Muckraker Evidence Log Names:

Evidence # Description of evidence How will this help convict the factory owners?

Name:

Looking for Blame

Within two days after the fire, city officials began announcing preliminary conclusions concerning the tragic fire.  Fire Marshal William Beers stated that the fire probably began when a lighted match was thrown into either waste near oil cans or into clippings under cutting table No. 2 on the Greene Street side of the eighth floor.  Despite an announced policy of no smoking in the factory, Beers reported that fire investigators picked up many cigarette cases near the spot of the fires origin, and that many employees reported that smoking on the premises was commonplace.  Fire Chief Edward Croker told the press that doors leading into the factory workplace appeared to be locked and that his men had to chop their way through doors to get at the fire.

Many pointed fingers at New York City's Building Department, blaming it for an inadequate inspection of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory.  District Attorney Charles Whitman called for "an immediate and rigid" investigation to determine whether the Building Department "had complied with the law." Coroner Holtzhauser, sobbing after his inspection of the Asch Building, declared: "Only one little fire escape! I shall proceed against the Building Department along with the others.  They are as guilty as any." Defending the Department against charges he called "outrageously unfair," Borough President George McAneny said the building met standards when plans were filed for it eleven years earlier, and that the Department was seriously understaffed and underfunded and rarely had time to look at buildings except those being constructed.

Calls for justice continued to grow.  Rev. Charles Slattery, rector of a church a few blocks from the fire scene, told his congregation that "It will perhaps be discovered that someone was too eager to make money out of human energy to provide the proper safeguards."  At an emotional protest meeting on Twenty-Second Street four days after the fire, relatives of the dead broke into hysterical cries of despair.  People began fainting, and over fifty persons were treated.  The editor of a socialist paper told the crowd that "These deaths resulted because capital begrudged the price of another fire escape."  At Cooper Union, a banner stretching across the platform said: "Locked doors, overcrowding, inadequate fire escapes....We demand for all women the right to protect themselves."  Fire Chief Croker issued a statement urging "girls employed in lofts and factories to refuse to work when they find [potential escape] doors locked."

Much of the public outrage fell on Triangle Shirtwaist owners Isaac Harris and Max Blanck. Harris and Blanck were called "the shirtwaist kings," operating the largest firm in the business.  They sold their medium-quality popular garment to wholesalers for about $18 a dozen.  They ran their factory by hiring machine operators and allocating to each about six sewing machines from among the 240 machines on the ninth floor.  The operators hired young girls and women, usually immigrants, who they would then instruct in the art of shirtwaist-making.  The girls earned whatever the machine operator chose to pay them. 

Overworked and underpaid,  garment workers struck Triangle in the fall of 1909.  Management responded by hiring prostitutes to "strike women"  and thugs and plainclothes detectives "to hustle them off to court on flimsy pretexts," according to an article in Survey magazine. The strike soon spread to other shirtwaist manufacturers. By Christmas, 723 employees had been arrested, but the public largely sided with labor.  After thirteen weeks, the strike ended with new contracts establishing a 52-hour maximum work week and wage increases of 12 to 15%.

Two weeks after the fire, a grand jury indicted Triangle Shirtwaist owners Isaac Harris and Max Blanck on charges of manslaughter.

Questions:

1. What started the fire?

2. What was the factories policy on smoking in the factory?

3. Why did some people blame the New York City Building Department?

4. What quote did Charles Slattery make about who’s to blame for the fire?

5. Who did the public blame for the fire? Why?

Evidence 1

Evidence 2

Testimony of Ethel Monick (9th floor worker--age 16) 1911. I seen the fire and then I seen all the girls rushing down to the place to escape. So I tried to go through the Greene Street door, and there were quick girls there and I seen I can't get out there, so I went to the elevator, and then I heard the elevator fall down, so I ran through to the Washington Place side, and I went over to the Washington Place side and there wasn't any girls there, so I ran over the doors and none was over there. So I went over to the door. I tried the door and I could not open it, so I thought I was not strong enough to open it, so I hollered girls here is a door, and they all rushed over and they tried to open it, but it was locked and they hollered "the door is locked and we can't open it!" [Monick rises from her chair and demonstrates the effort to open the door.]

On cross-examination: Q. Did you ever go up the stairs? A. Only when I work on Sundays we have to go up the stairs....I wanted to go on the fire escape, but there were too many girls there. I could not go down, so I went away to see if I could find a better way. So I could not get out there, and I did not think that I could, and I thought that I would go down the elevator--that I would go down there that was. There were too many so I ran over the Greene Street door. [Monick is asked if she ever asked Mr. Harris about the door.] A. I did not ask him, I used to be afraid of him. Q. You were afraid of Harris? A. Sure. Mr. Harris we saw most of the time on the 9th floor. He used to come down sometimes and walk around four or five minutes.

Evidence 3

Evidence 4

Evidence 5

“Holding the doors closed”

Evidence 6

Francis Perkins speech

It [the factory] caught on fire and the blaze spread very rapidly. There was only one means of exit available, the other two means of exits were the elevator which was ablaze almost immediately as the flames got into this open shaft and spread from floor to floor and the second exit was locked. It was an exit to the roof, not a very good means of exit at best but it would have saved most of the people in that building if it had not been locked.

It had been locked by the employer himself because he feared that on a Saturday afternoon which he was working just before Easter on a lot of shirtwaists for the market, he feared that some of the people in the shop might stroll out over the roof exit with a few shirtwaists rolled up under their jackets or that somebody might come in and take a few shirtwaists.

Evidence 7

Blame Shifted On All Sides For Fire Horror

Responsibility for the inadequate fire escape facilities was charged directly to the Building Department. In its defense Borough President McAneny issued a statement last night. He held that the Department was in no way to blame for the disaster and there was not the slightest grounds for accusing Supt. Miller. The efforts to hold him responsible he characterized as "outrageously unfair." Mr. McAneny said the plans for the Washington Place building were filed eleven years ago and were accepted as complying with the law. This fact urged, contended that its Inspectors never had time to look at buildings except those in process of construction, and that several of its small force of Inspectors were grossly incompetent. District Attorney Whitman engaged two engineers yesterday to examine the building with a special view of determining official culpability, and their report will be ready when the April Grand Jury begins the investigation. Certain paragraphs in the State labor law were quoted by District Attorney Whitman to show that responsibility for proper fire protection in factories, especially in the matter of fire escapes, devolved upon the State Labor Commission. But State Labor Commissioner's Williams refused to accept this interpretation pointing to the fact that a decision of the Appellate Division in 1903 settled the fact that the Building Department has complete control over fire escapes in New York City.

Evidence 8

Evidence 9

Evidence 10

Fire prevention committee investigation of other buildings

What was expected has happened. Those who knew of the flimsy fire protection in the loft buildings of New York long ago predicted just such a disaster as occurred in Washington Square. If however, this building were the only one of those unprotected against fire the situation would not be so terrible, but the fact is that there is hardly a large loft building in New York which is better protected against fire, or whether special care taken to safeguard the limbs and lives of operatives.

The Joint Board of Sanitary Control employed 8 inspectors... and the data gathered by these inspectors throws much light upon the adequacy of the fire-prevention facilities in most in most 1,243 shops inspected by the board.

-In 14 shops no fire escapes at all have been found.-In 101 shops no drop ladders at all were found, or those found were placed out of reach.-In 491 shops, or 40% of all shops inspected, there were no other exits in case of fire except one fire escape.-In 28 shops the doors leading to halls and stairways were found locked during the day-In 60 shops the halls were less than three feet wide.-In 1,173 shops or 97.5% of all shops, the doors leading to halls were opened in instead of out as the law requires.

In a word, the investigation has shown that even with the low standards for fire protection as demanded at present by the labor laws, there are hundreds and thousands of violations in one industry alone. When we consider the existing regulations about fire protection, we must admit that they are far inadequate and, indeed, a delusion and a sham.

Evidence 11

Rose Safran, Shirtwaist factory worker

She worker in the factory for more than 4 years. Many of her friends were lost in the fire, she believes that the tragedy could have been avoided if management would have listened to her 2 years ago. She requested to make the factory a safer place to work, she mentioned to management that the exits were blocked, the floor was littered with paper and cloth, and the aisles were too small for many people to use at once. Management decided to ignore her requests.

Evidence 12

ORIGINS OF THE FIRE http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/triangleaccount.html

Within two days after the fire, city officials began announcing preliminary conclusions concerning the tragic fire. Fire Marshal William Beers stated that the fire probably began when a lighted match was thrown into either waste near oil cans or into clippings under cutting table No. 2 on the Greene Street side of the eighth floor. Despite an announced policy of no smoking in the factory, Beers reported that fire investigators picked up many cigarette cases near the spot of the fires origin, and that many employees reported that smoking on the premises was commonplace. Fire Chief Edward Croker told the press that doors leading into the factory workplace appeared to be locked and that his men had to chop their way through doors to get at the fire.

Evidence 13

BUILDING INSPECTIONS http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/triangleaccount.html

Many pointed fingers at New York City's Building Department, blaming it for an inadequate inspection of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. District Attorney Charles Whitman called for "an immediate and rigid" investigation to determine whether the Building Department "had complied with the law." Coroner Holtzhauser, sobbing after his inspection of the Asch Building, declared: "Only one little fire escape! I shall proceed against the Building Department along with the others. They are as guilty as any." Defending the Department against charges he called "outrageously unfair," Borough President (Mayor) George McAneny said the building met standards when plans were filed for it eleven years earlier, and that the Department was seriously understaffed and underfunded and rarely had time to look at buildings except those being constructed.

Evidence 14

Floor Plan for the 9th

Floor Loft Factory of the Triangle Waist Company

There are two exits.If one of them were locked, where would you have to go to get out?

Evidence 15

THE FIRE ESCAPES AFTER THE FIRE

Evidence 16

The Ladies' Garment Worker, April 1911.

While most of the garment manufacturing establishments in New York City are not any better as far as fire protection is concerned, it is significant that the worst calamity happened at the Triangle, known among the workpeople in the trade as the "prison." The name is probably due the extraordinary discipline with poor earning for which the firm is famous. It is not strange that in this most democratic of all countries in the world the employers can so easily use the arm of the law to protect themselves against any inconveniences which their workpeople may cause them, but the law is nowhere when the life and limb of the worker is to be protected.

Evidence 17

What Is To Be Done? by Martha Bensley Bruere

Well, the fire is over, the girls are dead, and as I write, the procession in honor of the unidentified dead is moving by under my windows. Now what is going to be done about it?

Harris and Blanck, the Triangle Company, have offered to pay one week's wages to the families of the dead girls—as though it were summer and they are giving them a vacation! Three days after the fire they inserted in the trade papers this notice: NOTICE, THE TRIANGLE WAIST CO. beg to notify their customers that they are in good working order. HEADQUARTERS now at 9-11 University Place The day after they were installed in their new quarters, the Building Department of New York City discovered that 9-11 University Place was not even fireproof, and that the firm had already blocked the exit to the one fire escape by two rows of sewing machines.

Evidence 18

The fire departments tallest ladder was too short to reach the 9th floor fire

Evidence 19

The fire department hoses were unable to reach the top floor of the factory

Evidence 20

Bodies of women who jumped to escape the flames