Response to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was a landmark tragedy still marked in American labor history. On March 25, 1911, in New York City, 146 workers, mainly Jewish and Italian women, perished within thirty minutes in a devastating fire that raged uncontrolled through an unsafe factory building. The outrage that followed led to changes in building standards and labor laws, even though the building’s owners were acquitted. Just eight days after the fire, Rosa Schneiderman—an organizer for the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL)—delivered a furious speech at the Metropolitan Opera House; her words then appeared on April 8, 1911 in her article in the social-work journal The Survey. 

Schneiderman showed disdain for the many expressions of sympathy, regarding them as hypocritical. She stressed that for years police and political officials had ignored calls for better working conditions and had blocked workers from protesting and striking.