Those that Have and Those that Don't

A young female garment worker survives the Triangle Shirt Factory fire.

Maria sat across from him twisting a damp embroidered hankie in her tiny hands. A pretty girl with long curly brunette hair, she looked up at him. Her eyes were the color of emeralds with lovely dark damp lashes. How young she looked .This child should have been in a schoolroom with chalk dust in the air, not working for pennies in a constant snow of harsh lung irritants.

Ralph Rodham knew he finally had a heart breaking story that wouldn’t be buried in the back pages of “The Register”. He was the newest reporter at the paper except for the intern that wrote the obits. This was his chance. The story was a solid one that could help lead to an indictment of the management at The Triangle Shirt Factory. Of course, the tragic news was already all over the papers, the loss of young lives and the probability of who was to blame.

There would be the horrific photos of the young women in coffins lined on the sidewalk for relatives to try to identify. Such loss of young life was the talk of the town and would be for weeks to come. The bodies were disfigured and hard to identify so personal jewelry, change purses, belts or ribbons lay in the caskets. It was stunning to discover pickpockets were also at work taking anything of value.

“Miss Langella, I’m so sorry. I know these questions are causing you pain.”

“If it’ll help find out how this terrible fire started, I’ll do what I can.” Her tears dripped onto her flowered skirt. “My best friend was taken to the hospital”.

“I’m so sorry. Did you both work on the same machines?”

“She cut fabrics. Why would she have burned so badly?”

The year was 1911. Immigrants were flocking to New York from a variety of countries for a better life. They came with little money, young unaccompanied women, deep in the steerage area of ships. Once they got off the ship, they were shadow images of the person with dreams that had boarded. Many had lost weight from the constant vomiting due to waves, the smell of bathrooms where people were always ill, and less than sanitary conditions. You had to be a strong young person just to survive the voyage. Many didn’t. Most had a relative that they could stay with. Most people lived in tenements that were crowded, loud, and the landlords didn’t repair the rooms as they should. New arrivals were welcome to the business owners because they replaced those that didn't survive. Most would be working in factories or sweatshops, even children.

These factories might employ hundreds of workers, and the conditions could be just as bad or worse than in the sweatshops. Workers were not allowed to talk to one another. They could not go to the bathroom unless they were on a formal break. The atmosphere so horrific with the noise of hundreds of sewing machines and doors and windows were locked until the bosses opened them. They were locked to make sure no one stole anything. In both the sweatshops and the factories, workers often worked fourteen hours or more a day, six or seven days a week. There was no minimum wage, and children and women were paid less than men.

Marie continued speaking, “I saw women and even children, well…they was jumping from windows. They even held hands…did any of them live?” The sobbing started again. “Glad my mama’s home, about to give birth or she would’ve probably died. Papa works at Pace’s.”

“Can you tell me what happened that day to start the fire?" I asked her.

“People smoke sometimes but I don’t know. We’re workin’ so tight, like a can of sardines. The boss men wants you to dress nice but we can’t wash our clothes much so it smells. Dust’s so thick, you keep a headache and my nose bleeds sometimes. We all cough, sometimes bring up blood. Gotta keep up or no job.”

“Marie, did you know that one of the owners had brought their daughter there to go shopping and have lunch? They were there when the fire broke out and escaped through the roof opening helped by a fellow factory owner? How does that make you feel?”

“I am not surprised. There are those that have and those that don’t. I knew our bosses lived in lovely places with maids and nannies. It’s the way of things, I guess, but don’t seem much fair. My parents always had to work hard- thought we’d do better in America. We have, ya know?”

“Will you go back to work for them if they reopen, after all this tragedy?”

Maria’s tears fell freely as she twisted the hankie, “I don’t want to but if it may be what I have to do. I don’t believe nothin’ will change. It will be the girls’ fault for the fire starting or goin’ a wrong way. That’s the way things go. I hope my children can go to school and do better, God willing.”

The trial in December 1911 lasted three weeks, and centered on the locked door that would have led to the second flight of stairs. The prosecutor argued that if that door had been kept unlocked, as section 80 of the Labor Code mandated, 146 lives would not have been lost. On December 27, after the court heard emotional testimony from more than 100 witnesses, both Harris and Blanck were acquitted of all charges. Having deliberated for fewer than two hours, the jury cited the prosecutor's inability to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the men had known of the locked door at the time of the fire.

Following Harris and Blanck's acquittal, the two partners worked to rebuild their company. From a small factory on the corner of 16th Street and Fifth Avenue, Blanck acted as president and Harris as secretary. All of their revenue went into paying off their celebrity lawyer, and they were sued in early 1912 over their inability to pay a $206 water bill. Despite these struggles, the two men ultimately collected a large chunk of insurance money -- $60,000 more than the fire had actually cost them in damages.

Harris and Blanck had made a profit from the fire of $400 per victim. As Maria had said, “That’s the way things go”.


By: Kathie Stehr
Feb. 6, 2026