobs, forcing them into industries such as garment-making, where sweatshop conditions prevailed, pay was low, and employees had to pay for their cutting and sewing supplies.
Factories had few fire-prevention regulations — no sprinklers, poor ventilation, and almost no usable emergency exits.
The Uprising of the 20,000
The first major strike by working women took place among the shirtwaist makers
of New York and Philadelphia on November 22, 1909, and continued until February
15, 1910. Called the Uprising of the 20,000, the walk-out was an important
demonstration of women's beginning labor movement.
New York's Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a maker of women's clothing, became one of the targets. That winter women and girls in their teens left their cramped and filthy work rooms, and Marched to Union Square to protest their poor working conditions at a meeting called by the ILGWU. Although the intent of the meeting was not to call a strike, remarks made by teenager Clara Lemlich stirred up members of the group and motivated them to walk out.
She interrupted the speeches of Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and Margaret Dreier Robins of the New York Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) — an organization that joined women factory workers with women from the upper and middle classes — to yell: "I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in general terms. What we are here for is to decide whether or not we shall strike. I offer a resolution that a general strike be declared now!" The following day, the women walked out.
Pauline Newman, remembering the day, recalled:
Thousands upon thousands left the factories from every side, all of them walking down toward Union Square. It was November, the cold winter was just around the corner, we had no fur coats to keep warm, and yet there was the spirit that led us out of the cold at least for the time being.
Esther Lobetkin was arrested during the strike:
The officer wouldn't let us girls sit down on the [police] benches because we were strikers. . . . One of our girls got so tired she went to crouch down to rest herself, when one of the officers came over and poked her with his club and says, "Here, stand up. Where do you think you are? In Russia?"
The WTUL aided the strikers. Well-known society leaders Anne Morgan, Alva Belmont, Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, and Helen Taft (President William Howard Taft's daughter) were active members. They joined the picket lines, faced arrest, raised bail money for the factory workers, monitored the courts, and brought charges against police — despite resentment and harassment from policemen.
One policeman yelled at the WTUL's Helen Marot, "You uptown scum, keep out of this or you'll find yourself in jail." A judge told the arrested women, "You are striking against God and Nature, whose prime law is that man shall earn his bread with the sweat of his brow."
Thirteen weeks after it began, the protest against the Triangle Shirtwaist Company ended, but that year also saw 404,000 women petition Congress for the vote. Of 339 shops involved, over 300 settled with the workers. These women won a 52-hour work week, a promise that employers would provide supplies, no punishment for striking, and an equal division of work in slack seasons. (The latter discouraged bosses from firing workers during slow times.)
The Triangle Fire
Located on the ninth floor of a building that overlooked Washington Place on one
side and Greene Street on the other, Triangle's workrooms had inadequate fire
escapes and no sprinklers — conditions the workers had been protesting. Worse,
supervisors locked the doors to the workplace from the outside to prevent the
women and girls, crowded next to each other on benches, from taking breaks
during working hours or removing materials. Only one stairway led to the roof.
On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the eighth floor, rising to the ninth through the Greene Street stairwell. As smoke and flames filled the air, the women rushed to the Washington Place exit. It was locked. About 500 women were trapped; many clung to the breaking fire escapes. Firefighters tried to reach them, but their ladders stopped at the sixth floor. Women jumped hand-in-hand from the windows, crashing through the nets, and smashing on the sidewalk. Other women, caught inside, died of burns or suffocation. That night, the Twenty-sixth Street pier held 146 corpses. Two thousand people searched for their loved ones' bodies.
It took one week to identify the dead; seven were unknown. The enraged members of the ILGWU and New York WTUL planned a funeral for the unnamed women. New York's grieving population turned out in full on the rainy, cold April day. Throughout the steady downpour, they Marched. The Washington Square Arch was the agreed point of merger for the Marchers coming from all across the city to form one parade. There were so many people at that spot by 3:30 p.m. that the last one waited until 6 p.m. to pass below the arch.
On December 4, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the owners of the company, went on trial for manslaughter. Max D. Steuer was their attorney. Assistant district attorneys Charles S. Bostwick and J. Robert Rubin prosecuted the defendants in the three-week trial.
There were more than 150 witnesses. Kate Alderman told how both she and Margaret Schwartz tried and failed to open the door. Alderman ultimately escaped by covering herself with dresses and a coat and leapt through the flames to where firemen rescued her. Schwartz died.
Despite the dramatic testimony, Judge Thomas C. T. Crain instructed the jury that the key to the case was whether the defendants knew the door was locked:
If so, was it locked under circumstances importing knowledge on the part of these defendants that it was locked? If so, and Margaret Schwartz died because she was unable to pass through, would she have lived if the door had not been locked . . .?
On December 27, 1911, the jury acquitted both defendants of manslaughter. One jury member said, "I believed the door was locked at the time of the fire. But we couldn't find them guilty unless we believed they knew the door was locked." Another member of the all-male jury remarked that the women — whom they did not believe were as intelligent as those in other occupations — probably panicked, causing their deaths. The court denied a prosecution demand for a retrial so Blanck and Harris went free.
Out of the Ashes
The tragedy galvanized working women. Despite arrests and beatings, strikes
across the nation increased, and the membership of the ILGWU surged. In 1912,
women were among 20,000 textile workers to strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
One of them explained her continued support: "It is not only bread we give
our children. . . . We live by freedom, and I will fight till I die to give it
to my children."
Female labor leaders such as Leonora O'Reilly demanded the vote for women so they could protect themselves by electing politicians who would pass laws to change the sweatshop conditions under which they worked. In 1912, when the next New York City suffrage parade took place, 20,000 people Marched and another half million lined the sidewalks.
Out of public outrage, officials imposed new laws — requiring strict building codes and inspections on sweatshops, for example. New York City created a Bureau of Fire Prevention that established and enforced stricter safety regulations. Other cities and states did the same during the following years. Finally, the federal government, under the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, developed workplace safety measures — forerunners to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
-from the Thomson-Gale Corporation