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KF5JRV > TODAY 25.03.19 12:37l 72 Lines 3820 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 33362_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Mar 25
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<VE2PKT<N3HYM<N9LCF<KF5JRV
Sent: 190325/1132Z 33362@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
In one of the darkest moments of America’s industrial history, the
Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burns down, killing
146 workers, on this day in 1911. The tragedy led to the development of
a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of
factory workers.
The Triangle factory, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, was located
in the top three floors of the 10-story Asch Building in downtown
Manhattan. It was a sweatshop in every sense of the word: a cramped
space lined with work stations and packed with poor immigrant workers,
mostly teenaged women who did not speak English. At the time of the
fire, there were four elevators with access to the factory floors, but
only one was fully operational and it could hold only 12 people at a
time. There were two stairways down to the street, but one was locked
from the outside to prevent theft by the workers and the other opened
inward only. The fire escape, as all would come to see, was shoddily
constructed, and could not support the weight of more than a few women
at a time.
Blanck and Harris already had a suspicious history of factory fires. The
Triangle factory was twice scorched in 1902, while their Diamond Waist
Company factory burned twice, in 1907 and in 1910. It seems that Blanck
and Harris deliberately torched their workplaces before business hours
in order to collect on the large fire-insurance policies they purchased,
a not uncommon practice in the early 20th century. While this was not
the cause of the 1911 fire, it contributed to the tragedy, as Blanck and
Harris refused to install sprinkler systems and take other safety
measures in case they needed to burn down their shops again.
Added to this delinquency were Blanck and Harris’ notorious anti-worker
policies. Their employees were paid a mere $15 a week, despite working
12 hours a day, every day. When the International Ladies Garment Workers
Union led a strike in 1909 demanding higher pay and shorter and more
predictable hours, Blanck and Harris’ company was one of the few
manufacturers who resisted, hiring police as thugs to imprison the
striking women, and paying off politicians to look the other way.
On March 25, a Saturday afternoon, there were 600 workers at the factory
when a fire broke out in a rag bin on the eighth floor. The manager
turned the fire hose on it, but the hose was rotted and its valve was
rusted shut. Panic ensued as the workers fled to every exit. The
elevator broke down after only four trips, and women began jumping down
the shaft to their deaths. Those who fled down the wrong set of stairs
were trapped inside and burned alive. Other women trapped on the eighth
floor began jumping out the windows, which created a problem for the
firefighters whose hoses were crushed by falling bodies. Also, the
firefighters’ ladders stretched only as high as the seventh floor, and
their safety nets were not strong enough to catch the women, who were
jumping three at a time.
Blanck and Harris were on the building’s top floor with some workers
when the fire broke out. They were able to escape by climbing onto the
roof and hopping to an adjoining building.
The fire was out within half an hour, but not before over 140 deaths.
The workers’ union organized a march on April 5 to protest the
conditions that led to the fire; it was attended by 80,000 people.
Though Blanck and Harris were put on trial for manslaughter, they
managed to get off scot-free. Still, the massacre for which they were
responsible did finally compel the city to enact reform. In addition to
the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law passed that October, the New York
Democratic set took up the cause of the worker and became known as a
reform party.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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