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The progressive era quizlet
The progressive era quizlet
How progressive era changed america
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On March 25, 1911, a fire started at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory that claimed the lives of one hundred and forty-six workers. As a result of the fire, trials and debates occurred that contended the factory owners right to control their business against their duty to implement safe working conditions for their employees. Despite the trial resulting in no charges for the business owners the triangle fire is responsible for stricter safety codes and brought attention on the labor movement. In order to fully understand the changes that resulted because of the shirtwaist fire, you must first know what life was life prior to the fire.
At this time in 1911 the treatment of factory workers was not strictly regulated. Factory and labor laws were not stringently enforced and lacked proper structure. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was comprised of about 600 women and 100 men, many of whom were immigrants who spoke little English. The actions that led to the fire, what transpired during the incident and the events after, are significant in the history of New York City and our nation, especially considering
Could the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory have been prevented? I am not going to answer that question just yet. Without assessing all of the information to prevent the making of unfounded accusations. First things first you may be asking yourself what a Triangle Shirtwaist is. A triangle shirtwaist is a type of blouse that many women wore in the early 1900's.
Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, should have been held accountable for the 146 deaths on that Saturday afternoon. They shared a similar story; both had immigrated from Russia to the United States in the early 1890s and entered the garment industry. After a decade, they met and entered a partnership that would capitalize from Harris’ experience from being a tailor and Blanck’s business sense. When they opened up the Triangle Factory, the shirtwaist became popular among New York’s working women because it 's looser and more liberating than the Victorian bodices. Harris knew what was popular and how to make it more affordable and Blanck frequently met with potential buyers and traveled to stores that
The Fire That Changed America is a historical monograph discusses the rise of labor reforms along with the Progressive Movement throughout the state of New York during the early 1900’s, and pushes forward the argument that the fire which decimated the Triangle Waist Company was vital to the entrance of laws advocated by unions that protect the safety of workers. Drehle himself is a journalist, a former editor of Time Magazine, and a frequent visitor of American History in most of his works. The fire at Triangle was a devastating tragedy, but its sheer scale caused incredibly welcoming effects on the common workplace. Before the fire, labor unions that belonged to the progressive movement were only able to secure “a pay raise, [and] a fifty-two hour work week” for a pitifully limited number of workers, as the
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a devastating fire that killed 146 girls in New York City (Leap for Life, Leap for Death). At this time, citizens of New York were furious and demanded that the government do something to prevent future tragedies. The government responded and the reforms that the government made, it changed the future of New York industry. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, one of history’s deadliest fires, came as a result of outrageously unsafe working conditions, led to a high death toll and injury total, but, ultimately resulted in reforms that helped safeguard future factory workers.
Furthermore, the thesis of this book is proven by the author. He uses many details of the things that occurred during the fire to demonstrate how horrific this disaster was. For example, he states,
Those on the ninth had no warning until the flames engulfed them. There was a telephone call up to the tenth floor that saved Blanck and Harris’s lives. Girls burnt, people fell and tumbled to their deaths. The scene was horrific.
The infamous men did not follow the few safety regulations that were in place at that time. Considered the “worst shop,” these avaricious owners cared nothing for their workers safety and only for making profit. The despicable owners thought of the workers as replaceable machines, and if broken, could be easily replaced (Document 18 and Document 23). Many people claim that the turning point in American history was on March 25, 1911 when a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the The Shirtwaist Factory. Due to the nature and position of the fire on the eighth floor, the workers had little to no chance of escape.
The detrimental Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is considered to be one of the most tragic disasters in history. On March 25th, 1911, a fire broke out and killed 146 garment workers who were mostly women. These women worked countless hours with low wages and inhumane working conditions in a factory. Even though this event was tragic, the triangle shirtwaist fire helped to shape the new world for the better. The multitude of workers trapped within the inferno to their demise was the final straw for the mistreatment of America’s workers.
This dry climate caused the wooden buildings to become incredibly dry, allowing the fire to spread quickly once it began (Bauer). These factors triggered the formation of convection whirls, walls of fire over one hundred feet high which spun violently like a hurricane. A witness described the
This was the beginning of when several women organizations demanded better and safer working conditions in clothing factories, this included Alva Belmont who was the ex-wife of William Vanderbilt. This soon brought the attention to President Franklin D. Roosevelt who used the Triangle Fire as an example “the government needed to regulate industry.” (“Give me Liberty” Pg. 682) This later led to factory inspection law as well as fire safety code. This was the beginning of the Progressive Era, “by 1920, for the first time, more Americans lived in towns and cities than in rural areas.
One of the first characterized movements of the Progressive Era occurred after a fire erupted in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company on March 25th, 1911. A fire that enclosed the top three floors of the Shirtwaist Company killed more than 100 employees, after recognizing that sweatshops did not have proper laws or regulations that would ensure the safety of their workers. This tragic event led to the installment of smoke alarms, the importance of signage, and the need to have working fire trucks, all steps towards the Progressive Era. During this era, the economy was growing, industrial production increased, and the population boomed. This ultimately leads to the expansion of the consumer market, in which a new generation of employees emerged, specifically journalists.
Karen Cortez Professor Bell HIST 1302-81420 September 24, 2017 Written Exercise 2 The progressives were a group of well-educated people who were concerned about the poor working environments of others and wanted to protect consumers and other problems that existed in the 1900’s. In 1911, workers had died in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, some jumped to their deaths while others were burned. Work safety was an important issue for the progressives. Progressives wanted to end corruption and make the government more attentive to the people’s needs.
During the 1910s, there were many exciting and terrifying events. In 1910, a horrible inferno called the Great Fire of 1910 broke out and destroyed a couple million acres of forest. With the Great Fire, one of the heroic firefighters, Edward Pulaski, saved almost all of his crew except The 1910s also had music. Bluegrass, jazz, and scat with many other genres.