Kylee Hadfield

History 1700

Throughout the history of the United States of America, there have been tragedies which
have served to help reshape entire industries. Regulations and safety measures are all too often
born of horrific accidents or calamities due to negligence. The terror attacks of September 11,
2001 brought about significant changes in the procedures and requirements of the TSA to better
ensure the safety of travelers and of the United States. An abundance of public shootings have
caused politicians to take a closer look at gun control and methods for reducing gun violence.
And the Triangle Shirt-Waist Factory fire revolutionized workplace safety and fire regulations,
as well as calling into a focus a plethora of other disasters for which employers need to prepare.
The Triangle Factory fire might be able to be considered the perfect storm of poor
housekeeping, terrible conditions, improper infrastructure and negligent employers. Each
condition on its own exponentially increases the risk of an accident and loss of life, but all
conditions compiled to create one of the greatest workplace tragedies in our nations history.
Firsthand accounts tell a horrific story of employees trapped within a burning building due to a
lack of escape methods. At the time, fire drills were not required, and there was no regulation
stating that doors had to remain unlocked during workplace hours. Hundreds of employees were
faced with the possibility that they may not make it out alive; for many, that possibility became
reality.
The most compelling source was an excerpt from a New York Times article which stated,
Meantime, the remains of the dead it is hardly possible to call them bodies, because that would
suggest something human, and there was nothing human about most of these were being taken in
a steady stream to the morgue for identification. (New York Times, 1911) In the same way that
the workers had been dehumanized by their employers, their safety an afterthought to the bottom
line of the industry, they were further dehumanized by the graphic and violent natures of their
deaths. 141 individuals that were either burned alive or leapt to their deaths were mere numbers
until the magnitude of this disaster brought the public eye to the importance of demanding
awareness of factory conditions.
The fire, however, was not the first violation of the right to work in a safe environment.
Many employee accounts assert that it was common for the girls to have their sewing needles
puncture through their fingers in the course of their work. Basic first aid would be administered
and they would be expected to continue production. There are reports of women fainting and
falling ill on the job, only to die a short time later. Employees often worked 9 to 12 hours a day,
6 days a week in a time before it was mandatory to provide breaks. The doors would be locked
so they could not leave the workroom. Hot machinery would be running constantly, and
operators often had to run them in the dark or by gaslight. (Clara Lemlich, New York Evening
Journal, 1909)
Some of the photographs in the source material really help to illustrate the terrible
conditions even before the fire. Crowded workspaces with little to no egress, clutter of
flammable materials and very little light. The use of photographs in publications helped to
reinforce just how bad things were within the Triangle factory. Following the fire, there was a
large push for greater regulations and it would be impossible for anyone to deny or shirk the
truth of the bad conditions with the photographs from inside the factory.
The photographs of the fire only reinforce the calls for change. The images of death,
dismembered and burned bodies, corpses on the street as rescue workers and onlookers stepped
around them incite an emotional reaction somewhere between shock and outrage. The
publication of these photos would serve to impassion the public to sympathy for the victims and
incite a widespread petition for industry oversight in the form of protests, pickets and strikes as
well as the collaboration of unions for the betterment of employment conditions. While written
testimonials and descriptions can be emotional impactful, nothing is quite as sobering as images
of bodies piled at the base of the building, each representing a life needlessly lost.
The emotional impact can be felt through almost every accounting and every report of the
incident. Each lists a succession of jumps, falls and deaths one after the other in almost dizzying
detail. In an article titled Thrilling Incidents in Gotham Holocaust that Wiped Out One Hundred
and Fifty Lives in the Chicago Sunday Tribune describes a man kissing his sweetheart goodbye
before dropping her to her death and jumping to his own. An eyewitness account by William
Shepherd published in the Milwaukee Journal in 1911 describes the same man, the parting kiss
and the united fall. Several other specific occurrences are shared throughout the two mediums,
both elaborating on the other account.
But there are also details that are skewed between them, such as which floor the fire
began on, and which upon which floor the officers reported that there were 50 burned bodies.
One account says 7, the other says 9 where others insist that it was floor 8 where the fire began.
The value in the sources comes not from who provided the content, but the intent for which the
content should be used. William Shepherds testimonial is raw and evokes horror in the reader
through the horror that William Shepherd felt at witnessing the events. The newspaper article
provides more of a broad look, as it is not subjective in the same way that Williams account
was. It was an objective recording of what took place.
If I were the leader of an employment union, seeking to better working conditions and to
inspire others to share my cause, I would use William Shepherds account. I would want the
readers to feel as though they were personally effected by the events, as though they or someone
they loved had something to lose if industry continued to shirk accountability for safety
measures. For a paper, however, an objective perspective is usually a better source. It gives a
broader sense of what happened and allows me to draw my own conclusions and form opinions.
Workplace safety has become a common-place phrase. New employees usually have to
attend some kind of safety training where they are trained on emergency exits, the locations of
the fire extinguishers, and where the fire pull stations can be found. Industry regulations require
a sufficient number of fire drills to be completed within each year to ensure that employees know
how to safely evacuate and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) requires
reporting whenever serious bodily injury or death occurs on a work-site and employers face hefty
fines for workplace incidents that could have been prevented by better safety measures or more
thorough employee training.
But even with so much focus on workplace safety, there are still accidents on job sites
every single day. In the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Triangle Shirt-Waist fire, Fire
Commissioner Edward Cavanaugh and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reiterated the need
to stay diligent in seeking new ways to improve working conditions. OSHA is a huge proponent
of continual improvement for employee safety and push practices like near-miss reporting and
depth-of-knowledge testing for employees outside of the standard annual safety training. There
are new certifications in place for companies who take employee safety seriously and
organizations that award safe conditions, as well as coalitions through state groups and
independent groups that continually educate employers, managers and individual contributors on
how to promote safe work environments.
We have made great strides as a nation to try to improve our industries, factories and
otherwise, to ensure that employees have the opportunity to leave work in relatively the same
condition in which they arrived, but we still have a long way to go. Accidents continue to happen
every day, employers continue to prioritize their bottom line over the wellness of their workers.
If there is one thing we still need to remember from the Triangle Shirt-Waist Factory fire, it is
that we are all accountable for our safety, and for the safety of those around us.