――――― A Lasting Glow ―――――
Publicization of Trials
Dial-painters working in a factory (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
Due to widespread coverage on the dial-painter trials, the press fulfilled their responsibility to inform the public on injustices, triggering legislative reform that passed acts to ensure worker safety and compensation.
Delaying of the trial from April 1928 to September 1928 sparked nationwide media coverage sympathizing with the Radium Girls:
Walter Lippman, editor of New York World, describes court delay as a:
“
Damnable travesty of justice… If ever a case called for prompt adjudication, it is the case of five crippled women who are fighting for a few miserable dollars to ease their last days on Earth." ("Five Women Doomed to Die.")
- Walter Lippmann
(The New York Times [New York City]. 28 Apr. 1928)
“Five women have to go to court and
prove that they are dying while lawyers and experts on the other side [go to] the newspapers to prove that they may live somewhat longer… This is a
heartless proceeding. It is
unmanly, unjust and cruel.” ("The Case of the Five Women.")
- Walter Lippmann
("'Living Death' Victims." The Times-News [Hendersonville], 14 Feb. 1938, p. 1)
“Mrs. Catherine Donohue
collapsed, right, as four other women above, also believed victims of the “living death” fearfully looked on in the courtroom of Ottawa”
“Mrs. Donohue, who now weighs only 70 pounds, told an arbitrer... her superiors in a radium watch dial plant at Ottawa said to her in 1931,
‘Your limping will cause talk. We’re sorry, you’ll have to go.’” ("'Living Death' Victims.")
- The Times-News
Source: ("Settlement of a Pathetic Case." The Evening Star [Washington D.C], 5 June 1928, p. 8)
“What would you do with the flying month remaining of life if the doctor told you that you were
dying, that
there was no escape.”
“Five young women who live in Newark, or its suburbs, have this problem before them.” ("5 Women Dying of Radium Poisoning.")
- Evening Star
("5 Women Dying of Radium Poisoning." Evening Star [Washington D.C], 13 May 1928, p. 14)
“Catherine Donohue lies dying from radium poisoning... Mrs. Donohue has two children” ("Hear Case of Dying Woman." )
- Worcester Democrat and the Ledger-Enterprise
("Hear Case of Dying Woman." Worcester Democrat and the Ledger-Enterprise [Pocomoke City, MD], 4 Mar. 1928, p. 9)