Triangle Tragedy . . . Continued

Yesterday, according to the Bisbee Daily Review, the two owners of the Triangle Waist  Company were charged with 2 separate counts of manslaughter. While I applaud the grand jury for recognizing the complicity of these men, I am appalled that they were not charged with 154 counts, one for every person who died in that great tragedy! Moreover, I rebuke the manslaughter charges and assert they should be charged with murder!

These two men were well aware of the dangers of their factory. They set up the facility, they knew what could go wrong, yet they chose not to fix it. They chose to place profit over the safety of their workers. In my mind this is far more than causing death through reckless action, this is out and out murder. They made conscious choices that resulted in the death of 154 people. Moreover the fact that they were only charged with 2 counts instead of the full 154 just goes to show how much the State doesn't want to charge these men with anything. If the state wanted to solve the problem, they would have charged the men for all the counts.

They were even released on bail yesterday. $25,000 purchased these men's freedom. That is the price for killing 154 individuals! The existence of bail in our so-called "justice system" just further shows the influence of the Capitalists on the state. For a price, criminals can be freed. For a price, they can avoid justice for a little longer. For a price, they can be above the laws they craft.

The bigger issue here, however, is how this tragedy is being dealt with. Instead of having workers coming together and fixing the problems themselves, via direct action, they are waiting, content for the crumbs the Capitalist State will feed them. Comrades, waiting is not how this problem will get fixed! Until we all are directly involved; until the capitalists are removed and all property socialized; until the state removed so they can't reassert hegemony, we will suffer these tragedies again and again. It is not a matter of if, but when! Only by removing the hierarchy supporting the capitalists, by casting out the capitalists, and by eradicating the concept of property, can we fix these problems. Only then can we all be not only free, but also safe from the greed of the few. Anarchy and Equality, comrades!

Factory Owners Are Charged With Crime Of Manslaughter [Bisbee Daily Review]

Labor to Push for More Fire Protection at NYC Factories

Labor groups in New York City are planning to march to protest for better working conditions, particularly more fire protection, as city officials investigate the cause of Saturday's blaze that killed at least 143 and prepare for the burial of those victims who could not be identified.

The investigators have so far determined that the fire started due to a lit match or cigarette, but it may have spread due to an explosion of cleaning compound kept near the ignition source.  This explosion may have spread the fire beyond what workers near the source of the fire could control. Additional scrutiny is being given to an interior stairwell that could have been used by works to exit the burning factory.  While the stairwell itself was sufficient fireproof as to eliminate the need for external fire escapes, the doors to it were not, composed of flammable wood.  Worse, the doors may have been locked to prevent workers from stealing scraps of clothing when they left work every day. 

However, these violations had not been reported prior to the fire and were not found by either the Bureau of Buildings nor the Board of Sanitary Control of the cloak, waist, and suit trade.  This contrasts with the more than 13,000 buildings in Manhattan and the Bronx where fire code violations had been found during a recent sweep by inspectors.  District Attorney Charles Whitman placed blame for the tragedy on the Bureau of Buildings while Manhattan borough president George McAneny defended Bureau Superintendent Miller and his assistant, stating that no complaint had been made on the Asch Building.  According to the New York Tribune, Miller's assistant, Albert Ludwig said that the improper inspections were due to the "inadequate force at the bureau's disposal."

D.A. Whitman also pointed at the State Labor Commission as another source of blame for the tragedy.  The commission has the responsibility of overseeing the safety of factory employees in New York state.  A commission inspection of the Asch Building occurred as recently as February 27.  The state inspector found the building to be in good condition, and even if violations were found, the State Commissioner told the Tribune that the State Labor Commission can only issue recommendations and has no enforcement power.

While the finger pointing continues at the local and state level and plans for an April grand jury develop, labor activists and suffragists in New York City are planning a protest and general strike later this week as the city plans to bury the victims of the fire who could not be identified.  They plan to protest for new laws to provide for more fire protection for factory employees.

As of this morning, the Red Cross Fund for the families of the victims of Saturday's fire has risen to $15,000, including a $5,000 donation from Andrew Carnegie.

Link: Labor to Demand Fire Protection [The Washington Times]
Link: Seek to Fix Blame for Disaster and To Avert a Worse One [New York Tribune]

Murder in New York

Today the District Atorney Whitman firmly assigned blame for the death of 143 women on the State Labor Superintendent John Williams. This comes just months after a lackey for Mr. Williams office okayed the layout of the factory as safe and legal, despite all the obvious dangers that lead to this tragedy.

While Mr. Whitman is on the right track he has not as of yet made the final connection. Yes, Mr Williams is responsible for these deaths. But so are the capitalists for building the factory, so are the statists who allowed such a nation to exist that would let this happen, and so are we all for not opposing the capitalists before now. We are all responsible, some more than others that is true, but nonetheless we all have blood on our hands and we all have the moral duty to help prevent such a tragedy from happening again!

The conditions on the inside were obviously dangerous. Any fool could see that, so why did Mr Williams office approve this building? More than likely a few backs were scratched, a few palms greased, and business as usual took place in New York City. This is capitalism, pure and simple. For a price the rules put in place to keep the workers quiet are circumvented. For a price the capitalists are allowed to do as they will. For a price 143 women are allowed to die. This is capitalism. Take a good long look, comrades. You talk of your freedoms, you talk of your rights. But when push comes to shove they don't mean a thing, because for a few dollars worth of hush money capitalist pigs can murder 143 women.

These women made the ultimate sacrifice for the capitalist pigs. They shouldn't have had to, but they did. So how do we prevent this from happening again? We can change the building regulations, or the labor laws, or even remove the industry entirely, but it will still happen. It will still happen because this is how capitalism works. Anything can be done for the right price, even ignoring the rules. If we truly wish to prevent another tragedy of this magnitude, we must attack the root of the problem. We must attack the capitalists. Only by removing the capitalists who exploit these workers and the statists that allowed them to do so can we make these women's deaths have a meaning. Only by removing capitalism and statism can we prevent the exploitative circumstances from cropping back up. Only by having an anarchist system free of capitalism can we all be free. That is what we must do. Only through this course are we able to assuage our fears about this type of tragedy. Only via this course can we truly be free. Anarchy and Equality, comrades.

Probe of Factory Fire Horror Begun Along Every Line  [The Washington Times]

Terror and Heroism as 142 die in NYC Factory Fire

Horror struck New York City just before closing time yesterday as a fire broke out on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the Asch Building, home to the Triangle Waist Company.  According to one of its owners, Max Blanck, in a statement to the press this morning, 750 people were employed by the company, two-thirds of them women between the ages of eighteen and thirty.  Of those, 142 were confirmed dead by Coroner Weston at the Charities Department dock on East 26th Street.  Of the 100 or so bodies that had arrived at the morgue by 10pm, 33 remain unidentified.  The Triangle Waist Company produced shirtwaists, a popular type of buttoned down, women's blouse.

The horrific tragedy, the worst fire disaster since the Slocum steamboat burned on the east river on June 15, 1904, began at 4:40pm yesterday afternoon as the factory began to file past the cashiers to pick up their pay.  The fire broke out on the eighth floor of the building and, thanks to the many flammable materials in the factory, quickly spread to the ninth and tenth floors.  Due to a horrible oversight and potentially gross negligence, only one fire escape to an interior courtyard was available to those in the factory and that was made less than adequate by poor design and the fact that the windows to the fire escape were barred.  Many of the workers, most of them Jewish or Italian immigrants, escaped via two elevators.

However, these escapes provided too little relief to the raging inferno that ingulfed the factory.  Many victims died clawing their way to these meager escapes and at least 50 resorted to another means of relief, the windows facing Washington Place.  At least one woman, Bertha Weintrup, survived the fall from a 10th floor window, however the rest were not so lucky.  On-lookers in Washington Place were gripped by the horror of watching woman after woman, many with clothes ripped off during the mad scramble to escape the flames, some even on fire, fall to their deaths.  In one case, a woman who escaped via the elevators was struck and killed by a falling body as she left the burning building.  Some women who tried to flee the flames via the windows managed to climb out on to a ledge at the base of the windows, but ultimately lost their grip or were accidentally pushed by the throng on panic-stricken women behind them.

The lone fire escape in the interior of the building was not much comfort.  Due to poor design, the escapes stairs ended at the buildings second floor.  Worse still was the fact that every window facing the fire escape from the eighth floor down as closed.  The mass of men and women who tried to use the escape forced many to either leap of 25 feet from the base of the escape or use a series of wires at the second floor level to crawl over to one of the open windows to safety.  Unfortunately, only six or seven of the 50 or so people who tried this method of the escape succeeded.  Many fell to the courtyard below where some either drowned in the six feet of water that quick filled the airshaft or impaled themselves on metal spikes that topped a concrete dividing wall.  The crush of humanity on the fire escape forced many to make life or death decision before it could be properly thought out.

Amidst the tragedy and horror of the fire, heroes did rise up.  A group of law students in an adjacent building managed to carry ladders up the School of Law and Commerce of the New York University in Washington Square.  They, along with firemen, used the ladders to bridge the gap between the two buildings, allowing at least 50 women to escape the flames.  Many others lost their lives as well as the crush of people trying to save themselves knocked them off the ladder, landing in the flooded courtyard below.  The effort had to be suspended after flames reached the university building.  More ladders were found in the building and these allowed women on the roof of the Asch Building to be rescued.  In another case of heroism, a man only identified as Gregory took control of an elevator abandoned on the ground floor by its operator and made at least ten trips to the tenth floor, carry 30 women on each trip.  Gregory slipped back into the crowd surrounding the building before he could be interviewed by the press. In another case, a patrolman managed to catch a small boy who had lept from an eighth floor window.

While victims continue to be identified in the East 26th Street morgue, authorities are promising a thorough investigation both into the cause of the fire and into why so many people died in the fire or trying to escape it.  While the former has not be speculated on, both Fire Chief Croker and borough president George McAneny stated that the lack of proper fire escapes and sprinkler systems contributed to the massive loss of life.   Coroner Holtzhauser told the New York Tribune:

I am going to find out who is responsible for this carnage and put the blame where it belongs.  It is awful to think that these poor girls went to work this morning, being carried up the elevators, only to finish their work by being taken from the building dead and mutilated.

Borough President McAneny stated that he would look into whether any complaints had been made about inadequate fire escapes for the building.  "If this structure where a fireproof loft building, as I have been told, fire escapes were not compulsory.  If, however, it was a factory building, then to comply with the law there should have been fire escapes."  Fire Chief Croker was more adamant about fire safety violations inside the building:

This calamity is just what I have been predicting.  There were no outside fire escapes on this building.  I have been advocating and agitating that fire escapes be put on building just such as this.  This large loss of life is due to this neglect.

The building did have one other means of escape, a stairwell in back of the building.  Chief Croker stated that the door to the stairway was closed.  A pile of bodies six feet high was found on the other side.  He believes that if this stairwell had been used by those trying escape the fire, the death toll would not have been nearly as high.

The owners of the company that was destroyed by the fire, the Triangle Waist Co.'s Max Blanck and Issac Harris in a statement issued to the press this morning, stated that they were still missing several relatives due to the fire, like Blanck's brother-in-law Jacob Bernstein and cousin William Selzer and Harris's niece Esther.

Veronica Stirnitzke should provide an opinion piece on the fire tomorrow.

Link: More than 140 Die as Flames Sweep Through Three Stories of Factory Building in Washington Place [The New York Tribune]
Link: Thousands Fight to Claim Fire Victims [The Washington Times]
Link: 150 Perish in Most Sickening Holocaust [The Bisbee Daily Review]
Link: 142 Die when Shirtwaist Factory Burns [The Washington Herald]