February 5, 2007
by Lonnie D. Story
Excerpted from my upcoming book, "Without a Shot Fired: The Dustin Brim Story"
Before the death of Eben Byers, with the clock turned back a bit one can see where good old American corporate powers showed their increasing abilities to control government "of the people, for the people and by the people."
For example take a look at what later became known as "The Radium Girls." Grace Fryer was an employee at the Orange, New Jersey Radium Factory owned and operated by U.S. Radium Corporation. Grace became employed at the New Jersey Radium factory in 1917. It was her job, as well as many other women working in the factory to paint watch dials. To be exact, the task was to dip a small brush into a solution glue and water mixed with radium powder and coat the numbers on the dial. This was done for the ingenious purpose of making the numerals glow in the dark and thus enabling the watch bearer to tell time in the dark. How ironic that it would later be proven these women were painting their own death and had no idea of the time of darkness they were in.
The paint mixture was used on various other products as well at the factory and the number women employed (because they were a cheaper source of labor), literally rose into the hundreds. Working around the clock, no pun intended, the women worked in shifts to meet the high demand for these marvelous new products. Although it was a fairly good job at a decent enough wage, the "beast in the woods" was already slowly gnawing at their bones without their knowledge. In fact, the women took great delight in the paint mixture finding many fun ways to make use of it aside from their work. The women had made a remarkable discovery while trying to better perform their duties.
Like most all the other women at the plant, Grace Fryer was given a fine-hair tipped brush. But, when trying to apply the radium dipped point to the dials, the brush hairs would flare and cause over-painting or failure in outlining thus a less than perfect symmetry. In order to correct the problem Grace, again like the other women, realized that wetting the tip of the brush by sticking it in her mouth, made a more pointed tip thereby solving the problem. Thus the brush was then dipped into the mixture and applied to the instruments. Of course, each time the brush was used on the instrument it became necessary to "re-tip" the brush in the same fashion over and over and time after time throughout the entire work day and each day from that small, yet monumental, discovery. What was thought to be a small solution to a big problem. To make matters worse, Grace did not make this discovery on her own but was, rather, instructed by her supervisor to perform this corrective measure. A measure that was repeated approximately six time for each dial that she painted. Because radium is basically tasteless and odorless, the procedure was never a cause for alarm or concern. And certainly, no immediate health affects seemed to have been a byproduct of the now normal process.
What was somewhat immediately noticed by the women at the Radium factory was that this intriguing new concoction had a humorous use. Just like the "glow-in-the-dark" effect that the radium had on the dials, so the effect carried over to practically anything else it was applied to. In fact, at one point, Grace took notice that, after blowing her nose in a handkerchief, that the cloth took on a similar glow in the dark. She, of course, was not the only one to notice. Many of the women enjoyed regaling tales of how they had painted their fingernails, their teeth or used the radium mixture as a lipstick to excite, tease and play with their boyfriends and husbands in the dark. This application made for great parlor games between the sexes.
It wasn't until sometime later that the hidden insidious side effects of the radium began to manifest itself in shock and disbelief. Strange physical phenomena started to become quite overtly apparent. By 1920, Grace had switched jobs from the Radium factory and moved on to a better paying job. However, the old job from three years prior came back to haunt her much without welcome. Grace started experiencing pain inside her mouth. The kind and gentle appearance of the young lady slowly became a ghastly sight, something she could not hide. Grace began to develop extremely painful abscesses in her mouth, her jaw particularly, and, with much horror, her teeth began to fall out one by one. A now terrified Grace sought the immediate medical professionals for aide in her dismal condition.
Unfortunately for Grace, and the doctors as well, the doctors had never seen anything like it. There was plenty of theory but no actual correct diagnosis could be made or inferred. It took some five years before one doctor inquired as to whether or not the condition had some relevance to some type of chemical exposure and questioned Grace's employment history. In an effort to "nail down" her problem, Grace went to Columbia University. A professor by the name of Frederick Flynn (stating that he had been referred to Grace by a friend), invited the young woman to be examined. After the examination, his findings were such that Grace was in practically fine condition and not ill at all.
While it was a soothing thought and hope for Grace, there were some not-so-simple thoughts behind the how she had come to benefit from the expertise of the kind professor. It was later discovered that Dr. Flynn was not a medical doctor at all and, instead was an industrial toxicologist and, for further insult, Dr. Flynn was vice president of U.S. Radium. Grace had been duped and it was clearly an attempt to cover-up a much larger problem. A problem for which Grace had become the lightening rod of fear to the radium industry for economic reasons and to the employees of such companies as to grave health concerns.
Grace found herself in a dilemma. Where should she turn now? Where and how would she get an honest answer, correct diagnosis and a solution to her rapidly failing health. As if they were two ships about to pass in the night, a sudden change of circumstances presented for Grace. The Consumers League, and organization formed in 1899, happened to be a "watchdog" for labor force abuses from child labor, work hours and work environmental conditions. Between the workings of the League, a news reporter by the name of Walter Lippman and the New Jersey Consumers League chairperson Katherine Wiley, Grace was brought into an already ongoing investigation by the league into the safety issues surrounding U.S. Radium.
Based on findings from researcher Dr. Cecil Drinker, a Harvard physiology professor, Wiley felt that U.S. Radium should pay for some of Grace Fryer's medical expenses. Something U.S. Radium not only balked at but furiously objected to any insinuation of culpability in Ms. Fryer's dire health condition. Wiley pressed forward not only for Grace, but other employees as well, who, by now had been identified as having numerous ill health effects ravaging their bodies.
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However, U.S. Radium took a hardline stance against the accusations and thus a lawsuit ensued between Grace Fryer (joined by four women co-workers from the factory), and the company. The five women were later to become known as the "Radium Girls."
It didn't take long for the matter before the courts became a matter before the entire world community. What was once so wonderful a discovery my the Curies and others, had suddenly become a disrobed , formerly hidden, terror. Could it be true that this wonder of science that was to be the cure of all things ill in the human body isn't so? Could it be that years of hope and even some truly proven positive applications of this stuff called uranium had an evil twin within?
By 1928, the plaintiffs in the case were already so ill that it was all they could muster to even attend hearings before the court. So much so that they were literally unable to raise the hand to be sworn under oath to their testimony. They had become bedridden and horrible sick. News of case eventually came to the attention of none other that Madame Curie, herself. In response to the news of the women and the way in which it was believed they had been poisoned by the wrongful use of uranium, she surmised that there was little hope for relief and no hope for surviving. While enduring and waiting for a sentence from the court honoring their request for relief, they had, in fact, already been sentenced to death by the "corporate court."
In the end, the day before trial, the "Radium Girls" reached a settlement with U.S. Radium. Their lawyer was completely unhappy with the settlement but felt it a necessity to bring closure for the dying women by getting "something" rather than "nothing" for their overgrown medical expenses. The lawyer for the girls, Raymond Berry had this to say about the U.S. District Court Judge William Clark, who oversaw the mediation of the case, "He is, I am sure, a very honorable man and genuinely interested in social problems, bu, he is a man whose circumstances in life place him in the employer's camp." Berry had been informed that Clark was a stockholder in the U.S. Radium Corporation.
In his closing and the conclusion of his paper entitled The Radium Girls (Originally published as Chapter Eight in Mass Media and Environmental Conflict), author and professor Bill Kovarik had this to say:
The five "Radium Girls" died in the 1920's and 1930's. Their fate was sealed when they dipped paintbrushes into radium paint and sharpened the bristles with their mouths. There was a resistance to warnings about the dangers of radium in society- highlighting the importance in the relationship between ideas and social structure. In addition, radium was seen as part of the arena of science and medicine and as such enjoyed a certain legitimacy that made it almost beyond criticism. Science was seen as having all the answers, and people were reluctant to question it. It was not until Lippmann and other mainstream media outlets became involved in the story-and that involvement was accelerated by the legitimation of the legal system- that the Radium Girls finally settled their lawsuit, albeit for $10,000-plus, much less than the $250,000.00 they had hoped to receive.
The Consumers League and the news media as represented by Lippmann may have served the democratic process. Other dial painters from the era survived, and those who worked at radium paint factories in later years were better protected. Goldmark said, "The hazards of another lethal industrial poison were overcome, and the democratic process of government by informed public opinion was again justified." The newspapers, with their preference for dramatic events, also served up the victims as part of a daily fare of murder, mayhem and monstrosities. There exists an interesting parallel to the investigative journalism of later in the century.
In the book Journalism of Outrage, the authors note a coalition building process between journalist and government officials and/or interest groups in the 1980's. In one case, journalist from a Philadelphia newspaper coordinated their efforts with Congressional staff from the very beginning of a project. The interactive nature of the process in the 1920's was evident when Walter Lippmann and Alice Hamilton used each other for their own ends. Lippmann's newspaper was considered liberal and catered to a working class audience, which would appreciate a story like the Radium Girls; Hamilton needed Lippmann and other journalists to meet her goals, including public awareness of workers' safety issues. The Radium Girls By Bill Kovarik, (revised 2002.)
One of the main ingredients of evidence in this chapter is that evil exists and abounds all around. It isn't necessarily recognized in many instances for no other reasons than the fact that it is either not palatable to the media, not palatable to the general public, or both. Another reason or ingredient of evidence the general public fails in awareness, lacks knowledge is not because there is no desire to know and/or to learn, it is the fact that there are entities such as both corporate and governance that have a full appetite of their own doings and would be sorely damaged and self-inflicted to share their "meal" of knowledge and awareness. Their own desires and hunger for whatever it is that gratifies them or becomes the means to the end for them, is the altar upon which the public and general population is first used, depleted and then sacrificed.
Indeed knowledge is power and those that have the power prefer to keep the knowledge. Control the minds and the hearts will follow is clearly the mantra of people given too much authority without overview or public scrutiny. Secrecy among all parties; media, government, corporations and special interest groups goes against the very foundation of what the United States of America's founding fathers had so desperately tried to pen into being and prevent in order to create a truly unified body of people as a nation, yet, maintaining that nothing is more sacred than the absolute autonomy and rights of the individual. It is the chief cornerstone of the "We the people, in order to create a more perfect union..." that has now become part and parcel to the people themselves that are being laid as a sacrificial lamb upon the same altar.
Apparently, as indicated from the example of the Radium Girls, if there is no tragedy then there is no rage. Easily enough, self-preserving, self-serving parties in the corporate world, media, government and special interest groups find themselves working hand-in-hand to avoid any known potential of similar tragedy to befall the minds of the general populace. Simply put, what they don't know can't hurt them. Sadly, as seen all too often and all too late, the case remains, sacrifices are the daily fare at the expense of the individual for no other purpose than the personal gain of another. The very organizations that were in place to protect the people have built themselves a fortified city of secrecy to manipulate rather than serve the individual.
Where once, corporations and the government of the United States were partners in seeing a better America through betterment of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, something meant for each and every American (an ideology that had all the makings of a workable solution,) corruption and greed crept in and poisoned beyond repair the grand plan of the founding fathers.
Where truths were once supposed to be self-evident, maniacal villains have used lies and deceptions to destroy the evidence and thus killing the truth. In irony to this picture, even those benefactors of this behavior have become their on unwitting victims. In the end, it would appear that the sacrifice made of others without consent has returned to roost in the hands of its origin. Those that perpetrate these frauds from past, present to future will find that when poisoning others it is conceivable that one might be poisoning him or her self in the process.
A prime example of this could be found in a couple of places of more recent history such as the events leading up to, through and beyond W.W.II, the Manhattan Project and the Arms Race as well as mankind's continued pursuit of the perfect weapon rather than the perfect solution. However, the most "perfect solution" against the "perfect weapon" was evidenced in the body of soldiers; those that lived, those that survived and those that died. Ask them which is better, what is the solution and they will, all in chorus, sing "peace." Remember, soldiers fight because they have to, not because they want to. Dustin Brim was a perfect weapon according to the United States Army commercials, the awards and the accolades. But his post-battlefield life of six months was a testimony to the perfect solution: "Let us all go home in decent order, lay aside our weapons, lift a glass and cheer for some time nearer future, peace would last a year."
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Lonnie D. Story [send him email] is the author of "The Meeting of Anni Adams
" and is working on "Without A Shot Fired: The Dustin Brim Story" Write Mr Lonnie D. Story at 1339 Center Avenue, Holy Hill, FL 32117.
