A Way by Law: Frances Perkins, the Triangle Fire & Social Security | No. 04

On March 25, 1911, Frances Perkins watched workers jump from the burning Triangle Waist Company in New York. Built from archival film, recordings, photographs and documents, we follow her from that deadly and tragic afternoon to the creation of the Social Security Act of 1935 and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, ending with where those laws stand in 2026. // CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 1:32 The other side of the square 5:03 Where they lived 8:15 The commission 11:26 The 54-hour bill 14:22 Not hiring 15:55 The wandering boys 19:08 Secretary of Labor 20:45 The taxing power 23:52 Mrs. Stone’s tea 25:41 We locked the door 27:42 One group after another 31:20 The signing 33:15 Calamity-howling 36:11 Wages and hours 39:18 All wage earners 42:17 Safe forever 44:55 The corner // OFFICIAL INFORMATION Your Social Security earnings record: https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount Wages, hours and child labor: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd State minimum wages: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/mw-c... // MUSIC Alexander Borodin, String Quartet No. 2 in D major: III. Notturno · members of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra String quartets by Beethoven (Op. 18 No. 6, IV), Dvořák (Op. 51, II), Mozart (K. 421, I) and Haydn (Op. 64 No. 5, II) · Musopen String Quartet Franz Schubert, Piano Sonatas D. 664, D. 784, D. 958 and D. 959: slow movements · Paul Pitman Johannes Brahms, Symphonies No. 2, 3 and 4: slow movements · Czech National Symphony Orchestra Felix Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 3 “Scottish”: III. Adagio · Czech National Symphony Orchestra Musopen recordings, public domain (Public Domain Mark 1.0) “Träumerei” (Schumann, arr. Popper) · Boris Hambourg, cello, with Grace Smith, piano · Victor, 1911 · Library of Congress National Jukebox, public domain “In the Gloaming” · McKee Trio · Victor, 1916 · Library of Congress National Jukebox, public domain “Dus schneiderel singt sich a liedele” · Morris Goldstein · Victor, 1923 · Library of Congress National Jukebox, public domain ‘In This Moment’ by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au ‘Phoenix’ by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au ‘Memories Of Stone’ by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au ‘Penumbra’ by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au ‘Wildflowers’ by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au ‘Anabasis I’ by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au Long Note Two Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) / Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Music excerpts edited and rearranged for this film. // MAPS G. W. and W. S. Bromley, Atlas of the City of New York, Borough of Manhattan, 1911 | New York Public Library Kheel Center victims list, Cornell University Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition U.S. Geological Survey maps printed 1909 to 1911 U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line // SOURCES AND ARCHIVES: National Archives · Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum · Harry S. Truman Library · LBJ Presidential Library · Library of Congress (Prints and Photographs Division, Chronicling America, Statutes at Large, U.S. Reports, National Jukebox) · Internet Archive (including Prelinger Archives and Boston College Libraries) · HathiTrust · New York Public Library · Frances Perkins Papers, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries · Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University · Cornell University Library (The Cornell Daily Sun) · Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition · NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection · Social Security Administration History Archives · Oral History Archives at Columbia · U.S. Department of Labor · U.S. Geological Survey · U.S. Government Publishing Office · Supreme Court of the United States · West Virginia Legislature · Indiana Department of Labor · Economic Policy Institute. Signing photograph, FDR Library 53-227(18), by FDR Presidential Library & Museum, https://www.flickr.com/photos/fdrlibr..., licensed CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.... Full list in the pinned comment. Kheel Center, Cornell University, trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu, viewed October 2026 Frances Perkins’s recorded talks of August 15, 1960 (Social Security Administration), March 25, 1961 (WNYC), October 23, 1962 (Social Security Administration) and September 30, 1964 (Cornell University) are excerpted and edited for length. Some archival photographs were digitally upscaled for HD. This film is made from public-domain archival material and credited archival material used under fair use. This film is not monetized. Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/brentfisher #FrancesPerkins #SocialSecurity #trianglefire #voterawareness #socialsecurityunemploymentrights #workersrights #childlabour