History
The fire that changed America
Our nation has grown to what it is today because we have continued to learn from past mistakes in an effort to grow and be better than ever. Disasters are no exception. In 1911, a disastrous fire in New York City took the lives of 146 people. This could have been prevented had we known how important building safety codes really are. Their fruitless efforts deepened the despair on the faces of the gathering crowds. Nothing could save the hopeless workers. People could only watch them suffer from afar. This devastating fire forevermore transformed the working class of America. The Triangle Factory Fire’s loss of life was fueled by non-existent fire prevention, inadequate safety codes, lack of proper firefighting equipment, poorly planned fire escapes, and inaccessible exits. The 146 lives lost were the ultimate martyrs for worker safety. Even though it is not perfect and our country has some of the best working conditions in the world.
Tammany Hall was the political machine that dominated New York for half a century and it represented the opposite idea of pure possibility. Before it was called Tammany Hall, it was founded in the revolutionary days for philosophical reasons: to oppose elitism and resist British sympathizers. The name derived from a Delaware Indian chief (Tamamend) and from that, it became a political organization, the Democratic Party.
They kept a tight grip on law enforcement agencies. Also the government ensured both power and money for Tammany. They consistently paid off police officers to ignore scandals and incidents in which a Tammany Hall figure had been involved. David Von Drehle demonstrated this scheme in his book Triangle: The Fire That Changed America. Tammany hired several street thugs to intimidate a chairman of the Triangle strike committee. Joe Zeinfield, threatened their authority as an industrialist powerhouse protecting a major company. After these gangsters physically beat Zeinfield, several
Our nation has grown to what it is today because we have continued to learn from past mistakes in an effort to grow and be better than ever. Disasters are no exception. In 1911, a disastrous fire in New York City took the lives of 146 people. This could have been prevented had we known how important building safety codes really are. Their fruitless efforts deepened the despair on the faces of the gathering crowds. Nothing could save the hopeless workers. People could only watch them suffer from afar. This devastating fire forevermore transformed the working class of America. The Triangle Factory Fire’s loss of life was fueled by non-existent fire prevention, inadequate safety codes, lack of proper firefighting equipment, poorly planned fire escapes, and inaccessible exits. The 146 lives lost were the ultimate martyrs for worker safety. Even though it is not perfect and our country has some of the best working conditions in the world.
Tammany Hall was the political machine that dominated New York for half a century and it represented the opposite idea of pure possibility. Before it was called Tammany Hall, it was founded in the revolutionary days for philosophical reasons: to oppose elitism and resist British sympathizers. The name derived from a Delaware Indian chief (Tamamend) and from that, it became a political organization, the Democratic Party.
They kept a tight grip on law enforcement agencies. Also the government ensured both power and money for Tammany. They consistently paid off police officers to ignore scandals and incidents in which a Tammany Hall figure had been involved. David Von Drehle demonstrated this scheme in his book Triangle: The Fire That Changed America. Tammany hired several street thugs to intimidate a chairman of the Triangle strike committee. Joe Zeinfield, threatened their authority as an industrialist powerhouse protecting a major company. After these gangsters physically beat Zeinfield, several