On March 25, 1911, one of the worst industrial accidents in U.S. history occurred — the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, which killed 146 people due to a locked door. Frances Perkins was witness to this horror, watching people jump to their deaths to escape the raging fire.

At that time, Perkins worked on the Factory Investigation Commission in the city of New York, and later became America’s first woman cabinet member under FDR. She served as secretary of labor for 12 years, longer than anyone else in history. During that tenure, she was one of the primary proponents for the creation of Social Security. A highly educated woman, whose parents were from Maine, she graduated from Mt. Holyoke, earned a master’s degree at Columbia, attended Wharton and, toward the end of her illustrious career, became a professor at Cornell. In short, she was one of the greatest Americans in our history.

At the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, why is Gov. Paul LePage removing Frances Perkins’ name from a room at the Maine Department of Labor?

That is perhaps one of the most petty, mean-spirited and ignorant actions I have ever seen a public official take.

To paraphrase the words of a participant in one of the infamous Joseph McCarthy hearings from the ’50s, “Have you no shame, governor?”

Rick Whiting, Auburn