The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Text by Frances Murray. Graphics by Lisa Bohannon.

Cover Illustration: History of the Needlecraft Industry (1938), by Ernest Fiene, The mural was

commissioned by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGW) and was painted on a wall of

the auditorium in the New York High School of Fashion and Industry. http://fashionhighschool.net/, a

collection of the New York City Department of Education. Photo credit: Public Art for Public Schools,

NYC School Construction Authority.

The tragedy would have been worse if not for the efforts of a law professor and his students

who were in class in an adjoining NYU building at the time the fire broke out. Using ladders, they

bridged the space between the buildings and rescued workers from the roof of the Asch building. (Leon

Stein & William Greider, The Triangle Fire, 49-49 [2001]).

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: The Legal Legacy

Just east of Washington Square Park, currently the center of New York University’s Manhattan

campus, stands the Brown Science Building. Rooms filled with chemistry and biology students were once

bustling with hundreds of factory workers and became the scene of one of the worst industrial disasters in

American history. In 1911, it was known as the Asch Building and the Triangle Shirtwaist Company was

located on the top three floors. In the late afternoon of

Saturday, March 25, fire broke out on the eighth floor. Six

hundred workers were in the factory at the time. Many became

trapped inside the burning building and succumbed to fire and

smoke, while others fell to their deaths through the windows

and elevator shafts. One hundred and forty-six people—almost

all of them young women in their teens and early

twenties—lost their lives. In response to the International

Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) call for an official day of mourning, huge crowds gathered to

express grief and outrage at the workplace conditions that caused the tragedy. This led first to a statewide and

then later a nationwide movement to ensure workplace safety, the benefits of which endure to this day.

Horses draped in mourning pull a carriage bearing coffins in the

rain-soaked funeral procession for unidentified victims of hte

Triangle W aist Company fire. Barbara Wertheimer Collection,

Kheel Center, Cornell University

U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970,

at 134.

Arthur F. McEvoy. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911: Social Change, Industrial

Accidents, and the Evolution of Common-Sense Causality. 20 Law & Social Inquiry 621, 631.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/brown.pdf

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In the early part of the 20 century, huge numbers of poor immigrants poured into the United States

from Europe. Upon arrival, these families had few options—they crowded into the slums and eked out an

existence by working long hours in unsanitary and unsafe factories, mines

and mills. Child labor was common, and many families needed the income

earned by their children to survive. The 1900 census counted 1.75 million

children aged 10 to 15 who were employed totaling 6 percent of the labor

force. They worked very long hours–twelve hour days, seven days a week,

in terrible working conditions. Workers in garment factories throughout the

nation were aware of the dangers they faced, and many had joined the

International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) to combat these

conditions. In 1909, just over a year before

the fire, ILGWU workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company had gone on

strike over workplace safety issues, wages and hours. In response, the

factory owners fired 150 union sympathizers and replaced them with newly-

arrived immigrants who spoke a variety of languages and were unable to

communicate clearly with their fellow workers.

At the time that the fire broke out, Frances Perkins, a young labor

rights activist was having tea with a friend in a town home near the scene of

the fire. When they heard the sirens both women rushed out. They arrived

The Asch Building. International Ladies

Garment Workers Union Archives,

Kheel Center, Cornell University

Fighting the fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist

Factory. International Ladies Garment

Workers Union Archives, Kheel Center,

Cornell University

Lecture delivered by Frances Perkins at Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor

Relations, 30 September, 1964, ( http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/texts/lectures/perkins.html).

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at Washington Place in time to see many young women falling to their deaths from the eighth floor windows.

Frances Perkins recalled:

We could see this building from Washington Square and the people had just

begun to jump when we got there. They had been holding until that time,

standing in the windowsills, being crowded by others behind them, the fire

pressing closer and closer, the smoke closer and closer. Finally the men

were trying to get out this thing that the firemen carry with them, a net to

catch people if they do jump, there were trying to get that out and they

couldn't wait any longer. They began to jump. The window was too

crowded and they would jump and they hit the sidewalk. The net broke, they

[fell] a terrible distance, the weight of the bodies was so great, at the speed

at which they were traveling that they broke through the net. Every one of

them was killed, everybody who jumped was killed. It was a horrifying

spectacle.

The Asch Building, 9 Floor in the aftermath of the fire.

International Ladies Garment Workers Union Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell University

Douglas Linder. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Trial at 2 (2007).

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1024289.

Id.

David Von Drehle, Triangle: The Fire That Changed America 178-18 (2004).

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The Aftermath of the Fire

Two days later, Fire Marshall William Beers issued the preliminary conclusions of his investigation.

He found cans containing waste oil and large piles of fabric clippings in the vicinity of the cutting table

where the fire started. Although there was a “no smoking” policy in the factory, he also found several

cigarettes cases. Triangle Shirtwaist Company employees informed him that smoking on the premises was

commonplace. The Fire Marshal suggested that the fire might have been started by a lighted match or

cigarette thrown amid the oil cans and debris under the cutting table. Fire Chief Edward Croker reported

that the firefighters were unable to open the doors to the factory and that they had to chop through them to

get to the fire. The public outcry was immediate and overwhelming. Lax enforcement of New York City’s

building code, ineffective fire-safety regulation, and corruption in the fire insurance business were all blamed

for the tragedy. But most of all, public outrage focused on owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company and

the dangerous working conditions in their factory.

The Grand Jury

On March 26, 1911, the New York Times reported that the New

York District Attorney, Charles S. Whitman (later Governor of New York),

intended to commence a grand jury proceeding into the working conditions

in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory immediately preceding the disastrous fire.

Whitman had personally witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire

tragedy, arriving on the scene around 5:00 PM, just as the firefighters were

getting the blaze under control. He was horrified by the loss of life, and

Charles S. Whitman

Library of Congress Collection

Id.

The grand jury has the authority (under both the United States and New York State

Constitutions) to decide whether someone should be formally accused of a crime. Composed of a

cross-section of the community, the grand jury is a key part of our criminal justice system. It is designed

both to uphold the law by indicting those individuals believed to have committed crimes and to protect

the rights of others against unfounded accusations. The prosecutor presents evidence to the grand jury

and also instructs the jurors on the law. The members of the grand jury make a decision based on

evidence presented to it and may decide as follows: (1) The grand jury may vote to formally accuse

someone of a crime; this accusation is called an “indictment,” also known as a “bill” which is short for

“bill of indictment;”(2) the grand jury may vote to dismiss the charges, also known as a “no-bill,”or (3)

the grand jury may direct the prosecutor to file an information accusing the person of an offense less

serious than a felony.

A grand jury panel is composed of twenty-three jurors, at least sixteen of whom must be present

when the grand jury hears evidence or deliberates. An accused person is not required to testify before the

grand jury and may not even be aware that he or she is being investigated by one. Sometimes the

accused person chooses to testify before the grand jury. At least twelve grand jurors who have heard the

evidence and the legal instructions must be present for a vote. Everything that happens in the grand jury

room is secret—this allows the grand jury to obtain the full cooperation of the witnesses who appear

before it, permits grand jurors to make decisions free from outside interference, and protects an innocent

person who may be investigated but never indicted. Grand jurors may ask questions about the law and

may question witnesses about the evidence. As they listen to all the evidence presented, they decide

which evidence and which witnesses are credible. The grand jury's conclusion is a group decision; it is

not the decision of any single person. An accused person who is indicted (formally charged with a

crime) becomes a defendant in a criminal case.

(Chief Judge Lippman. Grand Juror’s Handbook.

http://www.nyjuror.gov/users/wwwucs/pdfs/hb_Grand.pdf)

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immediately began gathering information to identify who was

responsible for the tragedy. He thought that the city building

department might be responsible if it had failed to insist on adequate

safety measures. Alternatively, the factory owners might be culpable

if their actions transgressed the law and prevented the workers from

escape from the burning building.

A grand jury was empaneled and District Attorney Whitman

appeared before it to present evidence and interrogate witnesses. Survivor after survivor told of doors that

could not be opened and of people trapped inside the building, unable to escape the smoke and fire. Seeking

evidence that would confirm the testimony, the District Attorney sent his chief detective to oversee the

Juanita Hadwin Lantern Slide Collection, Kheel

Center, Cornell University

Von Drehle, supra note 9, at 220.

Id. at 188

People v Harris, 74 Misc. 353 (Court of General Sessions, New York County, 1911)

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examination of the debris at the Washington Street exit on the ninth floor. There, a blackened fragment of

a door with the bolt protruding was found. The burn marks supported the accusation that the door had been

locked. The grand jury investigating the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire handed down seven indictments

against the factory owners. Isaac Harris and Max Blanck were arrested on Wednesday, April 12, 1911 and

charged with seven counts of manslaughter in the first and second degrees. The charges alleged that by their

criminal and negligent conduct, control and supervision of their factory, Harris and Blanck caused the death

of their employees. The attorney for Harris and Blanck, Max D. Steuer, one of the most famous (and perhaps

most notorious) litigators in New York history, entered pleas of not guilty on their behalf, and they were then

released on $25,000 bail.

Challenging the Indictment

Defense attorney Steuer immediately challenged five of the

seven indictments in the Court of General Sessions. Although

procedurally different, the challenge was the equivalent of the

modern day “motion to dismiss.” On November 11, 1911, Court of

General Sessions Judge Thomas C. O’O’Sullivan issued his

decision. The first count charged the defendants with common

law manslaughter in the first degree. It alleged that the defendants

willfully and feloniously choked, suffocated and strangled the

deceased by means of fire and the smoke causing the death of the

deceased. Judge O’Sullivan did not allow a challenge on this count.

Isaac Harris and Max Blanck

International Ladies Garment Workers Union Archives,

Kheel Center, Cornell University

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The second count charged the defendants with manslaughter in the first degree. It alleged that the

defendants while engaged in the commission of a misdemeanor willfully and

feloniously killed the decedents. Section 80 of the Labor Law provides that "all

doors leading in and to any such factory shall be so constructed as to open

outwardly where practicable, and shall not be locked, bolted or fastened during

working hours." Under Penal Law section 1275, any person who violates section

80 of the Labor Law is guilty of a misdemeanor. Under section 1050 of the Penal

Law, a person who kills another in the course of committing a misdemeanor is guilty

of manslaughter in the first degree. The factory owners claimed that they were not

the owners of the building and therefore not subject to these laws. Judge O’Sullivan stated that:

Every consideration of the law on the subject convinces me that the owners

of a factory are liable for a violation of the provisions of section 80 of the

Labor Law.

Defendants also argued that these sections of the Labor Law deprived them of their property without due

process of law. In response, Judge O’Sullivan stated that:

A well-recognized function of the police power, however, extends to the

protection of the lives, health and quiet of all persons. The courts have

frequently said that the mere fact that the legislation is harsh and that hard

cases might arise under the law affords no ground for declaring it invalid.

Here, the end in view is the protection of factory employees and it is not a

harsh or unreasonable provision of law which requires that owners of a

factory shall keep the doors thereto unlocked during working hours, nor is

the enforcement of such law any invasion of constitutional rights.

Again, the Judge disallowed the challenge to this count.

The third count charged the defendants with manslaughter in the first degree. It alleged that the

failure of defendants to keep their factory in a safe condition for their employees constitutes a public

nuisance which is a misdemeanor by the provisions of the Penal Law. Specifically, the count alleges that

the defendants allowed great quantities of flammable remnants and cloth clippings, dirt, lint and rubbish to

Judge Thomas C. O’Sullivan,

Court of General Sessions

Empire State Notables 1914

http://www.archive.org/

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remain in the factory and that these materials also obstructed the passageways to the doors of the factory, and

that these actions constituted a public nuisance that resulted in death. Judge O’Sullivan stated that:

The generally accepted idea of a public nuisance is one which has come

down to us through the common law. While the commonly accepted theory

of a public nuisance has been that it affected the community at large, it was

nevertheless a nuisance if it affected any considerable portion of a

community . . . . But the common law in its progress has been applied to

new conditions as they present themselves. It is not an inflexible

instrument which will not bend to correct a wrong because precedent is

lacking.

Judge O’Sullivan then went on to describe a factory as a public place. This was a distinct departure from

prior thinking that had considered factories as private spaces. It brought the condition of the factory within

the ambit of section 1530 of the Penal Law and as Judge O’O’Sullivan wrote:

If in that way the defendants rendered a considerable number of persons

insecure in life, they maintained a public nuisance according to the terms

of section 1530, which provides that a public nuisance consists in

unlawfully doing an act which in any way renders a considerable number

of persons insecure in life. The Penal Law provides that one who

maintains a public nuisance is guilty of a misdemeanor. The allegations

of this count charge that the defendants, while engaged in the commission

of a misdemeanor, feloniously caused the death of the decedent.

Accordingly, Judge O’Sullivan did not allow the defendants

challenge to this count.

The fourth count of the indictment charged the defendants

with manslaughter in the second degree. Judge O’Sullivan held that

this count merely stated general allegations of negligence and legal

conclusions and he allowed the defendantss challenge. The fifth and

sixth counts charged the defendants with manslaughter in the second

degree and alleged that by reason of the defendants’ gross and culpable negligence, the deceased was

prevented from leaving the factory in safety when the fire broke out. The last count alleged that through

defendants' culpable negligence, the fires spread with great speed and violence throughout the factory, killing

Examining the Bodies at the Scene of the Fire

International Ladies Garment Workers Union

Archives,

The Constitutions of the United States and the State of New York guarantee defendants in

criminal trials and litigants in civil trials the right to a trial by jury. The New York State Judiciary Law

states that all litigants have the right to juries selected from a fair cross section of the community and that

all eligible citizens shall have both the opportunity and the obligation to serve. A criminal trial is a

process for establishing whether the prosecutor has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that an individual

is legally guilty of a crime. Juries are selected through a questioning process known as “voir dire.” The

lawyers, and sometimes the judge, ask questions to decide whether or not each juror should serve on a

particular case. The questions are intended to learn whether an individual has any bias or personal

knowledge that could hinder his or her ability to judge a case impartially. In a criminal trial, the voir dire

questioning is always recorded by the court reporter. For a criminal felony trial, there are 12 jurors plus

up to six alternates. Alternate jurors are necessary in case a juror must be excused due to an emergency.

After the voir dire is completed, the jurors selected to try the case will be sworn in. Each juror pledges to

act fairly and impartially and follow the law that is explained by the judge. The trial judge then explains

the jurors’ responsibilities and some of the legal concepts that apply to the case. The judge’s

explanations are called preliminary instructions and include the requirements that jurors not read or listen

to news accounts of the trial, not visit the scene of an alleged offense, not conduct any research about

issues in the case including use of the Internet, and not discuss the case with anyone (including other

members of the jury) until all the evidence has been presented and the jury retires to deliberate.

After the judge’s preliminary instructions, the lawyers make opening statements to the jury. The

opening statement presents the issues in the case from one side’s point of view. In a criminal trial, the

prosecutor’s opening statement outlines the charges and evidence that will be offered. Because the

burden of proof in a criminal trial is on the prosecution and the defendant is presumed to be innocent, the

defense is not required to make an opening statement, but may choose to do so. The judge may allow

jurors to submit written questions for witnesses. The judge decides whether or not to ask each question

submitted by a juror. Each side has an opportunity to present witnesses, to cross-examine the witnesses

presented by the other side, and to present other evidence. Additionally in a criminal trial, the defense is

not required to put on witnesses or to present any evidence at all. Usually, each lawyer will make a

closing argument—a summation of that side’s point of view about the evidence and the decisions the

lawyer would like the jury to make.

Following the closing statements, the judge explains the laws that apply to the case and

the issues the jury is to consider. These remarks by the judge are called the jury instructions and after

receiving the instructions, the jurors go to a jury room to deliberate. The jury reviews the evidence

which was presented. The jurors discuss their views about this information. If questions arise during

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the deceased. The Judge held that whether the decedents were burned to death through the culpable

negligence of the defendants was a question of fact for the jury and he disallowed the defendants’ challenges

to these counts.

The Trial

Now that the indictment had withstood the defendants’ challenges, the case went to trial on the first

indictment, relating to the death of Margaret Schwartz, a young woman who died while trying to exit through

the Washington Place door. Judge Thomas C. T. Crain presided, and a jury of twelve men was selected.

deliberations, or if there is a need for further instructions or to have testimony read, the foreperson may

send a written request to the judge through the court officer. The judge will ask all parties to return to

the courtroom to be present when a jury’s question is addressed. In a criminal case, a finding that the

defendant is guilty or not guilty must be by unanimous vote of the jury.

(New York State Unified Court System. Trial Juror’s Handbook [2009].

http://www.nyjuror.gov/users/wwwucs/pdfs/hb_Petit.pdf)

Von Drehle. supra note 9, at 222.

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Under the law at that time, all jurors were male. The prosecutor was

Charles F. Bostwick, a former Assemblyman and Columbia Law School

professor, a formal man of old New England ancestry. He sought to prove

that Harris and Blanck were guilty of homicide, primarily because a first

conviction for breach of the Labor Code at that time would result only in

a fine of $50. Conditions in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company did not

differ materially from conditions in other factories and were in line with

“industry standard.” Thus, it was necessary to show some more egregious

conduct on the part of Harris and Blanck. Accordingly, the prosecution set out to prove that Harris and

Blanck caused the victims' deaths by locking the door to the factory while the

workers were still on the premises.

The defendants were represented by Max D. Steuer. A Jewish immigrant

from Eastern Europe, he had worked in the garment industry when he first arrived

in New York. By the time of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, he was

considered the most brilliant, controversial and feared defense attorney in New

York. His cross-examination in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire trial was considered one of the greatest

of his career. The New Yorker magazine described him as neither unvirtuous nor unjust but as the spirit of

partisanship, ruthless, mechanical, passionately cold. And morality is quite outside the matter. He is

reputed to have had a photographic and phonographic memory. In the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire case,

International Ladies Garment Workers Union

Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell University

Max D. Steuer

Otto Obermaier, The Golden Years. 16 Litigation 47 (Fall 1989).

Douglas Linder, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Trial at 4.

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1024289

Richard A. Greenwald, The Triangle Fire, the Protocols of Peace, and Industrial Democracy,

at 151 (2003).

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these traits came to the fore: sensing that the prosecution’s principal witness's testimony was too polished

for a young immigrant girl who spoke English as a second language, he set out to prove that the prosecutor

had told the witness what to say. The prosecution countered by asking the witness, Kate Alterman, why

her testimony (which she was required by Steuer to repeat over and over again) was repetitious and she

replied, “I tried to tell him the same thing because he asked me the same thing over and over.” Still, Steuer

managed to play on the gender and class biases of the time and raised questions about Alterman's credibility.

Through the testimony of several defense witnesses, Steuer also actively sought to prove that Harris and

Blanck did not know that the doors were locked and had not ordered them locked. Furthermore, he claimed,

the death and injuries resulted from the girls’ panic rather than from unsafe conditions.

The trial lasted over three weeks and 155 witnesses testified. The trial judge, Thomas C. T. Crain,

a descendant of Mayflower settlers, was closely allied with Tammany Hall. Earlier in his career, he had

been the Tenement House Commissioner. The purpose of that commission was to ensure the safety of

New York’s slums. A fire broke out in a tenement in which twenty people, many of them children, died.

The coroner’s jury censored the Commission for safety violations and Commissioner Crain was forced to

resign. Now, he presided over a trial in which the fact pattern was strikingly similar. This would not be

acceptable today.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, it was common for New York trial court judges to make

extensive use of jury instructions and directed verdicts to preserve the traditional common law employer’s

Randolph E. Bergstrom, Courting Danger: Injury and Law in New York City, 1870-1910

(1992).

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defenses against the rising tide of worker’s claims for compensation for workplace accidents. Judge Crain

instructed the jury as follows:

You must be satisfied from the evidence, among other things, before you

can find these defendants guilty of the crime of manslaughter in its first

degree not merely that the door was locked, if it was locked, but that it was

locked during the period mentioned under circumstances bringing

knowledge of that fact to these defendants.

On Wednesday, December 27, 1911, the jury retired to deliberate. The judge’s instructions

effectively required that the jurors find that Harris and Blanck knew that the Washington Place door was

locked at the specific time of the fire, on the date of the fire, and that had it been unlocked, the victim,

Margaret Schwartz, would have lived. In the jury room, the foreman immediately suggested that they take

a vote: eight voted for acquittal, two for conviction and two abstained. Less than two hours later, on the

fourth ballot, the jurors in favor of conviction changed their vote resulting in a unanimous decision to acquit.

Later, one of the jurors, Victor Steinman, stated:

I believed that the door was locked at the time of the fire but we couldn’t

find them guilty unless we believed that they knew the door was locked.

The verdict caused outrage, as reflected in this excerpt from a New York Tribune story:

The monstrous conclusion of the law is that the slaughter was no

one’s fault, that it could not be helped, or perhaps even that, in the

fine legal phrase which is big enough to cover a multitude of defects

of justice, it was “an act of God!” This conclusion is revolting to the

moral sense of the community.

Double Jeopardy

Bowing to public pressure, the prosecutors, with the support of District

Attorney Whiteman, appeared before Justice Samuel Seabury (later a judge on the

New York Court of Appeals, candidate for Governor and chair of the Seabury

Commissions on corruption in government) in the Criminal branch of the Supreme

Judge Samuel Seabury

Court of Appeals Collection

Greenwald, supra note 19, at 152.

McEvoy, supra note 3, at 639.

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Court on March 7, 1912, and moved for another trial. This time, the charge was the manslaughter of another

victim of the fire, Jake Kline. A special jury was empaneled, and the second trial commenced. However,

Judge Seabury, citing principle of double jeopardy, instructed the jury:

The court has neither the right nor the power to proceed with the present

trial. These men are to be tried for the same offense again and under our

constitution and laws, this cannot be done. I charge you, gentlemen of the

jury, to find a verdict for the defendants.

The jury found as Justice Seabury had directed without deliberating. Double jeopardy is an ancient legal

concept found in Roman Law and, from the 13 century onward, in the English common law. It is enshrined

in the United States Constitution (5th Amendment) and in the New York State Constitution (Article 1,

section 6). It provides that no person shall be prosecuted or sentenced twice for the same offense. As applied

to the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, it barred the prosecution from pursuing a second trial based on the

deaths of different victims of that same fire.

The Civil Suits

Twenty-three civil suits were filed against Harris and Blanck by the victims’ families claiming, in

total, some $500,000. Without a guilty verdict in the criminal case, the civil litigation became more

difficult. Again, Harris and Blanck hired Max Steuer to defend them. Steuer

raised a host of common law employers’ defenses, such as claiming that the

workers assumed all the risks and dangers of their employment and that whatever

injuries they suffered were caused by the negligence and carelessness of their

fellow workers. As pointed out by Crystal Eastman (a young labor activist) in

an article related to her 1907 study of workplace injury and death, the courts at

that time had concluded that there were implied terms in an employment contract under which the worker

Juanita Hadwin Lantern Slide

Collection, Kheel Center, Cornell

University

Crystal Eastman. Work-Accidents and the Law, at 170 (1910).

McEvoy, supra note 4, at 641.

Id. at 640.

John M Hoenig, The Triangle Fire of 1911, History Magazine, (April/May 2005).

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assumed the ordinary dangers of the work, extraordinary dangers of which the worker was aware, and

dangers resulting from the actions of fellow workers. Thus, employee litigants had to prove “direct,

individual, mechanical causal connection between the employer and the injured worker.” In the case of

Margaret Schwartz, her heirs would have had to prove that it was the locked door and not the panic of her

co-workers that caused her death. The only case that went to trial was brought by Anna Gulla, a survivor

who claimed compensation for “nervous disease” she suffered as a result of the fire. The trial lasted two

days; the jury did not agree on a verdict and the case was dismissed. The families, most of them poverty-

stricken, were overwhelmed by the necessities of earning a living and could not afford the cost of litigation.

Shortly after the Gulla verdict, all settled with the Asch Building owners for $75 for each life lost. But

Harris and Blanck had insured the factory against loss, and the amount paid by the insurance company to

Blanck and Harris amounted to about $400 per victim. None of that money was paid to the survivors or

the heirs of those who had perished in the fire. In 1913, Blanck was once again arrested for locking the door

in his factory during working hours. He was fined $20.

These cases illustrate clearly the ongoing dynamic between the common law and social change. In

Judge O’Sullivan’s opinion, we see how the principles of law can be extended to cover new situations. Judge

O’Sullivan, relying on existing case law, logically extends existing precedent to cover the dangerous working

conditions that developed in the factories and mills at the turn of the twentieth century. Conversely, Judge

Crain adhered strictly to existing precedent on employer liability and rejected arguments that would have

acknowledged that employers control the workplace and should have ameliorated the dangerous conditions

Harlan F. Stone. The Common Law in the United States, 50 Harv. L. Rev. 4, 10. (1936-1937).

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that existed there. Chief Justice Harlan Stone described the process at the Harvard

Law School Conference on the Common Law:

The skill, resourcefulness and insight with which judges and

lawyers weigh competing demands of social advantage, not

unmindful that continuity and symmetry of the law are themselves

such advantages, and with which they make their choice among

them in determining whether precedents shall be extended or

restricted, chiefly give the measure or the vitality of the common

law system and its capacity for growth.

In time, the common law could have adapted to the need to protect workers

and, case by case, the new societal challenges could have been accommodated by

the common law. However, in those years that we now call “the age of industrial violence,” public outrage

demanded an immediate solution that was more readily achievable through legislation.

The Reform Movement

The inability of the authorities to hold anyone accountable for the deaths of 146 young men and

women led prominent civic and religious leaders, reformers and teachers to form a Committee on Safety. It

served as a clearinghouse for information on fire safety and pressed for an

investigation into the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. The Committee on Safety

worked closely with the New York Consumer's League which had experience in

promoting worker protection initiatives and in lobbying for better working hours

and conditions. The league was headed by Frances Perkins and her role in the

reform movement is indeed remarkable. In New York, women did not have the

vote until 1917 and, as we have seen, were not permitted to participate in jury

service and other civic roles. Yet, Frances Perkins was a major force behind

the enactment of legislation to protect working men and women , initially in

Judge Harlan F. Stone

Library of Congress Collection

Frances Perkins as a Young Woman

http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/mono-regsafepart07.htm.

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New York in the second decade of the 20 century, and later in Washington, D.C., when she served as Labor

Secretary in President Roosevelt’s administration.

The Committee on Safety, the New York Consumer's League and other like-minded organizations

brought pressure to bear on Governor John Dix, Assemblyman Alfred E. Smith, and Robert F. Wagner, the

Democratic Leader in the Senate that resulted in the appointment of a nine-member

New York State Factory Investigating Commission in June, 1911.

Al Smith, who became Speaker of the Assembly in 1913 and later went on

to become Governor of New York and the 1928 Democratic candidate for President

of the United States, was born in a tenement on Manhattan’s South Street. He

knew of the hard life of the poor through personal

experience–while in elementary school, he worked as a

newsboy to supplement the family income and when he

was twelve, his father’s death forced him to leave school to support his family. At

fifteen, his job at the Fulton Fish Market required him to work a 13-hour day, from

4:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Robert Wagner’s family immigrated to the United States from Prussia,

Germany when he was eight years old. They settled in New York city where

Robert attended public school. Like Al Smith, he sold newspapers after school to

help support himself. Wagner became Chair of the Factory Investigation and Al Smith became Vice- Chair.

The Commission had unusually broad powers and scope: it had the authority to summon witnesses to testify

under oath and had a mandate to look into fire hazards, unsanitary conditions, occupational diseases,

effectiveness of factory inspection, tenement manufacturing, in addition to many other matters.

Assembly Majority Leader

Alfred E. Smith

Library of Congress Collection

New York Senator Robert F.

Wagner

New York Red Book, 1918

Id.

http://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2005/2005_10-19/2005_10-19/2005-12/history.html.

-17-

The Commission appointed directors for each investigation (one of whom was Frances Perkins) to

carry out on-site inspections of factories and other work sites. It conducted the most intensive study of

industry ever undertaken in the United States. In addition to safety problems, the Commission also

uncovered widespread violations of the child labor

laws. Surprise raids on businesses that denied

employing young children often found the employers

attempting to evacuate the children from the plant by

rear doors or to hide them in sheds and elevators. To

show that business was viable without worker

exploitation, Perkins took the Commissioners to visit

model factories that were profitable while still

operating according to high safety standards.

Much of the success of the Factory Investigating Commission is attributable to the distinguished and

dedicated group of people who served as members or staff. As we have seen, two of the most powerful

legislators of the day, Robert Wagner and Alfred E. Smith, were chairman and vice-chairman of the

Commission, and they were crucial in ensuring that the Commission's recommendations became law. Also

pivotal was Abram Elkus, chief counsel to the Commission and later a judge of the New York Court of

Appeals. Through sharp and persistent questioning of witnesses and his commitment to gathering scientific

facts, Elkus drew public attention to the dangers workers faced not only from fire but also from "the less

obvious but greater menace of unsanitary conditions" and industrial diseases. Elkus stressed that these

Time card showing 117.5 hours

worked in one week.

New York State Archives

Young Boy at W ork (New York

State Investigation Commission)

New York State Archives

http://www.archives.nysed.gov

NY FIC 1912, II, 5-10.

http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_bus_guide_history.shtml.

http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/mono-regsafepart07.htm.

-18-

problems needed to be addressed not only because of humanitarian considerations, but also because they

diminished the productivity of the economy and caused workers and their families to fall into poverty.

The information collected by the Commission and staff was compiled into several reports, including

"The Fire Hazard in Factory Buildings" and "Sanitation of Factories," published in the Preliminary Report

of the Factory Investigating Commission (1912). It recommended registration of all factories with the

Department of Labor, licensing of all food manufacturers, medical examinations of food workers, medical

supervision in dangerous trades, and better eating, washing, and toilet facilities. The Commission

recommended an increase in stairwells and exits, installation of fire walls, fireproof construction, prohibition

of smoking in factories, fire extinguishers, alarm systems, and automatic sprinklers. The Commission's other

reports summarized investigations and made recommendations concerning women factory workers, child

labor in tenements, and occupational diseases such as lead and arsenic poisoning.

In all, the Factory Investigating Commission held 59 public hearings around the state. As reported

by the U. S. Department of Labor, the Commission

took testimony from 472 witnesses, including employers, workers, union

officials and technical experts. Their testimony filled over 7,000 pages.

Commission staff investigated 3,385 workplaces in industries ranging from

meat packing plants, bakeries and clothing manufacturers to the chemical

industry and the lead trades. The commissioners personally visited 50

plants. While the bulk of the voluminous reports of the commission was

filled with individual testimony, there were also special reports by experts

covering fire safety, building construction, machine guarding, heating,

lighting, ventilation and other topics. There were also studies on specific

industries, such as chemicals, lead trades, metal trades, printing shops,

sweatshops and mercantile establishments.

The Commission concluded that the New York Labor Law needed to be fundamentally changed and

that the Department of Labor should be reorganized. Among the recommendations was the creation of a

www.archives.nysed.gov/altformats/GuidesHistRecs/factory.txt

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Bureau of Inspection to centralize inspection work, a Division of Industrial Hygiene, and a Section of

Medical Inspection. In 1913, a number of the Commission's recommendations became law, including

reorganization of the Department of Labor, prohibition of night work for women, and fire prevention, safety,

and health regulations. The Commission's work represented a new level of government involvement in and

regulation of labor conditions. Frances Perkins described the influence of New York’s Factory Investigating

Commission:

the extent to which the legislation in New York marked a change in

American political attitudes and policies toward social responsibility can

scarcely be overrated. It was, I am convinced, a turning point.

In 1918, Perkins accepted Governor Alfred E. Smith's offer to join the New York State Industrial

Commission, becoming its first female member. She became chairwoman of the Commission in 1926 and

in 1929, the newly-elected New York governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, appointed Perkins as the State

Industrial Commissioner. Perkins helped put New York in the forefront of progressive reform—she

expanded factory investigations, reduced the work week for women

to 48 hours, and championed minimum wage and unemployment

insurance laws.

Another person pivotal to the workers’ rights movement

was Crystal Eastman. Like Frances Perkins, she was a trailblazer

for women’s participation in public life. Like Frances Perkins, she

started her career at a time when women were subject to

considerable social constraint and were unable to vote or be part of

a jury. Described as “one of the United States’ most neglected

Crystal Eastman as a Young Woman

Library of Congress Collection

Society of American Historians. The Reader's Companion to American History, at 307 (1991).

Ives v South Buffalo Ry., 201 NY 271 (1911).

-20-

leaders," she was a 1907 graduate of New York University Law School. She immediately found work

investigating labor conditions for The Pittsburgh Survey sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation.

Eastman’s report, Work Accidents and the Law, became a classic, and, in 1909, Governor Charles Evan

Hughes appointed her to the New York State Employers Liability Commission. The only woman on the

Commission, Eastman was elected its secretary (a very powerful position) and almost singlehandedly

undertook the drafting of the Workmen’s Compensation Law. The report, of which she was the principal

author, The First Report of the New York State Liability Commission, was published in 1910. It analyzed

workplace deaths and accidents in New York, and led to the introduction of three bills in the Legislature.

The first eliminated the common law employers’ defenses; a second provided for compulsory compensation

for those engaged in dangerous enterprises; and the third provided that workers and employers in other trades

could include provisions in their contracts for workers’ compensation. The nation’s first workers’

compensation program was adopted in New York (Laws of 1910, ch 674). In March, 1911, however, New

York’s highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, held that the statute—“plainly revolutionary”

compared to prevailing common law standards—deprived employers of property rights without due process

and was therefore unconstitutional. But in November 1913, the people of New York voted to adopt an

amendment to the Constitution. This amendment, Article 1, section 18, provides that “[n]othing contained

in this constitution shall be construed to limit the power of the legislature to enact laws for the protection of

the lives, health or safety of employees.” Eastman’s goal had been achieved!

The present-day New York State Workers Compensation Board traces its history back almost a full

century and to a tragic fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City . . . the fire galvanized labor

http://www.wcb.state.ny.us/content/main/TheBoard/history.jsp

The Frances Perkins Building is the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the United States

Department of Labor. A Social Security Administration profile of Frances Perkins notes "that she

overcame the restrictions and prejudices of her era and established herself as the equal of any person, in

areas then virtually dominated by men. She was an outstanding career woman, but more importantly, an

outstanding individual and a public official whose work profoundly changed the lives of all Americans."

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and led to many reforms in safety, health, and labor laws. More to the point, it helped lead to the workers'

compensation system both here in New York and across the country.”

The Federal Initiatives

Crystal Eastman continued to work in the field of occupational health and safety but this time at the

federal level. In 1913, during the Woodrow Wilson administration, she was appointed an investigating

attorney with the U. S. Commission on Industrial Relations, a position she held for two years. The

Commission had been created in 1912 during the Taft administration to investigate and report on conditions

in industry that gave rise to labor problems, including conflict between employers and employees that often

erupted in violence and strikes. Better industrial relations were seen as the solution to labor problems. It

produced a report in 1916 that comprised eleven volumes and tens of thousands of pages of testimony, not

only from scores of ordinary workers but also from major employers such as Daniel Guggenheim, George

Perkins (of U.S. Steel), Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie, and workers' advocates including Clarence

Darrow, Louis Brandeis, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, Theodore Schroeder and William "Big Bill"

Haywood. In the end, though, the Commission could not agree on conclusions to be drawn from the data and

issued three “final” reports representing different factions.

When Franklin Roosevelt became President in 1933, Frances Perkins became the U.S. Secretary of

Labor, the first woman to hold a cabinet position, and by virtue of her office, the first woman in the

presidential line of succession. She held the position for twelve years, and worked to put in place the federal

labor legislation of the New Deal era, including laws governing minimum wages, unemployment insurance

Statement of the Committee, August 1934.

Matthew C. Price. Justice Between Generations: The Growing Power of the Elderly in

America, at 28 (1997).

-22-

and the regulation of child labor. In 1934, while serving in the Cabinet, she was made chairwoman of the

President's Committee on Economic Security. This committee drew up a report that became the basis for the

Social Security Act, aimed at protecting Americans from dependancy and distress. The proposed insurance-

based program would provide old age, survivors, and disability benefits. Although it was considered radical,

it nonetheless had popular support in a nation scarred by the Depression and a petition in favor of the

measure drew 20 million signatories. But the proposal caused consternation in the business community

where there was concern that business would end up paying for it.

The constitutional basis of the Social Security Act was a cause

of concern for the Committee but a social invitation provided a solution

to the problem. While Frances Perkins was involved in drafting the

legislation, she accepted

an invitation for tea with

the wife of then-Associate Justice

Harlan Stone. She found herself seated next to Justice Stone

and took the opportunity to express her reservations. In her

memoirs, she describes how Justice Stone leaned over and

whispered, “The taxing power of the federal government, my

dear; the taxing power is sufficient for everything you need.”

She told the President of the advice and insisted the Committee use the government's taxing power as the

Justice and M rs. Stone

Supreme Court Historical Society

President Roosevelt Signing Into Law the Social Security Act

Frances Perkins stands behind him.

U.S. Social Security Administration

-23-

method of building up the fund. The Social Security Act was signed into law on August 14, 1935. The

Committee’s concerns about the constitutionality of the Social Security Act were realized. By the October

1936 term of the United States Supreme Court, no fewer than three challenges were before the Justices. One

case, Helvering v Davis, challenged the old age insurance program and two others, the Steward Machine

Company and Carmichael v Southern Coal & Coke Co. and Gulf States Paper, challenged the unemployment

compensation program. On May 24, 1937, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the three cases.

Justice Cardozo (formerly Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals)

wrote the majority opinion in the first two cases. In Helvering, the Court ruled

7-2 in support of the old-age insurance program. In his opinion, Justice

Cardozo stated:

But the ill is all one or at least not greatly different whether

men are thrown out of work because there is no longer work

to do or because the disabilities of age make them incapable

of doing it. Rescue becomes necessary irrespective of the

cause. The hope behind this statute is to save men and women

from the rigors of the poor house as well as from the haunting

fear that such a lot awaits them when journey's end is near.

The unemployment compensation provisions, however, were more

hotly disputed within the Court, and the ruling in Steward was closer, 5-4 in support of the unemployment

compensation provisions. Again, the opinion was written by Justice Cardozo, who stated:

During the years 1929 to 1936, when the country was passing through a

cyclical depression, the number of the unemployed mounted to

unprecedented heights. Often the average was more than 10 million; at

times a peak was attained of 16 million or more. Disaster to the

breadwinner meant disaster to dependents. Accordingly the roll of the

unemployed, itself formidable enough, was only a partial roll of the

destitute or needy. The fact developed quickly that the states were unable

to give the requisite relief. The problem had become national in area and

dimensions. There was need of help from the nation if the people were not

to starve. It is too late today for the argument to be heard with tolerance

that in a crisis so extreme the use of the moneys of the nation to relieve the

unemployed and their dependents is a use for any purpose narrower than

the promotion of the general welfare. The nation responded to the call of

the distressed.

Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo

Library of Congress

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Justice Harlan Stone was the author of the opinion in the Carmichael case. Decided by a majority

of 8-1, it, too, upheld the constitutionality of the statute. In his opinion, Justice Stone stated:

The evils of the attendant social and economic wastage permeate the entire

social structure. Apart from poverty, or a less extreme impairment of the

savings which afford the chief protection to the working class against old

age and the hazards of illness, a matter of inestimable consequence to

society as a whole, and apart from the loss of purchasing power, the

legislature could have concluded that unemployment brings in its wake

increase in vagrancy and crimes against property, reduction in the number

of marriages, deterioration of family life, decline in the birth rate, increase

in illegitimate births, impairment of the health of the unemployed and their

families and malnutrition of their children.

Yet another New Yorker with ties to the Triangle Shirtwaist factory

fire reform movement went on to play an important role in federal

government. He was Robert Wagner, who you will remember, played such

a vital part in the New York Factory Commission. In February 1935, he was

a United States Senator. He and Frances Perkins worked together on the bill

that would become the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, another piece

of the New Deal legislation. The Wagner Bill proposed the creation of a new independent agency—the

National Labor Relations Board. Composed of three members appointed by the President and confirmed by

the Senate, its mandate was to enforce employee rights rather than to mediate disputes. It gave employees

the right to form and join unions, and it obligated employers to bargain collectively with unions selected by

a majority of the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit. The measure endorsed the principles of

exclusive representation and majority rule, provided for enforcement of the Board's rulings, and covered most

workers in industries whose operations affected interstate commerce. It was signed into law by President

Roosevelt on July 5, 1935. Described as the law that has most affected the relationship between the federal

government and private enterprise, the National Labor Relations Act was perhaps the single most important

U.S. Senator Robert F. Wagner

United States Congress Collection

Deborah A. Ballam. The Law as a Constitutive Force for Change, Part II: The Impact of the

National Labor Relations Act on the U.S. Labor Movement. 32 American Business Law Journal 447

(1995).

Id.

-25-

legal development affecting labor in this century. By passing the act, Congress sought to address industrial

strife by creating a framework in which industrial disputes could be resolved peacefully under government

auspices.

The Legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

Perhaps only a tragedy on the scale of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire could bring the woeful

working conditions in factories and mills to the attention of the general population. Once people realized

the dangers to which working people, including children, were regularly exposed, a huge cry for reform was

heard, first in New York and later nationwide. Our working lives today are controlled by the legislation

drafted in the aftermath of the fire and we, as New Yorkers, can look with pride to the role that New York

played in the workers’rights movement.

On March 25, 1961, the 50 anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, a moving ceremony

was held at the Asch Building. With Eleanor Roosevelt accompanying them, Frances Perkins, Rose

Schneiderman and 12 survivors of the fire returned to the scene of the tragedy. Now, on the hundredth

anniversary, we can read the plaque placed by the survivors in memory of the 146 co-workers who lost their

lives.

Out of their martyrdom came new concepts of social responsibility and

labor legislation that have helped make American working conditions the

finest in the world.