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Research Paper On The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire’s Role in Women’s Suffrage Fire swept through the eighth floor of the Asch Building at 4:40 P.M. on Saturday, March 25, 1911. Five minutes later, the fire alarm was pulled down the street, and firefighters arrived at the scene just two minutes later. By 4:57, the fire was over, and one hundred forty-six people had died. In those seventeen minutes, panic ensued as six hundred workers on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors rushed to escape. This was incredibly difficult since the rooms were crowded with equipment, the floors were littered with piles of fabric, and the air was filled with lint. When workers ran to the exits, they found the stairs and elevators blocked and filled with smoke. The building’s …show more content…

It was later discovered that the fire had probably started when a worker disposed a cigarette or match into a rag bin containing three hundred pounds of thin, oxygen-rich, cotton fabric. It was also estimated that there was a total of more than one ton of those cotton scraps in the upper three floors of the factory. “In that brief span, the fire did more killing than any other workplace disaster in New York City history up to that time, or for ninety years afterward.” It was considered “the worst industrial fire in American history.” The fire was one of the most important and biggest factors in the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment. Although it certainly didn’t start the women’s suffrage movement, the fire was used to demand change. Without it having occurred, it would have taken a bit longer for women’s suffrage, as well as many of the reforms about …show more content…

Because they were poor immigrants who barely knew English, factory owners could easily take advantage of them. They use this to explain why America was so motivated by the fire, which helped push for industrial reforms. Other scholars focus on the horrible working conditions in the factory and the sensationalized newspaper stories and images to explain how this caused Americans to blame the factory owners for their poor treatment of workers. Americans’ outrage and blame of the owners helped increase support for reform. They agree that the Triangle fire added fuel to the Progressive movement and served as one of many pieces of evidence that helped in reforming labor laws. However, this paper goes further by arguing that the fire was not just one of many pieces of evidence, rather, it was one of the most important pieces of evidence that helped reform and was an integral force in adding power and support to the women’s

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Another result of the Triangle Factory fire that resulted in change in the American workplace was the attempts of labor unions and strikes. Prior to the fire, in 1909, one of the more notable strikes dubbed the "Uprising of 20,000" was organized primarily by female immigrant garment workers because of the awful conditions, long hours, and low wages they were made to work in due to the lack of options available to them (Pool, 2012). The primary challenge was to get attention paid to the mistreatment of immigrant workers. While there were short term agreements for their demands, the strike ultimately failed, however where it did succeed was exposing poor working conditions and stirring a debate about what counted as public and private (Pool,

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The aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire was that 146 people had been burned and killed by the fire. Also this tragedy brought a lot of attention to the conditions of the other factories, which led to the development of new laws to help regulate and protect the people working in these factories. This fire was an important factor in the progressive movement because this, “strike ended in a pioneering settlement… proving conditions and resolving grievances,”

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On March 25th, 1911, a fire started in New York City, becoming the deadliest fire in New York City’s history. The workers who worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on the 9th floor were locked in the building. In total 147 people died in the fire. The Factory Owners should bear responsibility for the fire.

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Max and his business partner, Isaac Harris, owned the factory, which was located in the heart of New York City. On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out in the factory, killing 146 people, mostly young women. The fire was a turning point in American history, sparking widespread outrage and leading to major changes in workplace safety laws. However, Max and Isaac were widely criticized for their role in the tragedy.

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Another result of the fire was the creation of the American Society of Safety Engineers. Which was Designed for all buildings to fall under the code to make them safer? The American Society of Safety Engineers did just that, and there has not been any other building tragedy fire not caused by arson as severe as the shirtwaist fire. I will now like to return to the original question.

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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

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The Shirtwaist Fire had an impact on Immigration, Workplace conditions, the Factors of Production and The Women’s Rights Suffrage. The fire that changed America was the deadliest Industrial Disaster in History. At the beginning of the twentieth century, factory owners treated their workers with little consideration. They paid very few, Wanted long hours without breaks, and took small care for the safety of their employees. a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a clothing company located in the top floors of a New York Building.

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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.

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Progressives played a significant role in tending to all of the industrial related issues and this event really opened their eyes to many of the ongoing problems. In a Cornell University article, it was said “This incident has had great significance to this day because it highlights the inhumane working conditions to which industrial workers can be subjected” (Triangle Fire). To many, its horrors epitomize the extremes of industrialism”. During this time, the factory was like any other factory that had workers who were paid bare minimum wages and worked long shifts in unsafe and filthy conditions. It also caught the attention of Progressives because of all the problems immigrants faced because “Many of the Triangle factory workers were women, some as young as 14 years old.

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Haymarket Riot There have been many strikes and movements for better working conditions as well as many unions formed throughout history. These events took place because of people who were not afraid to stand up and fight for what they believed in and the rights they deserved as Americans. One example of this was the Haymarket Riot which took place on May 4, 1886 this riot played a key role in the movement in better working conditions and unions. The Haymarket Riot was a riot that took place at Haymarket Square in Chicago.

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After the fire, the horrible event made factories transparent to Americans and Americans realized that industrial workers were being treated unfairly. The tragedy exposed the inhumane working conditions that the industrial workers had to the government also, so social reform became the nation’s number one issue to focus on. Countless state and federal laws were passed in direct relation to this incident. This event affects Americans today because it played a key role in the laws and regulation we have in the

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On March 25th, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Factory, in New York City, was destroyed by a fire. This fire was cause to the death of 145 people, most were teenage girls who were burned, suffocated, or jumped to their deaths. This fire was the spark to a Labor Reform Movement. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire led to safer working conditions, the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, and to improved worker benefits. Working conditions were poor in the early 1900’s.

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The opening phrase on ‘Labor’ in history.com reads like this : “The labor movement in the United States grew out of the need to protect the common interest of workers. For those in the industrial sector, organized labor unions fought for better wages, reasonable hours and safer working conditions. The labor movement led efforts to stop child labor, give health benefits and provide aid to workers who were injured or retired.” The factors that led to the rise of labor unions:

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The people working in the factory worked in poor conditions with low pay, and when a fire broke out many were unable to escape killing over a hundred workers. The people 's reaction to this tragedy led to the government imposing stricter laws on

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These laws were a significant departure from the earlier idea that the government should not intervene in the economy and showed that Progressives believed in using government power to control business practices and, most importantly, protect its employees. The Triangle Fire documentary puts the spotlight on the change brought by the Progressive movement. The documentary shows the horrific conditions faced by workers in 1911, which led to the death of 146 workers, and the poor response of the factory owners and government officials. This tragedy served as a humongous catalyst for the Progressive movement, which pushed for laws and regulations that would protect workers and prevent similar tragedies from happening

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