The Ludlow Massacre took place in Ludlow, Colorado in April 1914. It mainly consisted of coal miners and their families who were on strike against mine guards and the Colorado National Guard. The coal miners wanted to address the violence against the workers and the bad conditions, for example they were monitored by guards, as well as were under strict control of the employers. They also faced harsh hours, low pay, and violence, and the workers wanted to strike against this. This result is about 20 dead that were women and children. 

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a horrific industrial incident that killed 146 garment workers, mostly young immigrant women. They were trapped by locked doors and inadequate fire escapes on the top floors of the Asch Building, which disabled them from escaping. This occurred in New York City on March 25th, 1911. The fire started from flammable materials coming in contact with unsafe equipment, and the workers had a lack of fire protocol training.

Eyewitness Reports - Eyewitnesses noted large mobs massing in cities across the United States. Many sympathized with the strikers. "The strike," an anonymous Baltimore merchant wrote, "is not a revolution of fanatics willing to fight for an idea. It is a revolt of working men against low prices of labor, which have not been accomplished with corresponding low prices of food, clothing and house rent." A  newspaper headline read: Shot in Cold Blood by the Roughs of Philadelphia. The Lexington of the Labor Conflict at Hand. The Slaughter of Innocents. The strike was chaotic and was dealt with in a manner one might consider barbaric. The public response was mixed, with the lower class broadly supporting the strikers, and the upper class condemning the strike.

The Long Depression led to wage cuts, high unemployment, and poverty. Since the beginning of railroad positions, conditions and hours were very dangerous with high death rates and tasks, such as exploding tunnels, that severely impacted the lives of laborers. Workers also often faced economic instability, living on the verge of starvation as wages were constantly cut.

The primary blame can be placed on railroad owners as they put workers in dangerous situations and pay cuts, leading to inadequate living standards while they maintained their own capital. Federal and state governments were also blamed because they prioritized corporate interests and forcefully ended strikes which caused widespread violence.

“He had no bomb at the Haymarket; did not know of anyone who had, and did not expect any trouble on that occasion. 

“…that the police were working men as well as themselves.”

Long term cause of the event: Owners of companies grew increasingly powerful and they were able to abuse their power to maximize profits which led to tensions between employees and employers. 

Henry Clay Frick deserves the most blame for the implementation of unfair wage cuts.

Fire Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo - “Fire escapes are under the supervision of the building department. I have no criticism to offer as to the way they are taking care of fire escapes. There is now a bill before the legislature which will go a long way in remedying the conditions of buildings without fire escapes.” 

Unnamed Official “It was said by an official of the department who stands very near the commissioner, but who refused to be quoted, was one of seven thousand others which had been recommended by the fire department for additional fire escapes.”

https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1911-03-26/ed-1/?sp=1&q=triangle+shirtwaist+fire&r=0.486,1.218,0.358,0.157,0

The grievances all combined into a breaking point. In 1894, over four thousand workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company went on strike. Led by Eugene V. Debs's American Railway Union (ARU), it became a national boycott. The members of the ARU succeeded in causing devastation to the company. President Cleveland dispatched federal troops to Chicago, where the strike was put down. Federal troops shot into the crowd where the strike was broken. The consequences of the strike included public backlash, as the public didn’t fully support the boycott but understood the workers’ situation. Pullman was blamed for the situation and for stretching out the strike. The Erdman Act was passed and was the first in a series of acts aimed at regulating railroad labor.

The system as a whole is to blame, as the actions of both the protesters and the police were a result of injustice. The police were trying to put down protesters, as it was their job, but then also shot into the crowd.