HIST 151 1st Edition Lecture 7 Outline of Last Lecture I Rise of Homosexuality II Crane Outline of Current Lecture I Fire II What Caused the Deaths III The Fallout Current Lecture I Fire a Triangle Shirtwaist Fire i March 25 1911 Asch Building New York City ii 9 floor concrete and steel building state of the art 1 Owners boasted it was fireproof because it wasn t made of wood 2 However it was a shirtwaist factory so everything inside was quite flammable a Clothing scraps skin hair wooden tables iii Owners famous for having unsafe conditions iv Surprise to the entire nation due to the scale of the tragedy v Employees were mostly immigrant women vi Staircases were only 3 ft wide 1 Maximize space on the floor for sewing machines money making 2 Got jammed 3 600 people worked in the Asch Building vii Fire Escapes were made of inadequate materials 1 Collapsed under the weight of the panicked workers viii Elevator out of service ix 2nd door locked x 62 workers jumped out the windows 1 None survived the 9 story fall 2 Incident happened during rush hour xi More than 140 dead xii People said it changed everything b Expansion and Power of the American State These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute i 19th century didn t really interact with the federal government 1 Except Post Office a Weak remote irrelevant 2 20th century government shapes lives 3 TSF drew attention large scale problems demanded large scale solutions 4 Face to face solutions inadequate a Variety of answers b Progressive Era c Mass migration d American expansion overseas e National efforts to conserve resources II What Caused the Fire a Owners Max Blank and Isaac Harris put on trial i Indicated for deaths 11 Apr 1911 ii Brought to trial Dec 1911 b Frederick Winslow Taylor i Engineer ii Guru on efficiency iii Associated with production efficiencies iv Taylorism condensed efficient v Principles of Scientific Management 1911 1 Conducted time efficiency status 2 Optimal amount of break time 3 Profibility maximized cost minimized 4 Very dangerous c Conditions made workplace very unsafe i Court didn t say conditions weren t the cause of the deaths ii Conditions invisible to court iii Accidents took place in places not widely seen 1 Seen by few people iv Court knew about conditions but law of the time prevented the court from seeing evidence v Took place in private space 1 Accident had to be between employer employee 2 Unless willful criminal wrongdoing vi Courts only interested in two things 1 Last step in causal change a Proximate cause 2 Only interested in whether employer played direct knowing deliberate role in proximal cause 3 Private space vii Harris and Blank 1 Flammable material fire hoses in bad condition 2 Locked door whole case boiled down to that a Jury had doubt b Did Harris and Blank know i They were acquitted 3 Court couldn t see bad work conditions d Public Disaster i Morgue swamped 1 Put coffins on piers for I D ing victims e Expansion of American Regulatory state i NY State Factory Investigating Commission 1 36 statutes that governed workplace safety ii 1912 NY Constitution made legal workers comp 1 CA had one 1911 2 Child safety min wage max hours L