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Newspaper Page Text
',! -ower" ILLINOIS MANUFACTURERS ASS'N READY TO GRAB UP BENEFITS, BUT NIX ON EXPENDITURE What Is the value of a human life, expressed in d pilars and cents? The Illinois Manufacturers' ass'n thinks so little of human lives that it threw the great influence of the mil lions in money of its members to get killed, in court, a law which would have required the expenditure of ''about $500 perfactory as a perpetual insurance against the loss of lives of hundreds"bf girls who worked in each factory. This was the accusation made at Woman's City club last night by C. J. Hejda, chief inspector of the fire prevention bureau. ' A few years ago the fire prevention bureau was established in Chicago and told to go about doing good. Rec ords show that it has done good in reducing the annual fire loss of the city,. It benefited property, which mightily pleased the 111. Mfg. Ass'n. Then it started a campaign to safe guard lives. After the Triangle Shirt fire in New York, where it was proven thaw the loss of fives was not purely the result of lack of a fire drill, the Wom an's Trade Union league prodded the city council into 'giving Chicago an ordinance requiring a fire signal sys tem and fire drill in every factory. . The fire prevention bureau got busy and got 285 factory owners to contract to install signal syste'ms and to hold daily drills. The signal sys tems were to cost an average of $500 each and the drills required five min utes once a month. All went fine un til the inspectors reached the Petti bone Printing Co. ' According to Miss Mary McDowell, president of the Woman's City club, the Pettibone Printing Co. was locat ed in such a wretched buDding that it would be hard for it to comply with the fire safety law. It had pow erful connections, so forced the issue into court The supreme court de cided against the fire prevention bu- "Nearly all of the 285 factory own ers who had given contracts' for the installation of the signal system then canceled their contracts," said C. J. Hejda, chief inspector. "Chicago factories are, many of them, in the same shape as was the Triangle shirt factory before its fire. The buildings are often as fireproof as possible, but the girl workers are not trained to be foolproof in case of a fire. "Now the fire sprinkler law is in danger. It is in the supreme court Instead of demanding sprinklers on all 'floors of factories, the law re quires them only in the basement, where 72 per cent of the fires start This moBt important safety measure would cost about $1,000 to $1,200 for a factory t54xlOO feet in ground area, but the manufacturers seem unwil ling to spend that much to insure the safety of their workers." Both Hejda and Miss McDowell made accusations against the HL M. At, and Miss McDowell used John Glenn's name. "In Mandel Bros.' department store basement," said Miss Harriet Vittum, "I saw a torch applied to a sprinkler head of the store's touted fire safety sprinkler system. Though held there for perhaps several min utes the blazing flame of the torch did not set ofil the sprinkler head." "A match would set ofE an effi cient sprinkler head," answered Hejda. The University of Chicago was named by one as being the owner of a building that is fighting enforce ment of the sprinkler fire prevention law for factories where girls are em ployed. "If Mayor Thompson cares any thing about home rule for Chicago he can prove it by saving the 'sprin kler law, for he has the power to cave it if he chooses," said G. G. Wheat, Boston national authority oh fire prevention. .- AafaA!Aaaaiiii