April 1, 1911 —  Service for victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, Collegiate Equality Suffrage League, Cooper Union, New York City

As I read that terrible story last Sunday, I asked, “Am I my sister’s keeper?” For the Lord said to me, “Where is thy sister?” And I bowed my head and said, “I am responsible.”

Yes, every man and woman of this city is responsible. Dot try to lay it on some one else. Don’t try to lay it on some official. We are responsible. You men, forget not that you are responsible; that, as voters, it was your business and you should have been about your business. If you are incompetent, then in the name of heaven let us try.

Time was when woman worked in the home, with her weaving, her sewing, her candle making. All that has been changed, and she can no longer regulate her own conditions and her own hours of labor. She has been driven in o the market, with no voice in the laws, and powerless to defend herself. The most cowardly thing that men ever did was when they tied women’s hands and left them to be food for the flames.

Source: The New York Times, April 1, 1911, p. 3.