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except Rose Schneiderman, whom I had never seen before. I remember that and I remember a telegram from Mr. Robert Fulton Cutting. He wasn't there, but somewhere in the South. He had been wired to and he said he was wiring not only his condolence and sympathy to the victims but to say that this must be stopped and that the citizens must take voluntary action to prevent fire of this nature and loss of life. He was offering the first $10,000 for a fund to start an organization and a movement to prevent this kind of disaster.

These were the days when nobody expected the government to do anything. The citizens voluntarily came together to repair what damages there were to be repaired, to devise preventive methods, and to insist upon their being carried out. I don't know whether anyone expected at that moment that law would do it, but they certainly embraced the idea that there might be a law which could be properly enforced which would prevent this type of disaster.

Rose Schneiderman spoke and made a very deep impression on me and on many other people, I think. She was very little with bright, fiery red hair. She was a member of the shirtwaistmakers union, which was a small, struggling, ineffective union among the sewing trades. That was before there had been any great amalgamation, or joining together,