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The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: Isaac Harris And Max Blanck

522 Words3 Pages

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is often said to be one of the most historically changing incidents in job history. Before the reforms created in result of the fire, the working conditions at the Shirtwaist factory and the like were treacherous. The women worked on floors 8 and 9 of the building, and got to those floors in a wooden elevator. You were expected to work a 14 hour day with a pay of $2. Speed mattered the most, and mistakes cost you in the form of docking from your pay. There was no stopping for the bathroom or for a drink, just continuous work. The owners of this company that was so dangerous were Isaac Harris and Max Blanck. These men feared the consequences of a union within their factory walls, and were very insistent that no …show more content…

They saw themselves as benefactors for the poor, and if the poor complained, they were biting the hand that fed them. Harris and Blanck paid police officers, prostitutes, and bodyguards to do as much damage as possible to the Shirtwaist employees. Anne Morgan, a daughter of a rich businessman, took up the Shirtwaist workers cause and helped them fight for fairer wages and hours. When Harris and Blanck realized that sales were dropping from the lack of shirts being made, they offered a deal to the workers: shorter hours and more pay, but no union. The workers did not like this request and turned it down, causing Morgan to leave their efforts, saying she wasn’t for the socialist cause. Eventually, the employees realized they would not win the battle, and returned to work. The founders of this company were selfish in their actions, only stopping to help it’s employees when they started to lack personal gain. After going back to work, a cigarette, still lit, was dropped onto the workroom floor of the 8th floor. The loose fabric and wicker baskets quickly wicked this up, creating a deadly fire. The stairwell was locked, and no one had the key to open

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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.

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The inferno then spread across the building within few minutes, causing a terrifying madness among the workers and eyewitnesses. The fire spread faster owing to the nature of the business that dealt with textiles. The clothing burn very fiercely and as such, caused the speedy spread of the fire within the building. As the fire was razing down everything on its path, many of the workers were caught therein, losing their lives. Moreover, many of the exit doors would be locked in the fear of workers stealing company materials.

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To determine this, many sources and ideas must be recognized and appointed. One of the ideas that has come to mind was that a cigarette butt from the workers who had secretly been smoking had made it's way into the cloth bin and, because of the highly flammable material the blouses were made of, it set the bin and the building ablaze. Another idea that has come to mind is that maybe the owners of the establishment, Max and Isaac, burned the building down on purpose, making this an even more interesting topic. Some of the evidence that has risen up from the possible dark truth below is that the doors leading out of the building on the ninth floor, where the doors were supposedly locked and/ or were designed to be pushed outwards instead of inwards. Max and Isaac claim that this was because of a theft concern, and that this would keep minimal thefts happening (Martin par 8).

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1468 Words | 6 Pages

On March 25, 1911, a fire started at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory that claimed the lives of one hundred and forty-six workers. As a result of the fire, trials and debates occurred that contended the factory owners right to control their business against their duty to implement safe working conditions for their employees. Despite the trial resulting in no charges for the business owners the triangle fire is responsible for stricter safety codes and brought attention on the labor movement. In order to fully understand the changes that resulted because of the shirtwaist fire, you must first know what life was life prior to the fire.

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There were about 500 workers working at this time when a fire began in a rag bin. Out of the 500 workers 146 of them had lost their lives. Those that survived were left to relive those agonizing moments of sheer terror and fear. Many of the workers were women, some as young as fourteen.

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According to Wignot, the director of the PBS video concerning the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, all 146 lives were lost all because of the drop of one cigarette. In this way, the locked doors and blocked exits was a monumental factor of why the girls had to quickly choose their fate by jumping out windows onto Washington and Greene Street or ultimately burning alive (Cornell). These young girls and women chose their own destruction rather than facing the morbid factor of burning to death. Katie Marsico, the author of the book, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: Its Legacy of Labor Rights, stated that “...the fire would become a catalyst for national grief, public outrage, and eventually efforts to improve working conditions and safety standards…” (9). The fire was a very detrimental occurrence within itself overall, but the fire forced the realization that actions needed to be taken to help prevent another devastation like

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On March 25, 1911, one of the most tragic disasters in American Industry occurred. 146 women, men and children died in the triangle shirtwaist factory fire. People either died in the fire or jumped to their deaths to avoid being burned alive. This tragedy exposed the inhuman working conditions that workers faced while working in factories and the utter disregard of the factory owners. These deaths were completely preventable, these people died as a result of neglect.

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The book Triangle: The Fire That Changed America written by David Von Drehle recounts the dreadful incident of fire that broke out in a Triangle Shirtwaist factory on March 25, 1911 and its aftermath. In the earlier part of nineteenth century Triangle Shirtwaist factory was running a lucrative business in a multistory building in the New York City. The factory was owned by the two men Isaac Harris and Max Blank and it was located on the upper three stories of the Asch Building which was back then considered and projected as an efficient fireproof building (History). On that unfortunate day, fifteen minutes of fire gulped one hundred and forty-six innocent lives who were struggling to keep themselves and their families afloat(CBS).

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One of the main reasons the fire took such a psychological toll on the New Yorkers was because of the workers jumping to there deaths. One witness even remarked the event saying quote 'I know a new sound a terrible sound the sound of a body hitting the pavement". The inferno was also not an uncommon occurrence the triangle shirt was burned before the tragedy to collect insurance money. Knowing this information, many Jewish and women workers went on strike to secure improved working conditions. There strike in fact proved successful with the New York state legislature creating the Factory Investigating Commission.

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The front doors of the factory would always be locked because the owners Isaac Harris and Max Blanck thought one of the employees might steal something from the factory. When they tried to go downstairs, the flames of the fire burned them that prevented them to try leave the building. The factory owners were charged for manslaughter after the fire. A few years later they were acquitted and let out of

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1576 Words | 7 Pages

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