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catastrophe hazards, factories with explosive hazards, factories where if there were a fire, an explosion or a collapse, there was bound to be enormous loss of life because of the inadequacy or the non-existence of exits. We found factories very, very crowded with tiny stairways. We pulled fire drills, whether they were panic fire drills or announced fire drills, it became obvious that you couldn't get the people off the floor, even when there were two stairways, sometimes in less than twenty-five or thirty minutes. If there had been a fire, they couldn't have moved down the stairways rapidly enough to get everybody on the floor off before they would be overtaken by smoke, if not by fire.

We also saw, of course, the few buildings which existed, like Marshall Fields - there were a few upstate buildings - and which had fire walls. The exit was therefore horizontal and that was, of course, wonderful. They'd be off the floor in almost no time - a very large number of people can pass through a double doorway into the next half of the building. As soon as the door closes behind them they're safe and can take their time going down the stairs. There's no hurry because they're out of the area of hazard.

In Philadelphia they had had for many years - many years - a law about exterior means of exit on buildings used