The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, and its effect on labor.

In contrast to modern day, Unions during the industrial revolution lived up to the era, and through demonstrations, strikes, and tragedies, were revolutionized. Making the workplace safer, hospitable, and bringing an end to the horrors seen through tragedy and scandal. Upton Sinclair’s tell-all book “The Jungle” brought the inhumane conditions in the meat packing industry, and gave people an inside look into the day-to-day operations of a factory cloaked in scandal, and expelling filth and disease through out the populations. While such tragedies such as the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire of 1911, brought to the masses another look into what these extreme conditions can do for production, and its employee’s well being. These factors contributed to reforms in the way America does business. The modern union was born, and in its infancy proposed the basis of the way we work to this day. The industrial revolution brought the United States into a technological and production level that helped to bring the US into the world stage as an economic super power. However, this technology and ramp up in production resulted in poor working conditions, the exploiting of children, meager wages, and a sense that the inhumane was routine and normal.
The story of a building thought to be completely and safe with state of the art fireproofing and “their owners put had their trust in that.” ("141 men and," 1911) However at about 4:40pm, even though the rest of the buildings occupants went home for the evening. A fire broke out in The Triangle Shirt Waist Factory located on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the ten-story building. The factory employed 600, mostly girls between the ages of 16 – 23 ("141 men and," 1911) and of the 141 people that would perish due to this, 125 of them were girls. Not a lot was known at the time of the fire about how it started, or how one should act during such an event and the employees reacted in panic. Fleeing immediately to the one small emergency exit that existed and many dying shortly after. The buildings one fire escape was deemed to be inferior and the high casualties that were seen repeatedly showed this true. Some girls fled down a corridor that led to the street, but this soon was blocked by flames ("141 men and," 1911) one girl was seen jumping from a window only to meet her death by a plate glass roof that was shielding the sidewalk beneath it. This girl wouldn’t be the only one to die this way. Crowds of these girls began jumping to their deaths prompting the crowd to begin shouting “don’t jump!” but as proven later with the charred remains of girls inside the factory, the girls had really no choice and in a sense simply picked their own poison. Policeman comments about the remains were surprising to those that thought of the building as fireproof. One policeman stated simply “it’s the worst I ever saw” and another saying that the remains found were “…human, that’s all you can tell” ("141 men and," 1911). The bodies were described as a pile of ashes with congealed blood where they believed the neck once was. Bodies were piled in the elevator shaft, obviously in a mass attempt to escape the flames, more than 30 girls tried to save themselves and failed. The bodies that were strewn all over the streets blocking roads and making it rather difficult for firemen and other rescue personnel to position themselves with ladders and other life saving apparatuses against the building, including hose trucks and water pumps and provided the areas morgues a steady workload as they carried back these masses, unable to call them body’s, as that would mean they were human. These were burned so badly that to identify them as human was nearly impossible. Victims were primarily consisted of Italians, Russians, Hungarians, and Germans. These victims were all dressed for the street signaling to fireman and investigator that these girls were waiting for the signal to go home for the day, and avoid this deadly happening. Triangle Waist Factory owners Harris and Black, who escaped the fire by way of the roof, The employee’s however were unaware this was even an escape they could have used, and most likely successfully, and life sparingly. ("141 men and," 1911). The building was classified as being of modern construction and was classed as fireproof. With this however, the fire department reported to the building department that the building was unsafe due to the lack of exits. A conflict that was in copious supply during 1911. What burned so quickly were the shirtwaists themselves. The sewing machines were packed so tightly together and the aisle between them so narrow ("141 men and," 1911). That these shirtwaists burned as one large flammable object, and with the addition of the floor being covered with shirtwaist clippings and fabric snippets, the spread of the fire was almost instantaneous.
After the fire subsided, and the bodies all taken to the morgue, the public got a taste of just how tragic this fire really was. Across headlines nation wide, news of this fire swept the country and a mixture of sadness and anger was the general feeling on the incident. The public demanded to know why this happened? As well as who was at fault, and what can the government do to stop this from becoming a routine phenomenon. The newspapers exploited the operations of such factories, and the day-to-day lives of these “factory girls” were openly discussed. (Burt, 2005) Being described as a dangerous endeavor, these factory girls were put into horrifically dangerous positions and were treated unfairly and without regard for respect and safety. These girls were often physically and sexually abused by their male counter parts and were seen as replaceable pawns in the game of modern industrial business. The girls wouldn’t speak up or tell anyone about their traumatic experiences for fear of getting fired and losing their income. Even the woman unions tasked to bring this to the attention of the masses were usually blocked prior tp the 1911 fire by male-dominated agenda that had their own agenda. These labor conflicts resulted in the un successful labor strike of 1892. (Burt, 2005). This began to change and the tide began turning for these woman’s groups after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911. Due to the fact the tragic events happened in broad daylight in front of hundreds of eyewitnesses. The vast tragedy of the losses was to overwhelming to be ignored. The role of these women was of victims and not agitators (Burt, 2005) and began a close look into the “status quo” of modern industrial businesses. “They (the woman) might be poor and immigrants, but they were working to improve their lives like all “good” Americans” (Burt, 2005).
During the investigation of the fire, the NYS fire commission found that the owners failed to institute fire drills, and found that the owners were neglectful in the safety of their employees. ("Preliminary report of," 1912). This to was also covered in the newspapers, and in combination to the first hand accounts of the fire set the stage for a sensational story that intrigues, infuriated, and informed many American about how industrial business really worked. And public opinion was key to these labor unions (Hulden, 2012) and this paved the way for reform and the institution of rules and regulations we live by today like OSHA.
Though in modern days, we don’t have worries about the lack of fire exits, and the idea that our bosses may not be putting our safety first. But it wasn’t a long time ago we did, and with the events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, we as Americans came together and petitioned our law makers to make changes on how we work, and gave ourselves a sense that we deserve working conditions that were safe, sanitary, and even pleasant. What this fire did for us was to give birth to the modern union, which has improved our lives, and continues to fight for our workplace rights.

Primary Sources:
1) 141 men and girls die in waist factory fire; trapped high up in washington place building; street strewn with bodies; piles of dead inside. (1911, March 26). New York Times. Retrieved from http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/trianglenyt1.html
2) .Preliminary report of the new york factory investigating commission, 1912. (1912). Preliminary report of the new york factory investigating commission, 1912. Retrieved from http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/trianglereport.html
Secondary Sources:
1) Burt, E. V. (2005). Working woman and the triangle fire. Journalism History, 189. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/docview/205341238?accountid=3783
2) Hulden, V. (2012). Employer organizations' influence on the progressive-era press. Journalism History, (Spring), 43. Retrieved from http://search.http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/docview/1017546452?accountid=3783proquest.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/docview/205341238?accountid=3783