Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 7, 1912 “The Lawrence Strike” by John Sloan & Photographs from Scene of Revolt
From The Coming Nation of March 2, 1912:
-page 4: “The Lawrence Strike” by John Sloan
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-pages 5-6, 12: Rock Fenn on Unity, Class Solidarity and Revolt
Revolt of the Textile Workers
How the Working People of all Nationalities in Lawrence Have United in Class Solidarity and Revolt Against Exploitation
By Rock Fenn
FROM the home of the striker at Lawrence to the office beyond the canal is a long step. On the one side are tenements reeking with the effluvia of families jammed into dispiriting rooms; on the other side a few well-fed bosses in great brick buildings a hundred yards long, with wide windows one above the other, three, four, five or six stories high.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 13, 1911 “Echoes from the Triangle Fire…Americans Need Big Shocks”
From The Ladies’ Garment Worker of September 1911:
Echoes from the Triangle Fire.
Dr. Price Suggests Co-operation Between
the Waist Makers’ Union and the
Board of Sanitary Control.
The whole community is responsible for the safety of its workers.
Parents and friends of the 145 victims who were in the Triangle fire, says the New York “Call,” and of the scores of workers who saved their lives but were maimed and injured, have written, telephoned and appeared in person at the office of the Ladies’ Waist and Dress Makers’ Union, in the last two days, calling upon the union to see to it that Harris & Blanck, the owners of the Triangle shop, be brought to trial.
The parents and friends of the victims also called upon the union officials to demand an account from the Red Cross as to the manner in which $100,000 collected for the benefit of the families of the fire victims, has been disposed of, if it had been disposed of.
As a result of these numerous calls the Executive Board of the Ladies’ Waist Maker’s Union stirred up the committee of three which has been appointed some time ago to look into the Triangle case, to immediate, vigorous activity.
The committee, which consists of Sam Spivack, A. Silver, and Sam Gusman, met last night at 151 Clinton street to decide upon plans to co-operate with the parents and friends of the fire victims, and to determine upon ways and means of improving conditions in the shops where the lives of workers are daily exposed to the fire panics.
Several of the parents and friends of the Triangle victims, who called at the office of the Ladies’ Waist Makers’ Union, said that they will either get up a petition or will write personal letters to District Attorney Whitman calling upon him to bring Harris and Blanck to trial.
Dr. George M. Price, M. D., the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control in the Cloak and Suit Industry of New York, has written to the “Call” suggesting a way in which the Board might co-operate with the Waistmakers’ Union.
Americans need big shocks, says Dr. Price.
Because several meetings have been held, because a “safety committee” has been appointed, because the papers devoted a few pages to factory fire damages, it is not to be expected that the 30,000 shops in the city should have suddenly become improved, that new fire escapes should have been put in where needed, and that workers should have become interested in protecting their lives from fires instead of devoting their whole time to the most important question of election of business delegates?
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 9, 1911 Mass Meeting at Metropolitan Opera House Stands for Fire Prevention
From The Survey of April 8, 1911:
THE COMMON WELFARE
PREVENTION OF FACTORY FIRES
Prevention was the keynote of the whole week in discussion of the Triangle factory fire in New York and in other industrial cities which have begun to take stock of their risks. There were many meetings, chief of which was the citizens’ mass meeting at the Metropolitan Opera House, reported on succeeding pages, which resulted in the appointment of a committee of five made up of Eugene A. Philbin, chairman; Mary A. Dreier, Edward T. Devine, William Jay Schieffelin, Lillian D. Wald, and Peter Brady. The New York American has organized a committee on prevention of which Ernest Flagg, an eminent architect, is chairman and the other members are Fire Chief Croker, P. Tecumseh Sherman, formerly state commissioner of labor, and William Archer, a builder.
A conference under call of R. Fulton Cutting, president of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, appointed a committee consisting of Mr. Cutting, Franklin B. Kirkbride, Leopold Plaut, Homer Folks and John A. Kingsbury which, in conjunction with the mass meeting committee, is organizing a permanent body on fire prevention.
On Wednesday (after this issue had gone to press) public burial was given the eight unclaimed bodies and the workers of the city planned an enormous silent parade in their honor.
One of the events of the week was the opening of the Triangle Waist Company in another building. A violation of the law was immediately filed against it for installing a row of sewing machines in front of the exit to the fire-escapes. The proprietor asked the Ladies ‘ Shirtwaist Union to organize his shop, but no action was taken.
From the Jewish Daily Forward of January 10, 1910:
The “Triangle” company…With blood this name will be written in the history of the American workers’ movement, and with feeling will this history recall the names of the strikers of this shop-of the crusaders.
City Hall, New York City,
-December 28, 1910
Testimony before the New York State Senate and Assembly Joint Investigating Committee on Corrupt Practices and Insurance Companies Other Than Life Insurance:
Judge M. Linn Bruce, Counsel
Chief Edward F Croker, NYC Fire Department
Bruce: How high can you successfully combat a fire now? Croker: Not over eighty-five feet. Bruce: That would be how many stories of an ordinary building? Croker: About seven. Bruce: Is this a serious danger? Croker: I think if you want to go into the so-called workshops which are along Fifth Avenue and west of Broadway and east of Sixth Avenue, twelve, fourteen or fifteen story buildings they call workshops, you will find it very interesting to see the number of people in one of these buildings with absolutely not one fire protection, with out any means of escape in case of fire.
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 2, 1918
Ludlow, Colorado -United Mine Workers Remembers the Martyrs
From The Fur Workers of June 1, 1918:
MONUMENT AT LUDLOW
Ludlow, Col.,-A magnificent monument was dedicated here May 30, by the United Mine Workers in honor of the 33 men, women and children who were killed by a detachment of the Colorado state militia on April 20, 1914. The militia were gunmen imported into the state by the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, a Rockefeller subsidiary.
The miners and their families had been evicted from their homes by the coal company and were living in tents when they were fired upon by the thugs, who afterwards burned the tents. The United Mine Workers later purchased the site of the tent colony and erected the monument.
At the base of the monument is the figure of a worker, upstanding and resolute, while beside him is the figure of a woman clutching a babe. On the monument is this inscription:
In memory of the men, women and children who lost their lives in freedom’s cause at Ludlow, Colorado, April 20, 1914. Erected by the United Mine workers of America.
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