The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-20
Who Is Responsible for the
Tenement Fire Deaths?

THE lives Of over three and half million working
class mon, women and children, living in old
law slum tenements throughout Greater New York
are daily menaeed by horrible death BY FIRE
Fully rs per cent of the workers DWELLINGS, in
New York City are miserable fire-trapS, which can
be turned in few minutes into blazing collins
No one actually knows how many fires occur
In the city every single day Of the year. No one
knows how many fires discovered Just in time
discovery OF fire few minutes later in most of
these cases would result in the charred bodies Of
dozens OF workers who are crowded into these
nlthy tenements, which Commissioner Post has ad-
mitted are unfit for human habitation."
Who is responsible for the fact that workers
are forced to live in these inhuman holes forced
to fear humiliation of themselves and their families
at any moment? Revelations Of the past few weeks
have shown that the owners are the wealthy and
aristocratic families of New York-the Stuyvesants
the Astors, the Ham Fishes. Other interests whose
incomes are sweled by the rent which workers are
forced to pay for the privilege of living in constant
fear OF fire are the wealthy churches the theo-
logical sen1inaries. Wealth and the religious In
terests go hand in hand in victimizing the working
class.
But no worker forget that the primary
fault for the 80 fire-deaths which have occurred
IN the last two and half months rests directly
on the shoulders of Mayor LaGuardia and the
Fusion administration The glowing promises OF
LaGuardia during the election campaign that he
would rae the slums and build modern sanitary
apartments for the workers at nominal rentals have
not materlallzed. Instead we have witnessed the
horrible deaths of 80 workers their wives and their
children. The city government is directly respon-
sole Tor these deaths All of Fusions promises
its smoothly worded statements are lust so MANY
words when the wealthy tenement owners Wall
Street banks and LaGuardia weigh their profits
against the lives Of 100000 people and prefer their
profts LaGuardias demand that the landlords
repair" these hopeless fretraps is a fake this is
not being, nor will it be enforced It would in
any case, be insufficient since most of these build
lngs are beyond the stage where repairs might do
any good.
TIE Unemployed Councils proposed an extensive
PUBLIC Works program, part of which is the
razng OF slums and the building of modern sanitary
homes for the workers. This would put thousands
OF 1obess men to work well as provide safe homes
Tor fire menaced families
LaGuardia it might be pointed out is not alone
in his empty promises; Roosevelt also smoke orand1y
about model-housng projects year ago, But TO-
day, year after Roosevelt assumed Office and
almost three months since LaGuardia became
mayor, the early campaign promises are lust 50
much words; joblessness continues to be widespread
and workers still rot in sums, not only in New York
but throughout the United States
New York workers must remember these empty
promises and declare emphatically that these prom
lseS VIII not blind them to the fact that the city
administration is responsible for the deaths of
workers and their families
Organize in every house Set up committees
IN every slum block. Demand that all tenants, Ne
gro and white, in firetrap buildings be moved a+
once into safe and sanitary dwellings,; that the
Home Relief Bureaus assume responsibility for
moving expenses and rent payments for all unem-
ployed families; that all workers families living in
fretraps be given preference in all city dwellings.
IN all city apartment houses now in existence and
those to be built.
Fight against any form of discrimination against
Negro tenants for the right of all tenants to choose
themselves the section in which they wish to live
Demand that LaGuardia Immediately carry out his
campaign promises.
Demand that the slums be torn down and that
Ireproof sanitary apartment houses be built-the
rentals to be from four to six dollars per room max
mum!