The Triangle Shirtwaist Company, Progressives and the New York Hat

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Company, Progressives and the New York Hat
The Triangle Shirtwaist Company was a sweated factory in Manhattan, NY where women and young girls mostly immigrants, worked for long hours with little wages in dangerous working conditions (Cornell University). A fire broke out in March 25, 1911, with 146 workers dying from the inferno the owners of the factory Max Blanck and Isaac Harris worked with contractors who sub contracted services to the workers who received low wages as they pocketed (Cornell University). Workers at the factory were unable to get out as the doors were locked despite the best efforts of the firemen to help. The event was a turning point as it highlighted the deplorable working conditions in such factories. This provided momentum for organized labor unions to emerge and advocate for the rights of unionized workers.
Progressives argued that the American economic system was unjust to the extent that the rich and owners of capital and land drew huge profits from the sweat of the poor working class. Progressives in the early 20th century recognized that the need to improve working conditions for workers particularly for women and children who received payment below a living wage. The economic system was then exploitative with the poor in a perceptual cycle of low wages and poverty working in unsafe places with little prospects of economic empowerment. The case of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company illustrates that the rich ignored health and safety concerns since the profit motive meant that they invested little in their workers and workplaces but expected to get huge profits. The progressives then cited the tragedy as an example of an economic system that...