Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
posted by Mr. Carlisle at 5:01 PM
Monday, February 09, 2009
About Me
- Name: Mr. Carlisle
- Location: Portland, Oregon, United States
I'm a native South Carolinian and I attained my undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of South Carolina. I taught fourth grade for two years in the Mississippi Delta and two years at an alternative high school in Western North Carolina. I have been at Tigard High School since the fall of 2003, where I teach U.S. History and Psychology.
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16 Comments:
Wow, so I just read about that fire in the reading and it sounded horrible. I can't believe they had such terrible conditions. And those pictures are just depressing.
5:31 PM
Locked doors and unsafe working conditions. Not good. We will discuss another fire that took place in 1991 that was eerily similar to the Shirtwaist Fire.
5:44 PM
This is just an example of the sort of greed that took place back then in order to get ahead. It is a very terrible thing that because of this people had to be killed, all in the name of advancement. It makes you wonder what kind of modern day risks, such as this, are being taken as I type this. I'm sure(or I hope) that we have learned something from incidents like this from the past and that the risks being taken today are not quiet as dangerous. It seems like the jobs that immigrants(especially illegal ones) take today have the potential of being as risky, as well as, dangerous as during the industrial times.
I agree with Kristin, the pictures are pretty depressing. Especially because those cops are just kind of hanging out next to those exposed bodies like they're nothing, they didn't even cover them or move them they just are letting them sit in the ashes. It's pretty sad that that is the amount of respect those people received.
5:59 PM
Adam,
Imperial Foods fire in 1991. We will discuss this tomorrow. Great comment.
6:34 PM
Where's the Worker's Compensation when you need it? These pictures depict truly horrible scenes, and I can't help but feel sorry for the workers.
Go IWW! Put the workers before the profits!
8:15 PM
I just finished the reading, and I can't believe that something like this would happen. They were basically working in a jail with no way out.
8:45 PM
Hey Carlisle, when i read this, i was astonished by the fact that the women were locked in the room just so that the employer's would know that they working and not messing around. The outcome of it was just so tragic!!
5:53 PM
Was shirtwaist theft really that much of an issue that they had to lock them in? I can't imagine that it would be a huge issue or that it was worth risking lives over.
6:54 PM
Joseph,
The owners locked the doors so the girls who worked in the factory couldn't move freely from floor to floor to talk to their friends.
7:08 PM
Thanks for the clarification. However, they should have supervisors for that and it would be a lot safer. Locking people in can never be a safe idea, particulary in a factory. It's horrifying that something like this actually happened.
8:15 PM
the reading and our notes in class told us that the building was not well ventalated. i found it interesting to see such large windows that could have been used for ventalation knowing this. these windows must have looked very inviting during the fire for all those that jumped.
8:21 PM
Whoa. Scary pictures.
I find it interesting how union activism has been so effective in improving working conditions over the decades. True, fires and other accidents still happen, but today's victims receive greater public sympathy. Employers face greater de facto penalties like boycotts.
I wonder if this trend will continue for long. Will unions fight for regulation to the point where the government controls all aspects of business? And at what point (if any) will government management begin to emulate the cost effective abuses of the old entrepreneurs?
In my superficial understanding, it appears that unions are the driving choice behind economic change and perhaps the moral engine will fly into reverse at the trigger of hypocritical socialist policies. In this way, workers' unions are quite an amazing invention.
9:46 PM
the building is exactly as i pictured it in my head. meaning the inside with the burt stuff. the girls bodys everywhere should have been enough to spark a major outrage among the unionists, and then they would like storm in and demand condtitions be changed. or the employers should have taken some responsability and changed things a little. all to make shirtwaists...that arent really around anymore...
10:32 PM
There are no words to describe this. I am horrified and embarrassed that this is apart of America's history.
The exercise we did today was hard trying to get the company employers to comply with most of our demands. I can't even fathom doing that for real and having to accept the situation and not being in control like the workers were.
11:00 PM
Was the last picture of a couple girls who jumped? These pictures are crazy and that reading that we did in class . . .
The readings about people who jump always disturb me especially after the movies in Caro's class last year. I can't believe how greedy the management was to have such an incredibly unsafe work environment.
11:42 PM
That's so horrendous what happened. I can't believe they locked the doors and trapped the innocent girls inside just because they didn't want them talking to people on different floors. This fire proves that big business thought workers were disposable.
11:48 PM
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