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More Vocabulary Support

from The Story of the Triangle Factory Fire

by Zachary Kent

In the days following the fire, city officials sifted through the charred rubble at the Asch Building and tried to fix the fault for the tragedy. Fire Chief Croker angrily stated, “There wasn’t a fire escape anywhere fronting on the street by which these unfortunate girls could escape.” Doors that opened inward instead of outward, overcrowding in work areas, and blocked exits also were to blame. Fire Marshal William Beers stunned New Yorkers by soon declaring, “I can show you 150 loft buildings far worse than this one.” Lillian D. Wald of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control also reported on the general situation. “The conditions as they now exist are hideous. . . . Our investigators have shown that there are hundreds of buildings which invite disaster just as much as did the Asch structure.”

Accused of ignoring their employees’ safety, Triangle owners Blanck and Harris were charged with manslaughter. During the three week trial angry citizens packed the courtroom. Outside, in the corridors, women screamed, “Murderers! Murderers! Make them suffer for killing our children!” Lawyers argued that Blanck and Harris kept all of the Triangle doors locked during the workday, therefore causing many of the deaths. Weighing the evidence, however, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. “I cannot see that anyone was responsible for the disaster,” explained juror H. Houston Hierst. “It seems to me to have been an act of the Almighty. ” The New York Call viewed the matter differently. “Capital can commit no crime,” it angrily declared, “when it is in pursuit of profits.”

Furious New Yorkers refused to let the issue rest. In October 1911 the city established a Bureau of Fire Prevention to inspect safety standards in other buildings. Five months earlier the New York State legislature created a special Factory Investigating Commission. Through the next four years Commission investigators crawled and pried through the rooms and cellars of factories and tenement houses all across the state. They examined workers’ filthy living conditions and witnessed the dangers of crippling machinery and long work hours in dusty, dirty firetraps.

As a result of the Commission’s shocking findings, New York State quickly passed thirty-three new labor laws by 1914. These laws formed the foundation of New York State’s Industrial Code, the finest in the nation. Soon other states followed New York’s example and enacted protective labor laws.

One Factory Commission investigator had witnessed the fateful Triangle fire. Frances Perkins said, “We heard the fire engines and rushed . . . to see what was going on. . . . We got there just as they started to jump. I shall never forget the frozen horror which came over us as we stood with our hands on our throats watching that horrible sight, knowing that there was no help.”

In 1933 President Franklin Roosevelt named Frances Perkins secretary of labor. She and other social reformers dedicated their lives to insuring worker safety throughout the country. “They did not die in vain and we will never forget them,” vowed Perkins. From the ashes of the tragic Triangle factory fire came help for millions of United States laborers today.