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Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
On march 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in NYC caught on fire. It is unknown who and what caused the fire, but the most supported theory is that a worker threw a cigarette on the ground, and it caught leftover fabric scraps on fire. The main door out was locked during the fire so many workers jumped from their floor which was many stories high, there was one operating elevator and the fire escape collapsed. In all 146 people died in the fire, many of whom were young women and teens. -
Factory Investigating Committee
Following the Triangle fire New York City established the Factory Investigation Committee. The outcry that the public had for work place safety forced the city government to make the committee. The committee was made to investigate the safety and well-being of workers in factories. They also investigated low wages, long hours, and child labor. Within the first year New York state made a similar committee and held many public hearings and drafted 15 laws. -
Automatic Sprinklers, Fire Drills and Worker Safety
The committee proposed many ideas in 1912 that later became laws. They included: Registration of factories, Fire Drills, Automatic Sprinklers, Fire Prevention, (removal of rubbish, prohibition of smoking, trash cans for waste) prohibition of eating lunch in which poisonous materials are. Those ideas and many more became law in New York State in 1912. Many ideas such as the fire prevention requirement, were directly spurred from the Triangle disaster. -
Fire Escapes, Occupant Limits, Bathroom, Cannery Conditions, Child Labor Laws
The committee continued its work in 1913 with many additions to their proposed bills. The bills included: Penalties for violation of labor laws and Industrial Codes, fire proof trash cans for cigarettes, fire alarms, banning of manufacturing of tenements, cleanliness of workplaces, physical examination of children before employment, and multiple elevators. These laws helped limit the amount of child laborers and later would help to eliminate it all together. -
Sanitation Regulations and Limited Hours for Working Children
In 1914 the committee continued its efforts to improve the workplace.The bills in 1914 were mainly based around long hours and included: limiting children and women's hours in commercial business and requiring sanitation in commercial establishments. Once again child labor was limited and the prevention of child labor all-together was on its way. Sanitation also began to become a requirement in many businesses -
Sources
http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/201103250003
Flesh and Blood So Cheap
