The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and its Legacy
Deadly Factory Fire | Investigation | Impact | Additional Resources
Investigation
A superficial investigation immediately following the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire revealed unsafe and unhealthy conditions in numerous factories, including lack of fire prevention and escapes and inadequate sanitary conditions. While firewalls, fire doors, fire escapes, and automatic sprinklers were available to New York City factory owners before the Triangle fire, few if any factories employed them or instituted fire drills. New York State labor laws were lax on some of these issues and gave building inspectors considerable discretion on others. The results of this initial investigation and public pressure following the Triangle fire convinced the Legislature that a full-scale investigation was necessary. The Factory Investigating Commission was established by the New York State Legislature in 1911 (Chapter 561) to carry out this mission.
Click on the thumbnail images below to view the documents more closely.
Data card compiled by the Factory Investigation Commission recording hours of labor of various positions at R. H. Macy and Company in New York City.
You can view an enhanced version of this document in our Digital Collections
You can view an enhanced version of this document in our Digital Collections
You can view an enhanced version of this document in our Digital Collections
Page two of a two-page Factory Investigating Commission agent's report of an interview with Sarah Herman, a female factory worker at Cymrot & Cohen's paper box factory in New York City. The report gives information on Miss Herman's family, housing situation, working conditions, and working hours.
You can view an enhanced version of this document in our Digital Collections
The Commission studied issues related to the health and safety of workers, the condition of the buildings in which they worked, and existing and additional necessary laws and ordinances. The nine-member Commission included Senator Robert F. Wagner (Chair), Assemblyman Alfred E. Smith (Vice-Chair), and American Federation of Labor President Samuel Gompers.
Click on the thumbnail images below to learn more about the Commission.
The New York State Factory Investigating Commission was chaired by State Senate Majority Leader Robert F. Wagner, Sr. First elected to the state legislature at age twenty-seven, Wagner represented a wing of New York City's Tammany Hall political machine that embraced progressive reform. Wagner's success, with the assistance of vice chairman Alfred E. Smith, in pushing through reforms in child labor, safety standards, sanitary regulations, and protection of workers' rights made him immensely popular among New Yorkers. He went on to serve as a justice on the New York State Supreme Court and was elected to the United States Senate in 1926. Serving in the U.S. Senate for twenty-three years, Wagner cooperated closely with the Roosevelt administration in securing passage of landmark New Deal legislation including the National Industrial Recovery Act, the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), and the Social Security Act.
This image is available from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
State Assembly Majority Leader and later Assembly Speaker Alfred E. Smith served as vice chairman of the New York State Factory Investigating Commission. With the support of New York City's Tammany Hall, Smith was first elected to the state assembly in 1903. At the outset of the 1911 legislative session, he was named Assembly Majority Leader as well as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. In 1913, house membership elected Smith Speaker of the Assembly. Smith and commission chairman Robert F. Wagner used their combined power and shared desire for reform to push through the progressive labor legislation for which the Factory Investigating Commission is remembered. Building on his reputation as a progressive reformer, Smith was elected governor in 1918. After suffering defeat in 1920, he triumphed in the 1922, 1924, and 1926 elections, leaving behind a legacy of administrative and social reform. In 1928, he ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, losing to Herbert Hoover.
This image is available from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Among the most influential members of the Factory Investigating Commission was American Federation of Labor President Samuel Gompers. From his early years as a cigar maker, Gompers was committed to trade unionism as the essential vehicle for bringing about social reform. In the 1880s, Gompers played an instrumental role in the establishment of Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU). When FOTLU reorganized in 1886 as the American Federation of Labor, Gompers assumed the role of president, an office he held almost uninterruptedly for forty years. Earlier in his career, he was more committed to economic than political reform as a means to improve the welfare of workers. In time, however, he sought the support of existing political parties for labor reform and mobilized workers in support of sympathetic candidates. Gompers aided the Factory Investigating Commission greatly by rallying the support of labor behind the commission's legislative program. Gompers later served under President Woodrow Wilson as a member of the Council of National Defense and the Commission on International Labor Legislation at the Versailles Peace Conference.
This image is available from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
A letter from the Wall Street Building Association to Robert Wagner, Chairman of the State Factory Investigation Commission, describing the association's love for the newly implemented, cost-effective revolving door that helps block out natural elements and prevent sickness.
You can view an enhanced version of this document in our Digital Collections
