The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: A Lasting Legacy, 100 Years Later

I wrote about the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire a few weeks back but given the Republican assault on labor unions and safety standards, it is a story that needs repeating because it reminds one of where we could be headed once again as large corporation and horrid polluters such as the Koch brothers want to knock down all barriers so that they can operate as in the "good old days." Of course, those days were not very good for most individuals and families, but too many Americans are so ignorant of history - and I might dare say objective reality - that they fail to realize that the GOP is playing them for fools. The graphic photo below shows the bodies of women who jumped to their deaths rather than be burned to death. Those responsible were not terrors in airplanes, but instead greedy corporate types such as the Koch brothers.Time has a piece on the Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy. Here are some highlights:
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Death on the job was a routine hazard for American workers a century ago. About 100 workers, on average, died every day as mines collapsed, ships sank, trains crashed and factories burned. Nearly all of them are long forgotten. But not the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Events marking the 100th anniversary of that disaster in New York City have been planned across the country at public gatherings, panel discussions, art exhibitions and concerts.
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On a bright spring Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at closing time inside the city's largest blouse factory. Fueled by hundreds of pounds of highly flammable cotton and tissue scraps, the blaze spread quickly through the top three floors. Hundreds of onlookers converged as horse-drawn fire engines thundered from every direction. Trapped by flames and a locked door, workers on the ninth floor began to leap to their deaths. By the time the last victim succumbed to her injuries, the toll was 146 dead — 129 of them women, dozens of them teenagers.
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It's often said the tragedy was so gruesome that New Yorkers could not possibly look away and forget. But that underestimates the vast and awful store of history that humans have gladly forgotten. The real reason we remember the Triangle fire is its legacy, not its toll. The story remains a compelling study of political power — where it comes from, what it's for — as relevant today as it was in the angry aftermath of that inferno.
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[New York City Political] Boss Charles F. Murphy ruled the city from his private room at Delmonico's restaurant, quietly tending the gears that turned the votes of poor immigrants into power and profit for Tammany. . . Murphy had always taken the side of management — but his genius was the ability to count votes. He saw that the Triangle fire was a chance to win over the voters of this new generation.
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The garment workers won safer factories and shorter hours not by dying but by organizing, by sticking together and building their strength. They also knew when to compromise, even with a calculating pragmatist like Charlie Murphy. Reform, Murphy came to believe, "made us many votes."
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At a ceremony on March 25, the names of all the victims of the Triangle fire were to be read for the first time, thanks to genealogist Michael Hirsch, who unearthed the names of the six unidentified victims. That's a fit and proper tribute. Their dreams — of safer workplaces, free of harassment and exploitation — are more real for us than they might have imagined on that doomed Saturday.