Triangle
March 26, 1911 is a day that still remains an important one in history, especially in the history of labor in the United States. As the author notes, the fire only lasted half an hour (Von Drehle 2), but that was enough to make it one of the worst disasters that ever happened at a place of employment. In fact, it held that record for nearly 100 years. The fire caused a stir in New York and around the country, and led to very extensive workplace reforms, such as fewer working hours, child labor laws, and even building and fire codes to try to keep a tragedy like this from happening again. Those were all important results of this fire, and many people had a hand in making them come about. However, there was another important theme that came out consistently in this book, and that was the theme of the mostly foreign-born, mostly female working class who filled the floors of the Triangle Waist Company. To the money-hungry owners of the factory, these women were little more than animals, and this is the theme of the book that seems to matter most. The owners consistently disregarded human life in their quest for sales and profits, and so, many of the young women who worked 12 or 14 hours a day at back-breaking labor did not even
The early book chronicles the backgrounds of many of the workers, who were immigrants who came to this country looking for better lives. It also discusses prior strikes at the city's waist factories, and some of the union workers who were advocating change even before the disastrous fire. All this sets the stage for the fire itself, the company, the company's reaction to the fire, and the greed of the owners. This is another thing that is quite interesting that comes from all of this background. First, the owners were often immigrants themselves, who had worked their way up from the bottom of the worker's ranks, and yet, saw fit to treat their brethren worse than animals. Second, it pointed out that corruption and lack of ethics are not a modern business problem. The ethics of Enron, WorldCom, and Arthur Anderson have come into question in the past few years, and people wonder if ethics in America are an oxymoron, especially in business. It seems that ethics is not a new issue in business at all, and that greedy owners have always set the pace in questionable business ethics. This book shows this is a long standing tradition in the country, rather than a new and disturbing trend in large corporations. In conclusion, while just about everything about this book is disturbing, and the Triangle fire did lead to labor reforms that helped many workers, reading it today simply makes the reader feel for the 146 men and women who died in the fire. They died horrible deaths because they were locked into their factory and could not get out. They died anonymous deaths because their employers saw them only as "cogs" in the wheel of their own greed and profit. They were nobodies who were really somebody, and they did not deserve to die in such anonymity and circumstances. It is good that they did not die in vain, and that some reform came out of their deaths, but it is intensely sad that they died so alone, so unknown, and so tragically. It is also painful to read that the newspapers did not know much about the victims, and did not take time to learn much. Often, they printed their names incorrectly, and some were only identified with initials and ages. To know so little about the victims seems to make their deaths even sadder and more tragic. So many of the young wom
Some common words found in the essay are:
Von Drehle, Arthur Anderson, Waist Company, Third World, , Isaac Harris, von drehle, business ethics, makes reader feel, workers killed, makes reader, reader feel, author notes,
Approximate Word count = 1542
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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