One Hundredth Anniversary of The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Article first published as One Hundredth Anniversary of The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire on Blogcritics.

Time has a way of making people forget even the greatest disasters. As the years pass, there are fewer people remaining who actually remember events such as the attack on Pearl Harbor or the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In terms of disasters, many times the memory is kept alive by survivors or their families and friends. For example, we will mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic next April. No survivors remain, but books and films have long contributed to the continuing of the flame of memory. Indeed, no survivors remain from what was known Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, and that terrible event happened one hundred years ago today in New York City.

At a time when the mayor and governor of New York State both seem to want to lessen the strength of unions (because of what they say are necessary budgetary considerations), the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is a vivid reminder of why workplace laws and unions were strengthened in the first place. The need for labor laws became magnified by this event, and even the New York City Fire Department began seriously working on fire prevention as part of the necessary and compelling work that they do.

Those of us who remember September 11, 2001, will recall New Yorkers staring up at the sky and watching an incomprehensible event. Besides the fire and smoke pouring out the Twin Towers, many people dropped from the sky to the pavement far below that day. They chose to escape a horrific death from fire and smoke by jumping out windows. The many bystanders witnessed these falls from the sky, stunned by the swiftness of the bodies dropping and the sound of their crushing against the earth.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was the 9/11 of that time, and the cause of the blaze has never been discovered. Many poor immigrants worked in this building in lower Manhattan. It was a Saturday, and the young Jewish and Italian girls working in the shop made female shirts in a business known as the Triangle Shirtwaist Company.

My grandfather who was born and grew up not far from where this fire took place, remembered the incident well. At the time he was driving a horse-drawn ice wagon, and he recalled the commotion and the smoke on the upper floors (actually the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors). Inside the male tailors were using fire buckets ineffectively against the blaze; outside the water from the fire hoses didn't make it up that high; neither did the ladders on the trucks.

Pop remembered many people jumping, their hair and clothes on fire, and he said that everyone on the ground seemed powerless to help those inside. The girls and other workers (200 or more of them) were trying to find a way out. One problem was that there were two small elevators that could only hold a few people at a time; the other was that the escape doors to stairwells were rushed but were either locked or jammed.

Certainly this story is about deplorable working conditions, people trapped on upper floors in tight quarters with no means of escape. Obviously, there were no sprinklers or fire doors or water hoses like we would find in buildings today. All of the things we expect to see in modern skyscrapers developed from the reaction to what happened on this terrible day in Manhattan.

My grandfather recalled having many deliveries to make, and the crowd became overwhelming as more people poured into the area on the heels of firefighters arriving to attempt to fight the blaze. In an effort to make up time and get out before he became trapped, he got his horse to go around the crowds of people and headed away from the scene of the disaster to make his deliveries. "I knew there was nothing I or anyone else could do for those poor people," he said, still seemingly moved by it when he told me many years later.

One hundred forty-six people died that day. The building was supposed to be fireproof (according to the standards of the day) but, just as the Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable, it didn't stop either from becoming a deathtrap. Families of the victims sued the owners of the company, getting little but small monetary satisfaction. Just as the Titanic disaster forced safety changes on cruise ships (like having enough lifeboats for everyone on board), this fire did the same thing for factories. Because of what happened, New York State did enact laws to protect workers in sweatshops like this, and the event would strengthen the push for unions to protect workers and get them health coverage.

The building is still there and is used by New York University today. The Titanic rots away on the bottom of the ocean floor. Both were major events early in the 20th century and were cases of people dying unnecessarily because of poor or nonexistent safety measures. They are also inexorably linked to New York City; one happened right in its heart; the other was bound for our waters but never made it here.

One hundred years have gone by since that day, and hopefully we continue to learn from disasters like these. Still, with a mayor and governor who are looking to cut the strength of unions in this city and state, we have to wonder if this solemn anniversary is in some way not a reminder of a dark past but a grim warning about things we thought would never come again.

Photo Credits: Cornell.edu

Pearl Harbor Is Still a Teachable Moment

As December 7th comes around again, as it inevitably does every year, I take note of how many ceremonies or remembrances are held in the area where I live (New York City) to mark the occasion. Sadly, each year the number of events keeps dwindling, now mostly confined to Veterans of Foreign War or American Legion posts. What is even more alarming is that the day is not recognized in any tangible way by schools, thus taking away a very important teachable moment for our children.

Since the attacks on September 11, 2001, we have marked that day with significant ceremonies in New York, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and across the nation. The day was officially declared “Patriot Day” on September 4, 2002; while not an official national holiday, it is one that is observed in various ways across the country and in schools. Still, as the years go by I do hear some people complaining about too much TV coverage and wondering when we will get over it. The point is that we should never get over it because 9/11, like Pearl Harbor, should be commemorated as a day we honor those who died in an unprovoked attack on our nation.

When I was a boy, my father was very active in his local VFW in Queens, NY, eventually becoming commander of his post. I recall large Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day parades every year, my father marching along with all his buddies dressed in their uniforms. My dad was a veteran of World War II, as were many of the other men there. At the time there were also men marching in the parade who served in World War I and Korea.

I think I was five years old when I went to my first parade. Since I was small, my father put me in one of the big cars to ride with old vets who were unable to walk the parade route. As the band played patriotic songs, I looked up at the old fellows sitting there proudly with medals shining brightly on their uniforms. One man was wearing what looked like an old cavalry uniform that I saw in westerns on TV. It had bright buttons running down the front and captain's bars on the shoulders. He was so thin, the uniform sagged on his body like he was a kid playing dress-up with his father’s clothing.

The old man just stared ahead, but he held his head high and was obviously very proud to be there. I asked one of the other men about him and he said, “That’s Martin. He is a veteran of the Civil War.” I couldn’t believe it but the man continued, “He was a bugle boy and I think about as old as you are right now when he served.”

Of course, I said, “Wow.” The man continued, “He went on to fight in the Indian wars and even knew General George Armstrong Custer. As you can see, he retired a captain and that was before I was born in 1899.”

I wondered how old he was and the man said, “He’s one hundred and seven years old. Martin doesn’t talk much anymore, but I make sure he goes to everything. You see, I am his son.” The man went on to tell me how he fought in France during WWI and how his son also fought in France during WWII. It was a day I will never forget, and I think that’s the whole point: we have to experience something in order to understand and respect it. Reading about history is wonderful, but learning about it from a person who was there has a much more powerful impact.

These days war has become so political and the notion of patriotism is seen as passé or perhaps negative by many people, especially some of those people who stand in front of our children’s classrooms. I do understand their reticence to discuss war and their worry about political ramifications, but if we take current politics out of the equation, as well we should when teaching about history, we are left with the story itself. What else is history but the story of what has happened?

Right now it is difficult to tell we are a nation at war. Everything is in abundance, despite the troubled economy. We can get gasoline, milk, bread, and all the other things we take for granted without any problems. My father has noted this and also recognizes that the young people of today don’t care about the war. He says that it doesn’t concern them as long as they have their iPods, their cell phones, and cable television. Dad has said that even adults act like there is no war going on. He thinks we are like a nation of ostriches, shoving our heads in the sand so we can avoid the world around us and the reality of what is happening.

Imagine today’s kids living through what kids endured during WWII? Would they be able to cope with scrap metal drives and gasoline rationing? Would they understand blackouts and air raid drills? Would they appreciate the threat to our way of life from overseas from an enemy that desired to conquer us and make German our national language?

If you ask kids about Pearl Harbor today, very few know what you are talking about. As an educator for twenty-six years, I have heard quite a few amazing things in my classrooms, but the most bizarre was when I was talking about Pearl Harbor during a lesson, and a student raised his hand and asked, “Who was she?” I didn’t connect and asked, “Who?” And he replied, “You know, who was Pearl Harbor?” I know that seems like an Abbott and Costello routine, but it is not because he, and many other students, did not know about this pivotal historical event.

Today, many students are only taught about Pearl Harbor as a date on a timeline, the event that launched the country into WWII. The attack itself is not examined, the causes for the attack are not explored, and the events that followed are not taught substantially.

I understand we are very concerned these days with reading scores and math scores on state examinations, but why are we not worried about our children’s understanding of history’s crucial moments, especially one like Pearl Harbor that launched our country into the war that defined much of the last century and still reverberates in this one.

When I was in school, veterans were always a part of the landscape. They visited our classrooms regularly when invited by teachers to impart their wisdom about past events. I remember being riveted by descriptions of battles in the European and Asian theaters of WWII. I also enjoyed hearing about what life was like in boot camps, on the battlefield, and on ships during the war. None of this was warmongering and did nothing to encourage students to go sign up for the armed forces; however, it provided a crucial human factor in understanding the nature of war and the toll it takes on soldiers and their families.

When there were major holidays like Memorial Day or Veteran’s Day, we had an assembly and the men from the local VFW would come in full uniform. They would march into the auditorium with rifles on their shoulders led by a full color guard, and then select members would go to the microphone and speak. Yes, this does make for a patriotic moment, but it also encourages students in a very public and rather powerful way to learn something that is not available in the pages of the NYS curriculum guides.

Sadly, many of the veterans from World War II are gone now or, like my father, are too disabled to make the trip into classrooms. We should extend the same courtesy though to veterans of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I think it is crucial for the students to see these men and women, hear their stories first-hand, and acquire an appreciation for their efforts and sacrifice in serving their country.

Pearl Harbor stands out as a defining moment in American history. Its anniversary should be marked with significant public ceremonies and corresponding activities in schools that make children aware of its importance. December 7, 1941, was not just another day, but one that President Franklin D. Roosevelt rightly noted as “a date that will live in infamy.” How sad that the day is slowly being relegated to the backburner, noted only as one line in a textbook, and not as the day that changed America and the world forever.

2, 402 service people were killed that day and almost 2,000 were wounded. Many ships were lost, and our country took a devastating blow from a powerful opponent. Students must understand what events led up to the attack, how afterwards our nation came together to set in motion all its resources to literally defeat evil, and that all those soldiers in all those graves died for a cause that quite frankly saved the world.

It is up to us to truly make the difference. We can speak to our children’s teachers and the principals in our schools. We can encourage veterans to volunteer their services to schools as well, and we can write to our elected representatives and ask that more emphasis be placed on observing this day. We owe it to all those men entombed in the USS Arizona, to every soldier who died in the war that followed the attack, and mostly we owe it to our children. They need to appreciate and understand what happened in the past to fully comprehend why we are where we are now. We must do everything we can to make certain that December 7, 1941, is indeed a day that will be forever remembered.