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Shirtwaist workers strike. I had this contact with the factories and their lack of safety, as well as their sanitary conditions and physical conditions. I made investigations into the hours of labor, the effect of long hours, and the effect of night work on women. I was familiar with that aspect of it, but it was my first contact with mass unemployment.

There we had direct contact because the administration was all concerned about the unemployment in the city. It was then that Frank Tannenbaum arose. Someone raised the cry of why couldn't the unemployed go into the churches to sleep? There were these empty buildings at night which were nice and warm with furnaces going. Why should the unemployed sleep in doorways?

You have no idea how tenderhearted the people of New York were. There was no “give them bums the rush” attitude. At least I didn't hear it anyway. The most conservative people were deeply disturbed at the idea that people did sleep outdoors. Young boys slept on the gratings over the subways because there was a little heat coming up there.

The demand began by somebody - I don't know whether Tannenbaum announced it, or somebody in the Hotel de Gink - to sleep in the churches. Tannenbaum led the march up to several churches. Of course they were downtown churches