Should the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory owners, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, been found guilty of manslaughter?
Author: Joyce Calarco
School: MicroSociety Magnet School
District: New Haven
Overview:
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is first and foremost a story of labor. At of the beginning of the twentieth century the garment making industry was the largest employer in New York City. One of the most manufactured garments was a shirtwaist, a woman’s white, high-neck blouse. An examination of the conditions which existed before the fire shows horrible workings conditions, minimal pay and long working hours, employer disregard for immigrant workers well-being, a history of failed union events to improve working conditions, and ultimately afterward the passage of legislation that lead to the improvement of factory working conditions in the United States.
The fire occurred at closing time on Saturday, March 25, 1911 and is believed to have been started by a dropped cigarette or match. One hundred and forty-six people, mostly younger immigrant women, more than half of them teenagers, died in less than one half hour. Factory owners Issac Harris and Max Blanck, Russian-born Jewish immigrants who had immigrated at the end of the nineteenth century, were recognized as perhaps the leading shirtwaist makers in the country, making a yearly profit of over one billion dollars. These men had been warned in 1909 about the unsafe conditions which existed in their factory but the warning had gone unheeded.
An eyewitness news reporter, William Shepherd, wrote in the Milwaukee Journal on March 27, 1911, “The floods of water from the firemen’s hose that ran into the gutter were actually stained red with blood. I looked upon the heap of dead bodies and I remembered these girls were the shirtwaist makers. I remembered their great strike of last year in which these same girls had demanded more sanitary conditions and more safety precautions in the shops. These dead bodies were the answer.” Who was ultimately responsible for this tragic loss of life?
Document Summary:
Document 1 shows testimony, for the prosecution, as reported in the New York Times. It represents testimony from three fire survivors who all testified that the Washington Place door ws locked at the time of the fire. The document could be used to show that the factory owners had violated laws and were responsible for such rapid loss of life.
Document 2 shows trial testimony given by both a locksmith and Max Blanc in regards to the locking of the Washington Place door. This document details the testimony give indicating the door was not locked and thus did not prevent egress by the factory workers during the fire. This document could show the factory owners were not at fault for because the factory doors were not locked.
Document 3 shows an excerpt that Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), wrote indicating his belief that the Triangle Fire Factory fire terrible loss of life was the direct result of clothing manufacturer employers disregard for providing proper working conditions which he believed was both inhumane and criminal in nature as evidenced by a previous ten year impediment of the trade unions to improve conditions. He cites examples of clear disregard for warnings and existing laws. This document could show factory owners were only concerned about making money for themselves and had no regard for the conditions they created for those who worked for them.
Document 4 describes the actual building code laws that were in place during the time period and how those laws specifically related to the conditions which existed at the Asch Building at the time of the fire. The document could be used to help students decide who was responsible for the structural problems.
Document 5 shows a political cartoon in which the artist depicted the inspectors of buildings in New York City as the actual angels of death responsible for the fire due to the fact that few laws where in place regarding factory conditions thus the factory owners were rarely found to have been in violation of any codes even when inspectors noticed the existence of possible safety issues. The document could be used to show there were many areas of concern before the fire that had gone unheeded.
Document 6 shows a primary source floor plan of the ninth floor along with a secondary source depicting a three dimensional model of the floor and the exterior of the building along with a list of fire hazards present at the time. The document could be utilization to create an understanding of the physical conditions that prevented rapid escape from the fire.
Procedure (80 minutes):
- Introduction of lesson, objectives, overview of SAC procedure (15 minutes)
- SAC group assignments (30 minutes)
- Assign groups of four and assign arguments to each team of two.
- In each group, teams read and examine the Document Packet
- Each student completes the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2), and works with their partner to prepare their argument using supporting evidence.
- Students should summarize your argument in #3.
- Position Presentation (10 minutes)
- Team 1 presents their position using supporting evidence recorded and summarized on the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2 & #3) on the Preparation matrix. Team 2 records Team 1’s argument in #4.
- Team 2 restates Team 1’s position to their satisfaction.
- Team 2 asks clarifying questions and records Team 1’s answers.
- Team 2 presents their position using supporting evidence recorded and summarized on the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2 & #3) on the Preparation matrix. Team 1 records Team 2’s argument in #4.
- Team 1 restates Team 2’s position to their satisfaction.
- Team 1 asks clarifying questions and records Team 2’s answers.
- Consensus Building (10 minutes)
- Team 1 and 2 put their roles aside.
- Teams discuss ideas that have been presented, and figure out where they can agree or where they have differences about the historical question
- Closing the lesson (15 minutes)
- Whole-group Discussion
- Make connection to unit
- Assessment (suggested writing activity addressing the question)
DOCUMENT PACKET
Document 1
The information shows trial testimony given, for the prosecution, during the trial of Harris and Blanck from survivors of the fire as reported in the newspaper. Testimony shows the Washington Place door was locked on the day of the fire.
Several witnesses testified to the franticefforts made by those employed on the ninth floor of the building as they tried to escape from the flames.One of the witnesses described the fire down in the smallest detail, and all agreed that the door leading to the Washington Place stairway was locked. The most important testimony was that of Yetta Lublitz, who was employed as an operator on the ninth floor. Describing her experience she said:
"I never knew that there was a stairway on the Washington Place side as we never were allowed to leave on any but the Greene Street side. I was employed as an operator on the ninth floor and was about to punch my timecard when I heard someone cry 'fire'.""I saw smoke pouring up the stairs and started toward the Greene Street entrances when I noticed that there was a crowd of excited persons standing there. I then rushed to the Washington Place side, where I saw others standing about a door and trying to open it. When tried the door I could not open it.”
Anna Gullo of 437 East Twelfth Street, an operator on the ninth floor, testified that there were never any fire drills by the Triangle Waist Company, and that she never saw a key in the lock of the Washington Place door on that floor.
Ethel Monick, 16 years old, of 164 East Twelfth Street, "I saw smoke pouring from the Greene Street stairs but tried to get out that way just the same. I gave it up when I saw the crowd there, and ran to the Washington Place door, but found it locked. I tried and tried to open it, but could not. I thought it was because I was not strong enough and called to the other girls.It wouldn't open at all."
"How did you try to open it?" asked Mr. Bostwick. "Demonstrate the manner in which you tried to do so on a door in this room."
Judge Crain then directed that the witness open the door leading from the courtroom. This door had been locked, and the witness walked over and, grasping the knob, twisted it and turned it. She pushed it outward and inward in frantic efforts to open it, and then resumed the stand and, continuing her story, said: "I am positive that I never saw the Superintendent on the ninth floor and am sure that once before I tried to open the door but I not could not."
"If you noticed that the door was locked why was it that you didn't tell Mr. Blanck or Mr. Harris about it?"
"I am only a poor working girl," replied the witness.
"Then I take it you were afraid to speak to Mr. Harris or Mr. Blanck, weren’t you?"
"No, not exactly afraid," replied the witness, "but I had heard of cases where girls had been discharged for making complaints to the bosses. Maybe they had done something wrong, but I am not sure and can't say exactly."
Several other witnesses were called who described the fire and corroborated all the other witnesses in saying that the door was locked.
Vocabulary
frantic: wild with pain, anger, fury
efforts: trying hard
time card: card placed in a clock to mark when a worker begins and ends a work period
superintendent: custodian of a building
discharged: dismissal of an employee
corroborated: confirmed
Source:
Girls Fought Vainly at Triangle Doors, New York Times, December 12, 1911
Document 2
The information presented in this newspaper article provides a description of testimony given in court, for the defense, testifying the Washington Place door was not locked on the day of the fire or any other time.
The cross-examination of Harris took only short time, and then Herman Hurwitz, a locksmith, testified that the lock on the Washington Place door, which is now in evidence, could not have been on the door at the time of the fire. He said that he had reached this conclusion after examining the door and lock and finding that the lock was much too thick for the door.Blanck was then called. After identifying the machines and chairs in the courtroom as similar to those used in his shop, he said he was in charge of the selling end of the business and frequently had occasion to go from one floor to another. He said he never had a key to any door.
"I used the Washington Place door several times daily," he said.
"Was there any rule in your factory that the door on the Washington Place side should be locked before the employees left the shop?"asked Mr. Steuer.
"No, there was no such rule.”
All the time that Blanck was testifying Harris kept his face covered with his hands.
Under cross-examination by Mr. Bostwick the witness denied that egress by the Washington Place door was shut off so that the girls would have to pass the watchmen who were posted only at the Greene Street door. He said that the girls could go out as they pleased, that forewomen and bookkeepers were detailed on each floor to watch those who preferred not to use the Greene Street door.
"You admit," said Mr. Bostwick, "that there was no watchman at the Washington Place door; would not that lead one to believe it reasonable that the door was locked?"
"There was no such a thing as a locked door on the premises."
Vocabulary
cross-examination: the questioning of a witness already questioned by the opposing side in order to check the earlier answers
egress: going out
Source:
Triangle Case to Jury Today: Defendants themselves Give Their Testimony about the Disaster of March 25, New York Times, December 27, 1911.
Document 3
Samuel Gompers was the head of the American Federation of Labor for almost
forty years, between 1886 and 1924, and the nation's leading tradeunionist .In this article, Gompers expresses his anger about the conditions which existed in factories and his rage about the employers of these factories whose concern only seemed to be about on thing – making money. He also describes the concern that the few laws which were in placed were not being followed and he finds all of this to be criminal.
The girls employed by the Triangle Waist Company Isaac Harris and Max Blanck were of the class of non-unionists. These poor "greenhorns" were packed at their machines like close-herded cattle, while at work they were locked in like penitentiary prisoners, they had never been exercised in the fire drill, they worked among heaps of highly inflammable materials, they had as outlets in case of fire one impracticable fire-escape and one stairway so small that two persons could hardly move in it abreast all conditions clearly violating the factory laws. A heading in the Times of Monday, 27th, read; "Locked in factory, the survivors say, when fire started that cost 141 lives." The Times also quoted Mr. H.F.J. Porter, the industrial engineer to whose statements regarding factory conditions we have referred. After printing a letter written by Mr. Porter last June to the Triangle Waist Company, in which he offered to introduce a fire-drill among its employees, to which the company never replied, the Times continued:
"The neglect of factory owners of the safety of their employees is absolutely criminal. One man whom I advised to install a fire drill replied to me: Let em burn up. They're a lot of cattle, anyway.”
In an editorial, the Times said:
"Crowded workrooms in such a condition that a slight outbreak of fire can convert them into furnaces within a few minutes should not be tolerated in this city. No new laws are needed. Enforcement of existing laws is imperative."
Why are not existing laws enforced? There is but one reason: Clothing manufacturers either bribe crooked office-holders or take advantage of inadequate inspection.
If one of the Triangle girls was caught filching a ten-cent bit of shirt-waist material, she would have been liable to arrest and sentence to a term in prison.
Vocabulary
trade: skilled work; craft
unionist: person who supports the principal or system of labor unions
opponents: those who resist
unrestrained: not held back from action
avarice: to great a desire to have wealth; greed for riches
deprive: to take something away by force
non-unionists: those not having the support of a specific union
greenhorns: an inexperienced person: beginner
penitentiary: prison
exercised: activity for training
outlets: a passage for letting something out
impracticable: cannot be put into practice
abreast: side by side
Source:
Gompers, Samuel. “Hostile Employers See Yourselves as Others Know You" American Federationist, May 1911, pp 356-361.
Document 4
The information below shows the actual laws which were in existence in 1911 and how they were related to the conditions which were in existence at the Triangle Company.
Factory Exit DoorsNew York State Labor Laws (Article 6, Section 80): "All doors leading in or to any such factory shall be constructed as to open outwardly, where practicable, and shall not be locked, bolted, or fastened during working hours."Triangle Shirtwaist Company Compliance: Whether Section 80 was violated was the key issue in the trial of Harris and Blanck. The case turned on whether the ninth floor staircase door on the Washington Place side was locked at the time of trial.
The prosecution contended the door was locked and also showed that many of the victims of the fire died in front of the door. It was argued that Harris and Blanck kept the door locked, especially near quitting time, to force exiting workers to pass through the only other exit, where they could be inspected if they were suspected of trying to pilfer waistcoats.
The defense contended that the door was open, but that the fleeing workers were unable to exit through the door because of fire in the stairwell. The defense introduced a witness who said that on the day of the fire a key was tied to the lock with the string and that she used the key to open the door. (The prosecution claimed the witness lied.)
It was also shown that the ninth floor staircase door did not "open outwardly," but inspectors failed to note a violation because only the width of a stair separated the door from the stairs, making it not "practicable" for the door to open outwardly.
StaircasesNew York Law: Buildings with more than 2,500 square feet per floor--but less than 5,000 square feet per floor--require two staircases. Each additional 5,000 square feet per floor requires an additional staircase.
Triangle Shirtwaist Company Compliance: The Triangle Shirtwaist Company floors had 10,000 square feet of space. Any additional floor space would have required a third staircase. As it was, two staircases--the number the Triangle factory had--sufficed.
Fire Escapes New York Law: New York law left the matter of fire escapes to the discretion of building inspectors. The building inspector for the Asch building insisted that the fire escape proposed for the building "must lead down to something more substantial than a skylight." (The architect's plans showed a rear fire escape leading to a skylight had--sufficed.
Triangle Shirtwaist Company Compliance: The Asch building architect promised "the fire escape will lead to the yard and an additional balcony will be put in." In the final construction, however, the fire escape still ended at a second floor skylight. During the fire, the fire escape collapsed under the weight of the fleeing workers.
Vocabulary
practicable: capable of being put into practice
compliance: the tendency to give in or go along with
contended: to argue
sufficied: to be enough for
Source:
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Trial:Building and Safety Law.s
Document 5