回答这个问题需要看过这本书:《The Triangle Fire:A Brief History with Documents》,因为需要引用书中的例子。以下是问题:
1. The growth of the shirtwaist industry jumped significantly in the first decade of the twentieth century. Who provided the labor supply for the production of shirtwaists? What kind of training did the workers receive? How did the industry's seasonality affect these workers and their wages. Cite examples.
2. Why did the Progressive reformers target the garment industry for their reform efforts? What kinds of reform did they seek to achieve? Cite examples.
3. What was the reaction to the Triangle fire in the city, the state, and the nation? Why did many observers link the fire with the earlier strike against the Triangle factory? How did the ILGWU and the WTUL respond to the tragedy? How did the workers respond? Cite examples.
4. The Triangle fire raised critical questions about the regulatory role of government in society, especially pointing to the issues of worker safety and management rights. What were these questions and how did workers, reformers and civil and business leaders respond to them? Cite examples.
5. The Triangle fire produced immediate and significant change. Assess the consequences of the fire for the Progressive Era, especially the impact on women and factory work. Why do you think the Triangle fire has been called the "fire that changed America"? Cite examples.
这是我历史课上的问题,请用英语回答.由于回答类似问题的仁兄很少,所以暂时只给10分,如果答案满意一定加分,谢谢!
顺便给出中文参考资料:
http://finance.ifeng.com/opinion/zjgc/20100407/2019080.shtml
http://www.chinathink.net/aindex/documents/200408/4593.shtml
In the mid-19th century, due to the famine and the war, a large number of immigrants from Europe and Asia poured into the United States. These new immigrants were complete strangers here and have no skills, because most of them were farmers and artisans before. In order to feed their families, they were forced to working in the factories which have bad working conditions.. Because of the life pressure, women had to go out to work, make money supplement their family incomes. However, due to language barriers, low levels of education, their job opportunities were limited, the majority of women going out to worked in the clothing factories or to be maids. As the book “The Triangle Fire” mentioned, “Blank and Harris preferred to hire immigrant women, who would work for less pay than men and who, the owners claimed, were less susceptible to labor organization.” (pg2) So I think the workers received the training of working a long time and their professional skills. And even “during the eight months of the peak production season”, they were working on Sundays as well but without increase the wage. “When the season was on,” Newman explained, “we worked till 9 o’clock,” but with “no overtime pay.” A sign above the elevator read “If You Don’t Come In On Sunday, Don’t Come In On Monday.” Wages were so low that the seasonality of the industry imposed special hardship one the workers and their families during slack times. (pg8)
2. Why did the Progressive reformers target the garment industry for their reform efforts? What kinds of reform did they seek to achieve? Cite examples.
Because “sweatshops in the garment industry forced workers to labor in squalid conditions-tiny rooms that were hot in summer and cold in winter and were always noisy, dimly lit, and filled with stoves, irons, sewing machines, and pressing boards.”(pg2) And unfortunately, the workers need working in that bad environment for a long time. So the reformers aimed to decrease the working time and increase the wage of garment industry workers. And also, they help workers organized in powerful unions, that made them would be more conscious of their rights and better able to obtain safe working conditions. “Frustrated and saddened by what they regarded as legal injustice, workers and reformers were more successful in their efforts to make factories safer.” (pg30)
3. What was the reaction to the Triangle fire in the city, the state, and the nation? Why did many observers link the fire with the earlier strike against the Triangle factory? How did the ILGWU and the WTUL respond to the tragedy? How did the workers respond? Cite examples.
After the happening of the Triangle fire, all the people in New York City were immersed in a sorrowful atmosphere, also “the tragedy had strained every municipal resource—doctors, nurses, police, and firefighters were all called into action” (pg21). The whole city, even the whole state and the nation, was shocked by the tragedy. They were aware of the importance of the problem, many observers link the fire with the earlier strike against the Triangle factory, because they “remembered their great strike of last year, in which these girls demanded more sanitary workrooms, and more safety precautions in the shops. These dead bodies told the results”(pg25). But unfortunately, the girls did not get their right after the strike, and that is the direct reason of the tragedy. “The ILGWU and WTUL draped the union hall with black sashes, listed the names of the dead, and called for punishment of the guilty”(pg27). They were trying to find out who is responsible for this tragedy and do their best to protect the rights of the workers. And the workers felt very sad and indignant, but they did not do the strike, because they did not have to, the city will solve it.
4. The Triangle fire raised critical questions about the regulatory role of government in society, especially pointing to the issues of worker safety and management rights. What were these questions and how did workers, reformers and civil and business leaders respond to them? Cite examples.
After 1910 workers’ strike, all sectors of the community still did not solve the issues of worker safety and management right. The workers worded in dingy workrooms, and the places were not safe, and they worked for a long time, but receive very low wage. Nobody paid attention on these cheap labors. But the tragedy awakens the conscience of the society. “The reform movement began with the establishment of the Factory Investigating Commission (FIC) by Governor Dix on June 30, 1911.” (pg31) “The New York state legislature passed comprehensive legislation regulating industrial work” and set a lot of new laws to “reorganized the state’s department of labor, creating a more powerful industrial board to oversee working conditions.” And the business leaders “denounced the flurry of legislation as an ‘outcropping of hysteria’ and claimed that they had been ‘paralyzed by an avalanche of so-called remedial laws,’ but New York had emerged as one of the most progressive states in the nation.” (pg32)
5. The Triangle fire produced immediate and significant change. Assess the consequences of the fire for the Progressive Era, especially the impact on women and factory work. Why do you think the Triangle fire has been called the "fire that changed America"? Cite examples.
The Triangle factory fire is a tragedy that “transformed politics and the law” (pg32). The fire awakened the conscience of New York, also shocked the entire United States, and triggered a series of social reforms. To 1914, New York State passed a total of 34 laws to improve workers' working conditions and labor safety. The adoption of these laws was seen as the most important results in “progressive era”. The fire “had been a searing torch of destruction, but from the ‘ashes of the tragedy’ emerged needed reforms that transformed American industrial life.” (pg33) And in my opinion, “transformed American industrial life” is the reason why the fire that changed America.