Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-06-23
BUILDINGS THAT
ARE DEATH PROOF
OUR GREAT need
Frightful Conditions Are Re,
Vealed in Factories in This
Country,

In ar article eatitled "Deathproot
versus Fireproof" IN Hampton's, based
on the fatal Triangle shirtwaist fac
tory fire in New York some time ago,
Rheta Childe Dorr points out certain
grave lessons 10 be learned from that
disaster. In part she says:
In all, las working people, mostly
girls, died in the Triangle fire. Some
one should pay for this said hremen
and policemen over and over again as
they worked. and thousands Of New
York people, reading mex morning in
their papers, the awful story Of the fire,
echoed with, Some one shall pay for
this
Who shall pay Whcn l45 industrious
w~orkingmen II women buy with their
lives the poor privilege of toiling LONG
hours in d poWer-driVen factory? Wa
know who pays for the damaged fac.
tory building, the broken plate glass
the lost merchandise. The insurance
companies pay for them. their fun
value. Who shall "a for the loss in
human life?
Up to the present day we have
treated the fire problem much as the
old-fashioned doctors treated disease
The doctors entire concern was with
the individual patient. He blew tho
man, poured drugs down his throat, and
left the result to Providence. The
doctor did nothing at all to prevent thu
spread or the recurrence OF the dis
ease, n until very recently the theory
that disease ought to and could bd
eliminated altogether was held by nd
practical man.
Thus with the fire problem. Our
entire concern has been with the indi-
vidual catastrophe. We have made o.
fire fighting a science, yet we continue
to have fires. The time has come whea
we must make q business of fire pre-
y%ention. and, in case OF unpreVentable
fires, OF minimizing the human loss. =
After all, it is a simple proposition
that we have before US. First we shall
have to arrange things so that there
will be very few fires. Then we must
arrange things so that the people in a
burning building can get out. And
then we must teach the people, through
fire drills, that they can get out.
Within the last two years we have
heard a great deal about industrial eff
cheney. To most people industrial effi7
cheney has meant only a plan for get
ting more and better work out of Ia
Dor, but that is only part OF its mean
ing. 1t aims to make industry efficient
by protecting and conserving the la
borer. Already it a gone far toward
protecting him from death and Injury
by fire.
I'VE might build an entire city OF
hreproof buildings and haye almost as
many fires and quite as many deaths
by fire as we nave now. The efficiency
engineers are beginning to impress the
public with the necessity for death
proof buildings.
"A Joint board of sanitary control
consisting of representatives of en-
ployers and workers in the garment
Trades recently made an Investigation
of 1,463 garment factories in New York
Eity. The conditions they discovered
were amazing. Here is a summary OF
their report:
"Of i.463 factories, 1.173 had hall
ioors opening inward instead of out
ward. Thus, al the outset, So per
cent Of garment factories in New York
ere violating one important law guard
ing against loss OF life in case Of fire.
"Of 491 factories. 40 per cent had no
ire exits except one fire escape.
zone hundred and one had no fire
escape drop ladders, or they were out
Df reach.
"~Sixty-five had straight ladders, very
difficult to use.
sixty had halls less than three feet
vide.
"Twenty-eight had all doors leading
% halls and stairways locked during
he day.
Fourteen a no fire escapes.
"Seventy-th re factories so nagrant-
V violated the fire laws that the com
nittee thought wise to notify not only
he proprietors, but the mayor, the SUI
~Ierintendent Of buildings and the fire
nd police commissioners.
CLEARLY, If we are to cease killing
md maiming the workers, we have got
n mssye over the factory. We cannot
ear down and rebuild all in a minute,
.,ut one thing we can do. We car build
fire wall in the middle of every large
,nildine used for manufacturing"