PUBLIC SAFETY
Safety from fire is as necessary as safety from any other danger. When
fire protection is considered, no one would for a moment minimize the
noble daring and self-sacrifice of American firemen. They too have
suffered a needless loss of life and limb as a result of fire hazards
which have been allowed to continue unchecked, but at last fire
prevention is a dominant note in all progressive communities today and
among all progressive civic workers. In the education of the public in
this matter, and even in the practical constructive work in fire
prevention, women have already extended their hands to help and bent
their minds upon the problem.
_The American Club Woman_ has been insistent upon the need of placing
emphasis upon causes of fires and the necessity of their avoidance. In
late numbers, it said:
An effort should be made to educate men and women and little
children as to the ordinary methods of fire prevention. In New York
City a course of education through the medium of the public schools
has noticeably decreased the fire losses.
Young women who expect to go into factory and store employment
should be taught to study the construction of buildings used for
such purposes and they should refuse to risk their lives in fire
traps or places where proper precautions are not observed.
Scores of young girls lost their lives in a factory fire at
Binghamton, N. Y., recently. It was the old story of a building
which was inevitably a fire trap. They claim they had fire drills in
this place, but the girls were burned to death just the same.
Employers are often willing to expose their employees to fire risks
to save a few dollars in rent. Ignorant girls do not know the danger
and would be afraid to protest if they did for fear of losing
employment.
This is one of the reforms which can be brought about by women’s
clubs. They can insist that factories are placed in fireproof
buildings. They, and they alone, can create the public sentiment
which will prevent the awful sacrifice of life which now goes on
because nobody takes the trouble to secure real fire prevention.
“Will You Be a Fire Warden and Saver of Life” is the heading of a fire
prevention placard which the Texas Federation of Club Women is sending
throughout the State. The card indicates measures for fire prevention in
the home which every housewife can readily observe.
Texas club women are lowering insurance rates by their active fire
prevention work and what is far more important—saving many lives.
The women’s clubs are being asked in New York to start a campaign of
education to keep things clean, after the accumulations of rubbish
have been carted away. The Women’s National Fire Prevention
Association is distributing leaflets, printed in several languages,
urging housewives to dispose of waste paper and other inflammable
refuse daily. Strict cleanliness is one of the best of fire
preventives.
In Baltimore, the fire chief testified publicly to the fact that the
clean-up crusade carried on by the women had been his greatest aid in
fire prevention work. It is an obvious fact that proper disposal of
rubbish eliminates fuel for the flames.
One of the most vigorous anti-fire campaigns ever carried on by women
was that waged by the working women of Newark, New Jersey, just after a
terrible factory holocaust in that city of numberless factories. The
women’s trade unions of Newark actually brought about changed conditions
in the factories through their splendid organization and fighting
spirit. In New York, soon after the Newark experience, about 150 girls
were burned in the Triangle Factory fire and women again led the
agitation against the evils that exist in shops and factories all over
New York. The Women’s Trade Union League, many of whose members were
burned at this time, started the campaign. A Fire Complaint Committee
was formed and through it circulars were distributed broadcast among the
workers requesting them to observe conditions where they worked and
report certain definite evils to it. Every mail for weeks brought a vast
pile of complaints, intelligent and eager, which were turned over by the
Committee to those in authority, an effort being made to follow-up
results.
A Citizens’ Committee was formed at the instigation of the women of the
Trade Union League which maintained enthusiasm through a typical nine
days of horror, and then largely subsided, although some influence is
undoubtedly seen in the present work of the Fire Prevention Bureau
recently organized in New York. More definite results as far as
factories are concerned seem to have been obtained by the Cloak and Suit
Makers’ Unions through their Board of Sanitary Control. Many of the
women who were so aroused by the Triangle fire feel that better results
would now be seen if they had waged all the public agitation through the
workers themselves whose own interest it is to maintain fire safeguards
in their places of toil.
Among the evils which lead to fire carnage, it was discovered at that
time, were locked doors, doors that swing in, clippings of inflammable
material and threads allowed to accumulate beside the workers, aisles
too narrow for passage, barred windows, rickety fire escapes, or no fire
escapes at all, narrow wooden stairs, ignorance of exits or an
insufficient number, lack of fire extinguishers, proximity of shirtwaist
factories and the like to chemical works or such factories as excelsior
hair works, absence of fire drills and employers’ indifference to
requirements for safety for the workers.
The present Fire Commissioner, Mr. Robert Adamson, is thoroughly intent
upon remedying this evil condition of affairs. The following statement
of his position indicates the spirit with which he entered upon the
duties attached to his office:
Robert Adamson, New York’s Fire Commissioner, has appointed three
women on the force. Last week he wrote to John E. O’Brien, counsel
for the women on the civil service list, eligible for appointment:
“It is my intention to appoint women as inspectors in the Bureau of
Fire Prevention, so far as the character of the work of that bureau
will permit. I understand that Commissioner Johnson felt that the
work of the bureau in its entirety could be performed by men, and
that he, therefore, declined to make any appointments from the
women’s eligible list; whereupon the women on this list applied to
the court for an order directing the consolidation of the women’s
eligible list with the men’s eligible list, which application was
denied by both the Supreme Court and Appellate Division.
“You now inform me that it is the intention of the women on this
list to meet in a short time and determine whether they will appeal
the matter to a higher court. I have always felt that the Bureau of
Fire Prevention is peculiarly one in which women could, with great
advantage to the welfare of the city, be employed.
“Certain classes of the work in this bureau could, in my opinion, be
performed by women even better than by men. For example, the
services of women should be particularly available in the inspection
of factories where women are employed; in moving-picture places;
perhaps in dance halls, and in other places where this department
has jurisdiction in prescribing regulations to insure safety in case
of fire. Generally speaking, I have found that in any work involving
the welfare and safety of the public, women are most zealous and
energetic, and I have also found in my experience in the city’s
service that in positions which women are called upon to fill they
display a very high grade of ability for the salaries paid.
“I think the prejudice against the employment of women in these and
other positions, which they can fill as well as men can fill them,
is dying out. As soon as my other duties will permit me, I intend to
make a careful investigation of the work of the Fire Prevention
Bureau and of the existing vacancies there.
“If I find that the result of that investigation verifies my present
view of the matter, I shall appoint women to those vacancies. I
believe that the appointment of women in this bureau to do such work
as I have indicated will greatly improve the efficiency and
usefulness of this most important branch of the fire department, the
work of which I find has only fairly been inaugurated.”
Mr. Adamson thereupon appointed three women. All are well-known
settlement and social workers.
The Manufacturers’ Association of New York has at last felt the need of
action for the protection of employees to the extent at least of
engaging a fire expert to go through the establishments under its
control and do something toward fire prevention. Mrs. Christopher has
been engaged by this association and she has established excellent fire
drills in many factories and in loft buildings, especially, and in other
ways is insisting upon improvements and better protection for the
workers.
Since sanitary and hygiene inspection are so closely allied to fire
protection, a single inspector when trained can care for all three needs
if necessary. Women who make the former inspections well can readily add
the third.
In smaller towns, where lack of fire-fighting apparatus is the chief
trouble, we often find women working to make good the deficiency. A
little club of women in Vallejo, California, for instance, owned and
managed a fire engine until the town authorities grew ashamed and
decided that the city should have a fire department.[49]
Women have helped in the work of the American Museum of Safety of New
York, the motto of which is “Now Let Us Conserve Human Life.” Mrs. W. H.
Tolman, wife of the Director of the Museum, inaugurated the safety
campaign among the school children in New York City. This campaign was
conducted under the Museum’s auspices in coöperation with the Board of
Education. Mrs. Tolman trained the lecturers in this work, and herself
personally lectured to many thousands of school children on the
importance of thoughtfulness and caution in protecting their own lives
and those of their playmates upon the congested streets of our city. In
connection with this school campaign, Safety Stories and Safety Buttons
were distributed by the Museum, with a view to strengthening the
instruction given in the safety talks of the lecturers.
After instruction by lecture was introduced in the schools of New
Jersey, accidents were reduced 44 per cent. within a period of six
months as compared with a previous period before such instruction was
given.
The traffic problem is one of the most troublesome of all in a great
city. Fortunately, upon it, too, women are bringing a salutary influence
to bear. Frances Perkins of the Safety Committee of New York is
generally admitted to be a moving spirit in the safety agitation that is
beginning to produce certain visible results in that city.
Industrial safety is one of the most important aspects of safety in
general, but, aside from the fire and sanitary protection of workers,
and even there, it is largely a state matter rather than a municipal
one, and has to do with laws relative to mechanical devices, age limits,
and other requirements. Industrial safety is, therefore, a larger topic
than can be justifiably introduced here. It is an element not ignored,
however, by women who think of public safety, for luckily in practical
life and in social work there are no page limitations.