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Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Page history last edited by Mr. Hengsterman 6 years, 1 month ago

Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy [1911]
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City burst into flames. The factory was crowded. The doors were locked to ensure workers stay inside. One hundred forty-six people—mostly immigrants women representing nearly twelve nationalities —perished leading to changes in working conditions and initiating radical new laws

It was a tragedy that galvanized New York and America like almost no other. A century ago today, the Triangle factory fire took the lives of 146 garment workers, almost all Jewish or Italian immigrants, almost all women, almost all young. The United States opened its eyes for good to unsafe working conditions and the plight of those thrust into them.

In 1911, the world was more accepting of hazards, and business had freer rein to do as it pleased. Then, 18 minutes of flames and searing smoke raced through a Greenwich Village garment factory whose place on the ninth floor was both a sweatshop and a deathtrap. There was no fire alarm. Fire escapes didn't function properly. Wages were unbelievably low, hours were unbelievably long, conditions were unsanitary and dangerous to health. The girls who died were, some believed, inevitable casualties of industrial capitalism.

But then remarkable change happened. The New York State Legislature set up the Factory Investigating Commission, led by heretofore run-of-the-mill machine pols named Al Smith and Robert Wagner.

The commission led to three dozen new laws or regulations on workplace and fire safety, wages and hours, child labor and the acceptance of unions to organize and bargain collectively. After generations of building on those accomplishments, worker safety is, today, something 99 out of 100 of us can take for granted.

Capitalism can work for workers, not against them. So, as we remember the girls whose choice was certain death by fire and smoke or by jumping, we must remember, too, how this state led the nation in response.

Ashes to ashes? No, ashes to progress.