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How Did The Triangle Shirtwaist Industrial Revolution

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The growth of large, booming cities and increasing numbers of innovative ideas and technologies were characteristic of America entering the twentieth century. These cities, such as Detroit and New York City, were centers for industrial progress in which factories were mass producing goods at unprecedented rates. Along with this rapid progress, however, came issues for the wealth of Americans. Not only was the divide between the rich and the poor increasing, but immigrants influxing from Southern Europe chasing after the American Dream posed a threat. Factories wanted cheap laborers to increase their profit and productivity rate frightening Americans who didn’t want to be out of work. The arrival of these immigrants created a sense of nationalism …show more content…

For example, Von Drehle cites that when Blanck and Harris went into business they “coincided precisely with the maturing of the garment industry” (72). This would allow the owners to make billions of dollars on their way to the top of the clothing industry. This progress, however, could not have happened without modern factories and the people working in them. These workers were treated with a lack of respect and with brutality by their managers, especially those who chose to join Unions to fight for better conditions. Conflicts between the management and workers would erupt frequently and often became violent. To illustrate this brutality, Von Drehle tells the story of Charles Rose who was hired to attack those who went against factory rules and management. He then introduces a factory worker named Clara Lemlich who initiated a strike against a popular women’s blouse company. He reveals the corruption of the city when he says the police were “not surprised to see notorious hoodlums moonlighting as strikebreakers” as Rose and his gang attacked and beat Clara for the uprising (27). Women like Clara faced oppression and often the worst working conditions. They were trying to fight for their rights in a society ruled by men and industry. This brutality that women, such as Clara, faced was only used as drive for their cause. Clara later participated in another strike despite the abuse she recently faced and was proud to fight for better conditions and treatment. Factory owners dehumanized and controlled their workers by tactics such as yellow dog contracts, prohibiting workers from joining unions, and blacklists that vwould prevent radical workers from finding work elsewhere. These steps were taken by management to prevent strikes at all costs because they were at risk having

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In the stage following the Civil War, Industrialization had many leaders. These leaders helped boom the growth of the economy and the industry in the United States. As historians have looked closer at the people who helped America become one of the leading industrial powers of the world, they’ve come to question the honesty of how these leaders really obtained their fortunes. The industrial and business leaders of the 1865-1900, also known as “Robber Barons, used various methods in order to build up their own wealth and power. These would use mechanisms that would go against the public population more often than not and those that would go near extremes.

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The progressive era can be defined as a time of political reform that swept across the United States from city to city in order for workers in factories, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, to be given better working conditions. Many major cities across the United States took place in the Progressive Movement but one city was a major contributor to the era. This city was none other than New York City. The major players during the New York Progressive movement were people that were parts of Tammany Hall, Middle-class women reformers, and the outcome from the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. Tammany Hall (often described as a political machine) was a group of politicians that resided in New York City, and that were often associated with

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These men trying to create and build these monopolies, corner markets, and increase profits the men never cared too much about who they hurt or what the effect of what their actions were. All they ever cared about is the money and the goods coming their way. For example, in the article “Captain of Industry or Robber Barons?” it states “workers were treated badly by the capitalists and their management organizations.

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The factories furthered the divide between owner and employees creating “a class division and social strife” that many Americans thought they left behind in Europe (Feller

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Large corporations and businesses started to adapt Henry Ford’s model of assembly-line mass production, and they made great wealth off of this. New technology and devices became cheaper and more accessible to those in the middle class who can afford them, and America boasted a short-lived sense of prosperity and technological advances. However, not all Americans got to enjoy the Roaring 20’s glamour and wealth: “The wealthiest 1 percent of the population received 15 percent of the nation’s income – the same amount received by the poorest 42 percent” ). The unhealthy concentration of wealth in the hands of a few also meant that only a few could afford to pump money back into the economy when it needed during the depression; and a few is nowhere enough to keep the American economy afloat. While blue-collared industrial wages did increase some, while-collared corporate profits increased at twice that rate.

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Crowded workrooms, poor safety, awful pay, and long hours, were what was usually associated with these factories. The owners did not care about their workers, along as they made their money. Labor unions were created, employees who fought for better pay, shorter hours, and safer workplaces. Most labor unions lived through strikes and protests, but most of the time they were unsuccessful but still gave the people a voice against these billionaires. Mary Harris Jones, was one of the most influential labor union leaders.

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America’s manufacturing increased ten fold and between the 1860s - 1914 American became the lead manufacturer of the world. This huge increase of industries such as manufacturing, railroads, and mining led to a spike in immigration from all corners of the world. industrial immigration

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The United States was the industrial core of the world during the years of 1875 and 1900. Millions of Americans and foreign immigrants pursued jobs in the city in hopes of better work and wages. The demand for cheap labor was at an all-time high due to large corporations wanting to cut costs wherever they could. They were selfish and did not care that it created horrible working conditions for their laborers. The laborers were often abused and had their wages cut low.

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Between 1870 and 1900 the United States made great advancements in industrialization. “Industrial capitalism realized the greatest advances in efficiency and productivity that the world had ever seen. Massive new companies marshaled capital on an unprecedented scale and provided enormous profits that created unheard-of fortunes. But it also created millions of low-paid, unskilled, unreliable jobs with long hours and dangerous working conditions.” This period was known as the Gilded Age.

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After the Civil War, the United States (U.S.) started industrializing in the early nineteenth century, bringing revolutionary revisions to America’s society and its industries. The abundance of natural resources, new inventions, and continuously immigrating workers, along with the creation of the free enterprise system and a spur of railroads, enabled the country to industrialize successfully. Soon America’s small towns were transformed into large cities filled with factories. In the late 1800s, a period known as the Gilded Age came about, suggesting that America’s industrialization and urbanization had two facets. On the surface, the U.S. showcased golden success and prosperity, while the interior aspect began to unveil the unsettling realities

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“As late as 1880 agriculture still represented a larger share of Americans’ income than any other source. Ten years later its contribution was surpassed by industry, and by 1900 the total value of goods produced by factories and shops in the United States was twice that of goods produced on farms” (Unger 384). So what caused such industrial gains and drove such a thirst for empire in America during this time? Entrepreneurship, technological innovation, capital creation, government aid, and a set of specific attitudes towards work ethic and social structure are just a few important factors that led to an unprecedented gain in America’s industrial economy at the end of the 19th century. “The extraordinary quality of

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With the Civil war came many changes to America’s economy, specifically to her transportation and labor systems. While the United States’ transportation sector changed positively, the labor system did not, since the loss of slaves took its toll on the South’s economy. Overall, America’s economy changed so much from 1865 to 1880 that the effects can still be seen

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Many immigrant girls and women worked at the factory in very unsafe conditions. The owners of the factories would overpack the floor and lock the doors so the girls could not leave in order to consolidate profits (Document E). The calamity that took place the half hour that it took for the factory to burn down would forever change the safety protocols for factories in America. The economic changes that took place due to the urban growth of America’s immigrant population during the Gilded Age was significant not only in the twentieth century but remains a very important part of daily life in America

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The workers were often subjected to sweltering heat in the summer and frigid conditions in the winter. But, that was not it, at the time there were no laws in place that required businesses to ensure their employees' safety, and this regularly lead to many injuries and fatalities in the workplace on a daily basis. There was not a single work place that did not have injured or mutilated employees, and this was due to the unsafe working conditions of the factories, “Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle-rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one… There were men who worked in the cooking rooms… in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every hour.” (109).

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