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Working conditions during industrial revolution
Working conditions during industrial revolution
Industrial revolution's effect
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The Industrial Era enabled wealth, prosperity, and advancement in American society. But behind the wealth of a few, the new skyscrapers lining big cities, and the influx of new people, the Industrial Era possessed many dark underbellies, such as labor. Factory owners and industry giants treated their employees poorly, and subjected them to long hours, crowded workspace, and dangerous conditions. This is best exemplified in the New York City’s Triangle factory fire. Often times the middle class reformers, the Progressives, are remembered for their work to ameliorate the working class. These supporters worked hard to cause change, but often the efforts of the factory workers themselves are forgotten. Political and economic change occurred because the poor gave the wealthy and educated people a cause and purpose to fight for. Without the original efforts of the rebellious …show more content…
The sight of women jumping out of a building, due to a lack of fire escapes and locked doors, resonated with the American public. Across the country reporters and every day citizens questioned the business practices in place, and waited to see who would be to blame for such a terrible incident. Headlines of leading newspapers such as William Hearst’s the American read, “City Officials Blamed For Fire Tragedy,” and he devoted several days of front-page stories to this event. (Von Drehle, 187). Angry citizens took notice, and reform subsequently began. Although the Triangle factory owners were acquitted, public sentiments and pressures led to the passage of twenty-five work place regulations. These regulations mandated changes such as, “Fire drills were [now] mandatory in large shops. Doors had to be unlocked…Other new laws enhanced protections for women and children.” (Von Drehle, 215). This amount of legislature far surpassed prior efforts, and showed great strides towards a substantial government role in big
On July 13, 1900 Joseph Aschs’ new building plans in New York City are approved and by January 5, 1901 the building is complete. In 1906, the eighth floor of the Asch building is bought by the Triangle Shirtwaist Company who opens a factory there. Three years later, a letter is sent to the management of the Triangle Shirtwaist building from a fire prevention expert. He suggests they that a discussion about evaluating and enhancing safety measures. Unfortunately, management does not take the letter seriously and “the letter is ignored.” (Linder, “Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Trial”) The inhumane work conditions in the factory led to the decision of twenty-five ILGWU workers to declare strike against th...
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire most of all impacted all forms of industry, and changed the way workers worked. Along with the legislations that impacted women and children, laws also centered on the safety and well being of all workers. One of the main reforms and changes came through the formation of the New York Factory Investigating Commission, or the FIC: a legislative body that investigated the manufacturers for various infractions. They were based on protecting the workers: both their rights and their lives. The FIC investigated countless factories and “enacted eight laws covering fire safety, factory inspections and sanitation.” The FIC was highly focused on the health and safety of industrial workers, making reports and legislation that focused on “fire safety, building construction, machine guarding, heating, lighting, ventilation, and other topics” and on specific industries like “chemicals, lead trades, metal trades, printing shops, sweatshops and mercantile establishments.” Thirteen out of seventeen of the bills submitted by the FIC became laws, and “included measures requiring better fire safety efforts, more adequate factory ventilation, improved sanitation and machine guarding, safe operation of elevators” and other legislations focused for specific establishments.” Fire safety and new fire codes such as “mandate emergency exits, sprinkler systems, and maximum-occupancy laws,” such as the Fire Prevention Act of 1911, were put into place to limit the likelihood that another fire like the one at Triangle would occur, or be as drastic and deathly. Other organizations like the Joint Board of Sanitary Control “set and maintain standards of sanitation in the workplace,” as well as actually enforcing these stand...
Disasters can be so impactful; some can forever change the course of history. While many at the time thought this story would soon pass, and with it all the potential bad publicity, the story of the Triangle fire spread quickly, and outraged many people. On a beautiful spring day in March 1911 when 146 workers lost their lives, a fire would prove it could do what years of reformers had failed to do, get the government on the side of the workers. I would argue that the fire largely impacted the country. Specifically, the Triangle Fire ended up changing New York’s interconnected political and economic scene, and spurred on the creation of stricter safety codes. For the first time owners would hold responsibility for their actions. Max Blanck and Isaac Harris; being indicted for manslaughter was proof of this. Social change seemed to be spurred as well; the general public and newspapers would come back the workers of New York. Large institutions would suffer as well. Tammany Hall would be feared less and less by waves of new immigrants. The largest change brought about by the blaze would be legislation. Twenty-five bills, recasting the labor laws of the state
In the late nineteenth century, many European immigrants traveled to the United States in search of a better life and good fortune. The unskilled industries of the Eastern United States eagerly employed these men who were willing to work long hours for low wages just to earn their food and board. Among the most heavily recruiting industries were the railroads and the steel mills of Western Pennsylvania. Particularly in the steel mills, the working conditions for these immigrants were very dangerous. Many men lost their lives to these giant steel-making machines. The immigrants suffered the most and also worked the most hours for the least amount of money. Living conditions were also poor, and often these immigrants would barely have enough money and time to do anything but work, eat, and sleep. There was also a continuous struggle between the workers and the owners of the mills, the capitalists. The capitalists were a very small, elite group of rich men who held most of the wealth in their industries. Strikes broke out often, some ending in violence and death. Many workers had no political freedom or even a voice in the company that employed them. However, through all of these hardships, the immigrants continued their struggle for a better life.
In response to intervention, thousands of groups of people became defiant. Laborers living off the bare minimum often assembled into organized groups to enforce their demands upon the government, making a notable push for reform (D) while educated men such as Henry Demarest Lloyd promoted virtue, not land, as the ideal focus of government (B). Dissatisfaction continued within the middle class. As new industrial machines emerged, designed for mass product...
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is a turning point in history because, unions gained powerful alliances and people who wanted to fight for their safety. Which now in the U.S there is a set of guidelines that need to be follow to ensure the safety of the employees. He writes: “The Triangle fire of March 25, 1911, was for ninety years the deadliest workplace disaster in New York history—and the most important (Von Drehle 3).” Von Drehle emphasizes how important this event is in history and he draw comparisons to the to
In the chapter “The Other Civil War,” Zinn contended that while the working class attempted to reform the labor system, the government suppressed tensions and turned class anger toward other outlets. Zinn described the poor working and living conditions of industrial laborers to prove the need for labor reform. Overcrowding in cities, long work days, widespread disease, and other factors led workers to seek improvements. He presented numerous examples of strikes, rebellions, and riots to prove that class anger sometimes surfaced despite efforts to repress resistance. While he maintained that these reform attempts failed due to government intervention, many of these actions did result in some gains for the working class. The Anti-Rent Movement in the Hudson Valley began when tenant farmers refused to pay rent and fought a guerilla war with local police. They wanted to end patroonship, a feu...
Frances Perkins attended the male high school of Worcester, went on in nineteen hundred-two to receive her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College, and a Masters at Columbia where she studied sociology and economics (Severn 11). After finishing her education, Perkins moves to the state of New York to work for the government as a factory inspector (Mohr 32). In Albany she began to lobby for a bill that would limit a woman's workweek to fifty-four hours. Though met with great opposition, this cry for action got her noticed by Al Smith and Robert F. Wagner who she would work with closely later down the road (Severn 40). In defeat, she went to Manhattan and was an eyewitness to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire on March 25, 1911. This inspired her to forerun on fire and working conditions regulations in New York, and was the “torch that lightened up the political scene,” in her favor. Having prev...
The early 1900s was a time of many movements, from the cities to the rural farms; people were uniting for various causes. One of the most widespread was the labor movement, which affected people far and wide. Conditions in the nation’s workplaces were notoriously poor, but New York City fostered the worst. Factories had started out in the city’s tenements, which were extremely cramped, poorly ventilated, and thoroughly unsanitary. With the advent of skyscrapers, factories were moved out of the tenements and into slightly larger buildings, which still had terrible conditions. Workers were forced to work long hours (around 12 hours long) six hours a day, often for extremely low pay. The pay was also extremely lower for women, who made up a large portion of the shirtwaist industry. If a worker were to openly contest an employer’s rule, they would be promptly fired and replaced immediately. Also, strength in numbers did not always work. Managers often hired brutal strikebreakers to shut movements down. The local police and justice were often of no help to the workers, even when women were being beaten. At the time, the workers needs were not taken seriously and profit was placed ahead of human life. This was not just a struggle for workers’ rights; it was also a movement for the working class’ freedom.
To apprehend the actual conditions of labor in factories, their legislative activities had to accompany large-scale field investigation that demanded a large number of assistants. In the process, social activists from garment workers, such as Clara Lemlich, an executive board member of the Local 25 and the leader of the uprising of 20,000, and Rose Schneiderman, the WTUL’s labor activist who was getting a name by organizing female workers, were able to participate in the campaign of the FIC. Moreover, the FIC held public hearings to provide the opportunities for ordinary workers to testify about their labor conditions. During the year of 1912, it listened to 250 witnesses at 37 hearings and recorded testimonies of 3,500 pages. The FIC adopted many ordinary workers as well as experts as the witnesses of the hearing, and they could inform the public of their poor working conditions and gain social sympathy. As indicated by such active participation, the driving force of the FIC’s reform was not only emanated from the upper-middle class progressives but also rank-and-file workers and working class activists. Their aspirations for labor reform, triggered by the Triangle Fire, endeavored to create substantial alterations in the industrial society of New York under the
One of the unions that were on forefront was the International Ladies Garment Workers Union(ILGWU). They had lost many members to the fire, and made great contributions in gaining reforms. It was not always easy, to organize the workers. New York were known to be “dedicated strikers but indifferent unionists, keen on action but hard to organize.” Anne Morgan and Alva Belmont were activists that helped gain support and organize unionists and activists. They hosted a meeting at the Metropolitan Opera House to demand action on fire safety. After three months of being pressured by activists and unions, New York’s governor signed a law creating the Factory Investigating Commission. The commission investigated around 2,000 factories in dozens of industries. Workers’ rights advocates such as Frances Perkins also helped them enact eight laws covering fire safety, factory inspections, sanitation, and employment rules for women and children. The following year, they pushed for 25 more laws. Other U.S. states later followed New York’s
middle of paper ... ... The process of industrialization produced no clear-cut winner or loser. Workers benefited from industrialization and its subsequent problems in that they found a practical political platform in the Progressives, and massive strides were made in the way of better social organization. But Carnegie, Gould, and other ‘captains of industry’ profited handsomely by providing little more than a job to their poverty-stricken workers.
Large corporations used this to their advantage. Profit oriented leaders did little to make suitable working conditions. With the aid of Muckrakers, journalists who exposed the underside of American life, the nation began to understand the "evils" of industrialization (599). More and more did Americans escalate their concern for reforms. The reformists promoting the ideals of Progressivism were moralists and championed the ideals of human rights. Progressivism embraced a widespread, many-sided effort after 1900 to build a better soc...
In 1911, factory workers, especially those in the Triangle factory, were not respected or valued. This resulted in one of the worst factory fires in New York history. The whole catastrophe and 145 deaths could have been avoided if the rights of workers had not been ignored, and if factory supervisors had acknowledged their responsibility to their employees to provide safe and fair working conditions.
The Triangle Fire was one of the most critical disasters of the 20th century as it kick started the reform of working conditions, at the sacrifice of many lives. The Triangle Fire was New York’s worst work-related calamity for 90 years. It was and is not only a symbol of misfortune, but a catalyst for reform. It awoke the country to the many dangers of factory work. What happened was a disaster that could have been avoided, but if it was, another disaster might have taken its place. It probably wouldn’t have had the same impact on America, whether it was good or bad. Improvement and safety are good, but what cost would America have had to pay instead? Although the Industrial Revolution was a time of prosperity, the Triangle Fire reminds us that ignorance can be bliss-- until it’s too late.