Summary Of David Von Drehle's Triangle

It was the fire, that caught America by surprise, the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. Killing 145 workers, the workers were young immigrant women looking for jobs, some even as young as 13 were employed. Usually the workers would work 12 to 14 hour shifts a day, 6 days a week, getting payed only four to five dollars a week. The company was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. The book “Uprising” by Margaret Peterson Haddix is a historical fiction that teaches students about how working in a factory was. This book is about these three young girls named Yetta, Bella, and Jane began to realize the factory owners were cheating them and not paying the right amount they were told. So they went on strike and kept fighting for what they believed

This document supports my thesis in proving the horrible condition in which the employees had to work in, the abuse they had to endure while working and during the strike and also the Triangle fire was the beginning of the reform movement and the creation of the Factory Investigating Commission. II. Document

The New York City Triangle Waist Company fire was a disastrous event that paved the road for Progressive Era reforms. A day after the fire, there was an article, “Death List Shows Few Identified,” published by the New York Times listing the identifiable and unidentifiable dead and the injured. Because of the revealed appalling working conditions and the gruesome deaths the workers came to, the reader now desires to join the Progressive movement for improved working conditions and factory safety. The historical Triangle Waist Company fire resulted in not only local factory reforms but national factory reforms as well as increased women’s rights. The “Death List Shows Few Identified” article provides a statistical representation and depiction

There had been strikes in years before about better working conditions and more safe precautions in the factory. One reporter that was an eyewitness to the fire said, “I remembered their great strike of last year, in which these girls demanded more sanitary workrooms, and more safety precautions in the shops. These dead bodies told the results.” 1 The workers wanted safer conditions the year before, so much so that they went on strike. Nothing changed through this strike and the worst thing happened, the unsafe conditions killed 146

In March 25,1911, blossomed into the kind of Saturday afternoon in early spring that gives rise to thoughts of a picnic in the park. But picnics were not part of the weekend routine for 600 people who work at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. “on March 26,1911 in New York. At 4:35 in the afternoon the fire springing from a source that no one knew it was coming from the rear of the Eighth floor on the Ten-story building at the North-west corner of Washington place and green streets. When the fired died down 154 men and women died in that horror”. But though some people think the factory owners are to blame for the deaths of 154 employees in the fire of 1911 because the trial revealed that the shirtwaist kings had been warned of the Hazardous

March 25th, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory burned leaving 145 workers dead. Negated safety rules and regulations and the overall working conditions in the factory where illegal manual workers were paid close to nothing for working very long hours, were a known concern that was just looked over by the business managers in this “Sweatshop.” Fires, leading up to this tragedy, were looked passed on the count of government officials and business managers’ corrupt ways of running things. The owners of the factory, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were known for causing fires in factories they have previously owned such as two Diamond Waist Company factory fires in 1907 and 1910, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Company’s fire in 1902. They were doing so to collect insurance money and everyone looked the other way.

On a Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, a fire started on the top floors of a factory in New York, The Asch Building owned by the Triangle Waist Company. According to the owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were practicing a common procedure in many factories to prevent workers from taking extra breaks and preventing theft. They locked the exit doors. These owners, weren’t held accountable for the deaths of the 146 employees. Numerous workers could not escape from the eighth, ninth and tenth floors. Max Blanck and Isaac Harris would go to trial for their actions of ignoring poor work conditions against “the people.” But this was a time when there was more greed with many factory owners. Owners were not being proactive in making their

Safety was an issue; industries had no laws to protect the condition of workers. For example, 1911, Triangle fire, a hazard caused the life of some workers. Workers faced with environmental pollution such as toxic air, enamel dust and lead from the industries left several sick. The cities had no law enforced children

“People were forced to work in harsh, dangerous conditions in order to be able to provide for their families” (Document 8). Although most people were grateful to have a job, the conditions that they were forced to work for in order to provide for their families were unfair to them, and their families. Just because they obtained a job one day, doesn’t mean they would have it the next day, for example, if an employee was sick, or injured and had to miss a day of work the employee wasn’t guaranteed to continually have the job after they finally recovered. “I am at work in a spinning room tending four sides of warp which is one girl’s work” (Document 1) working conditions such as these are very harsh for the employees, not only do they have to keep up with the work of four people. Not only do the employees have to keep up with the sea of work, they also have to attempt not to get injured with the very harsh conditions lots of employees did in fact end up with serious injuries. “5 in the morning till 9 at night…” (Document 7) Those were the harsh working hours according to twenty-three year old Elizabeth Bentley. Long hours such as those were very common for factory workers, which made life hard for employees. Not only was harsh working conditions bad, but also the worst consequence that came about through the Industrial Revolution was child

That being said, the worker's problems did not end once they found steady employment. Employers were harsh and unforgiving in how they treated their employees. For example, if an employee was one minute late they were penalized an hours pay. If they were 20 minutes late they forfeited their employment. Worse yet, if they were injured or hurt on the job the company takes no responsibility and the worker is forced to recuperate on their own time without pay

That being said, the worker's problems did not end once they found steady employment. Employers were harsh and unforgiving in how they treated their employees. For example, if an employee was one minute late they were penalized an hours pay. If they were 20 minutes late they forfeited their employment. Worse yet, if they were injured or hurt on the job the company takes no responsibility and the worker is forced to recuperate on their own time without pay (i.e.; when Jurgis sprained his ankle and had to recuperate at home for 3 months). The final insult to the workers was that even if they were always on time, worked hard and maintained their health they could lose their job due to the

     Near closing time on Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, in New York City a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. One of the worst tragedies in American history it is known as the “Triangle Shirtwaist Fire”. It was a disaster that took the lives of 146 workers, most of which were women. This tragedy pointed out the negatives of sweatshop conditions of the industrialization era. It emphasized the worst part of its times the low wages, long hours, and unsanitary working conditions were what symbolized what sweatshops were all about. These conditions were appalling, and no person should ever be made to work in these conditions.

The workers are under so much pressure and are expected to work and give so much that they don’t even want to skip a day of work because they don’t want to be seen “slacking” and be behind and earn nothing, as Lyddie once thought, because she used to fear going out sick and falling behind in her production and having her pay drop (stated on page 100). They are given breaks that are not nearly as long as they should be, and they are so void of energy that they can’t do things that are actually enjoyable for them (such as Lyddie not reading her book). The factories are too worried about getting more work done and profiting that they don’t pay attention to the workers’ needs. Plus, for the amount of time that they work and how much stuff they get done, they don’t get paid nearly as much as they

The working conditions of the new arrivals were hardly any better, as employees of factories were often overworked, underpaid, and penned up in dangerous conditions. Perhaps the horrors of these conditions can be highlighted by the devastating 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. Tragically, over one hundred young women lost their lives in the fire, as there was no way to get out, and the doors were locked, trapping the women inside. Safety was not the only problem, as workers initially were not given the right to organize into unions, essentially doomed to the repetitive motions of factory operation. This meant that they had no way to protest against child labor, wage slavery, and unhealthily long working hours. Eventually, with their growing clout and ever-present industrial dependence on their labor, workers organized and demanded reform along all aspects of hazardous working conditions.

Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle gives readers a look into one of the most significant tragedies to take place in the United States. Before writing this book, Von Drehle was an American journalist working with The Denver Post, Miami Herald, Washington Post, and Time. Von Drehle is a very accomplished writer as he has won several awards those which recognize his excellence in young journalism, among these are, the Livingston award and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award. Triangle was written with amazing descriptions that transport you to the day in 1911 where the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire took place. The book gives its audience a chance to experience what not only that horrific day was like, but what most days were like for factory workers. Von Drehle believes that “the fire was a crucial moment in American history that forced fundamental reforms from the political machinery of New York and the whole nation.” (Von Drehle 3)