The Impact of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

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During the early 1900s industrial fires or accidents were common place; injuries and the loss of life may have outraged a few people but like all tragedies the outrage would pass quickly and it would back to business as usual. One such tragedy occurred on Saturday, March 25th, 1911, it was closing time at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and hundreds of employees were preparing to leave when a fire broke out on the 8th floor trapping Jewish and Italian immigrants, the majority of them young women. One hundred and forty-six people died in futile attempts to escape the burning ten story building. The main doors were during the day kept locked and only one doorway was opened for the hundreds of employees to file out, one by one, as their belongings were searched for pilfered goods. Blanck and Harris, owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, faced no consequences in regards to the unsafe working environment and the death of their employees. David von Drehle, in his book, Triangle, The Fire That Changed America, states that this particular fire changed the political and industrial landscape of the United States; it was no longer ignored by the working masses nor was it quickly dismissed by the public - the public consisted of a huge immigration population from Europe, the “transfer of labor power and brain power” that eventually lead to women’s striking in the garment industry and setting a precedent in New York (Triangle, 3, 4). Several groups like the moneyed, educated elite women, the muckrakers, the Labor Unions, and the political machines that controlled neighborhoods of New York pushed for political, economic, and legal changes to the industrial systems - in a democratic social time of reform – they were like much welcomed rain ... ... middle of paper ... ...kers from hazardous environments. The changes after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire involved 4 main groups and public voters. No single group alone had the far reaching effects like the progressive movement, politically liberal and socially democratic. Without all four groups putting pressure on the legal system, the media exposing the flaws of the current industrial, political system along with the uprising that is the beginning of women’s suffrage, the labor laws would not have undergone the radical changes that are the backbone of modern day labor laws. The fact all doors must remain open and unlocked during business hours, in 21st century America, arose from the ashes of the fatal Triangle Shirtwaist fire, To the deceased, American manufacturing employees are grateful, though they may not be entirely knowledgeable about the origins of their current labor laws.

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