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JUNE 1913

VOTES FOR WOMEN; FIRES

Get into a conversation with a long time Queens resident and you're likely to discover a subscriber of the Long Island Star- Journal, a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star Journal masthead reminded readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the Long Island Daily Star (1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal - The Flushing Journal (1841).

Welcome to June 1913!

A new form of entertainment - moving pictures - was in the news in June. We tend to think of silent movies as a phenomenon of the 1920s, but by 1913 stars such as Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore and Lillian Gish were already making films. The new medium was wildly popular. At North Beach, the Palace Music Hall was beginning its summer season of "free Edison moving pictures," and in Whitestone the ground was broken for a new movie house.

On June 5 the Star--Journal described a suffragette rally demanding "Votes for Women!" held in Long Island City, at which the Women’s Political Union took the movies outdoors. Views of a recent suffrage parade down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan were thrown on a screen in front of the Queens County Courthouse. "It is hinted that certain husbands who live less than a hundred miles from the Court House will get a surprise if they watch the screen closely," the Star-Journal noted. "They may see their own wives marching under the yellow banner instead of being at home (where all good wives are supposed to be) while their husbands are attending the game at Recreation Park."

The rally was orderly despite a scare at the Courthouse two days earlier when a Queens County official received what he thought was a suspicious-looking package from a well-known suffragette and the premises were evacuated until it could be investigated. (Fortunately the package turned out to be merely a sample of furniture polish from a company that the enterprising suffragette was endorsing.) The event was declared by the organizers to be "the biggest political meeting seen in Long Island City in recent years. Nearby industries in which girls and women are employed gave their aid to the movement so that the meeting was swelled by a throng of active workers." Organizers handed out free soft drinks, Clysmic Water and Cheer-All, both made by A.D.S., the American Drug Syndicate plant.

A few days later, the A.D.S. plant was in the news again, as the Star-Journal headline from Monday June 9 announced "Long Island City’s Most Costly Fire in 20 Year’s - Total Loss of Sunday’s Blaze May Reach Nearly $400,000." In the early hours of the morning, a catastrophic fire had wiped out the Columbia Paper Bag Company. In addition, "the American Drug Syndicate’s big plant and stock were damaged to the extent of $75,000 or $100,000. The damage might easily have reached a round million dollars had it not been for the efficiency of the automatic sprinkler system installed in the A.D.S. plant."

"The fire companies (it was a four-alarm fire) did good work, but the engines were handicapped by inadequate water pressure. When all the steamers were pumping water from the hydrant for blocks around, the pressure died away to about ten pounds. Had it not been for the powerful streams which three fire boats pumped from Newtown Creek, it is doubtful if the protective qualities of the A.D.S. plant would have been sufficient to meet the emergency. This company employs over 1,000 people and all of them are feeling thankful that they still have their jobs."

Fire safety in factories was a sensitive subject - New York was still feeling the effects of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire only two years earlier. On March 25 1911 New Yorkers had watched in horror as women workers in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory jumped 80 feet to their deaths to escape from a burning building whose doors had been locked by the management. 146 workers, some as young as 14, lost their lives. The Factory Investigating Commission, set up as a result of the tragedy, had spent the last two years probing conditions in New York’s factories and sweatshops and by 1913 was in the process of getting worker protection laws passed, under the leadership of the future Governor of New York, Al Smith.

On June 12 there was a report of another large fire in Long Island City. The plant of the Williamson Chemical Company was completely gutted by the blaze, and losses were estimated at $25,000. With fire so much in the news, the remarks made by Justice Crane in the Queens County Supreme Court were particularly pointed. The Star-Journal’s headline on June 10 read "May Blow Fire Siren - Justice Crane Says Tiffany Furnace Whistle Is Public Necessity - Court Says It Would Rather Save Corona From Possible Destruction Than Assure Lawyer Unperturbed Sleep."

Incredible as it may seem, as late as 1913 the city not yet providing Corona with a fire service. The neighborhood, which was notable for containing a large number of flammable frame houses, was entirely dependent on the services of volunteer firemen. The Tiffany Furnaces, which had been manufacturing lamps and art glass in Corona since 1893, allowed their factory siren to be used as a fire alarm. One resident, a lawyer named Joseph J. Tuohy, had recently obtained an injunction against Tiffany’s siren.

"Justice Crane supported the contention of the volunteer firemen of Corona that the siren at the Tiffany Furnaces, which is blown to alarm the firemen at time of fire in the district, is a necessity, irrespective of whether or not the slumber of the community is disturbed. Mr. Tuohy failed to show that there is another adequate method of summoning the firemen at night time from their homes, says the court, and it leaves a choice of saving Corona from possible destruction or the undisturbed slumber of the plaintiff."

The outburst of fire news caused the Star-Journal to investigate its files for memories of previous infernos. The last "‘big fire’ took place on July 21^st, 1893, almost twenty years ago, when St. Mary’s Church was burned. Old timers will still refer to that conflagration as the greatest thing in the way of fires that ever happened in Queens County. Not only was the church burned, but the rectory and the new parochial church were swept away, too, besides a dozen or two other buildings. In fact, every house on the block bounded by Vernon {Boulevard} and Jackson Avenue and Fourth and Fifth Streets was destroyed with the exception of Mahnken’s drug store."

"That neighborhood was then one of the finest in Long Island City. Across Fifth Street were a number of private residences and some new flats that were considered quite swagger in those days. Dr. J.B. Kennedy had just built them and these and his own home were wiped out by the blaze. The local firemen were severely criticized for allowing the fire to spread to the other side of Fifth Street. Brooklyn fire companies aided materially in preventing the fire from eating up a few more blocks of property."

"Another big fire which old residents recall and the one which was the most spectacular of all was that of August 10, 1880, when the immense yards of the Export Lumber Company at the East River and Newtown Creek caught fire. That fire caused a loss of about $250,000, and it included in its path of destruction several lumber schooners and a number of barges. The glare of the big bonfire could be seen for miles around and for a time the whole lower end of Hunter’s Point was threatened with destruction, including the old Long Island Railroad Depot."

Victims of another fire were memorialized in Middle Village on June 15, 1913. "The bells of the Lutheran Church tolled Sunday afternoon while a gathering of over 2,000 people attended memorial services commemorating the ninth anniversary of the burning of the excursion boat the General Slocum, which occurred on June 15^th, 1904."

When the boat caught fire in the East River 1,071 people died within a few hundred yards of the shores of North Brother Island. It was the largest civilian disaster in New York City before the attacks of September 11, 2001. As would be the case with the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, the burning of the Slocum spurred an investigation into fire safety conditions. A major improvement in steamboat safety regulations would be the result of the tragedy.

That’s the way it was in June 1913.

Compiled by Clare Doyle, Librarian, Greater Astoria Historical Society.