Syria

Reports of anti government grafiti signs in Syria have recently appeared in news. These have directly contributed to protests among Syria. President Bashar al-Assad was the current president during the protests. Tanks and security forces were deployed into the areas of protest. Soliders were sent in an attempt to control the protest crowds. The lack of help the soldiers showed for the government contributed to the formation of the Syrian National Council. Basha al-Assad has not been forced out of power although there are many groups in Syria against his form of governing. A piece of evidence that shows an increasing rate of violence is stated best by saying, "According the United Nations, more than 5,400 Syrians have been killed, thousands are missing, with 25,000 refugees in other countries and more than 70,000 internally displaced". Investigators of the situation in Syria were able to vote Bashar al-Assad to give his power and duties to current vice president. The US has become a counterpart to improve the conditions involving human rights in Syria.

Afghanistan

The United States came into 2012 with expectations to begin the end of the war with Afghanistan. The war has been waged since shortly after the September 11th, 2001 attacks. Troops have began to be withdrawn from Afghanistan, but the 68,000 that are still there are expected to be withdrawn by the end of 2014. Obama recently apologized on behalf of NATO for setting fire to bags filled with Korans. In relation to the Taliban, instead of their typical high profile attacks, NATO has observed they have found less public ways to assert themselves. The relation between NATO and Afghan Army counter parts countinues to decline. Although the Taliban claims they have changed their ways, they recently accused four random men that they were spies and beheaded them. This reflects their violent ways that have only continued. The United States has only thus far sucessfully removed Al Qaeda and the Taliban from power, but the groups themselves still exist. Afghanistan is the central military force of Obama's administration.

Frances Perkins

The next article I read about explained the life and accomplishments of Frances Perkins. Perkins was an aspiring chemistry teacher, and made it a goal to better the lives of women and children. After her personal account of watching women and children jump from the windows trying to save their lives during the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Perkins pushed efforts even more to improve the working conditions of women and children. This resulted in her involvement in the New York State Assembly that eventually developed limited working hours for both women and children.

Leap for Life, Leap of Death

Mostly a sumary again, "Leap for Life, Leap of Death" adds a more personal touch to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire with multiple personal accounts included in the article. Gruesome detailing of the incident is used with language like ""on lookers watched in horror as body after body fell to the earth". Not only does this quote show the lengths people went to to try and save their lives by jumping out the windows, but represents the reality of the time that there was no other option but jumping out the window to survive. I was especially taken back when Pauline Cuoio Pepe's personal account was talked about. She conveyed the majority of workers as young jewish women that were engaged. Their desperate attempts to make money and do better for themselves were smothered by the fire, spoiling any attempt at a future for them.

My Question

I am learning about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire because I want to find out about the impact of child labor before and after incident, in order to understand how child labor influenced laws and regulations before and after the fire.

"How large of an impact did the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire have on enacting certain laws and regulations concerning child labor?

In Flames

1)      http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=108&sid=2fc564cb-5124-4991-af4e-ffd56f64fae9%40sessionmgr114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ofs&AN=502154332
This document was written by Karen Bilodeau as a feature article found in The Maine Bar Journal.  Bilodeau seems to have created this article to concentrate on both worker’s rights and labor conditions before and after the fire. Bilodeau has created this article to focus mainly on the unjust worker rights of the fire’s time period, but also what happened after. Her inferable negative view of the conditions laborers worked under is included in the phrase “Unfortunately it took the loss of 146 lives to serve as a catalyst for improvements” (Bilodeau, 43).  Strong language like “catalyst” implies the author’s opinion on what she thinks was a long, drawn out process for a simple necessity. This simple necessity is the right to having a safe, comfortable working environment. Simple necessities to provide workers with was ignored until 146 people, men and women, had to be either suffocated, burned, or trampled to death. What makes this situation especially bitter and unjust is the fact that these workers were immigrants of Italian and Jewish decent, simply looking for a better life in New York. To obtain one of these sweatshop-like jobs took an immense amount of effort for so little in return. Their hard work and hope for a better life was not even supported by a more practical, reliable working environment.       
 Bilodeau then highlights the aftermath of the fire with a positive aspect with "the golden era of remedial factory legislation". In this period of time, the fire was able to raise awareness enough to pass 36 laws in only 3 years regarding fire safety and child labor law hours. In a sense, the length of time it took for justice to be served in the case of labor conditions makes me think of child soldiers in Africa. With technology today, the entire world can see what is going on in Africa, and how the childhoods of so many children has been stripped from them, leaving them hopeless. What will it take for the entire world to come together as one to stop this process of capturing and making child soldiers? It took 146 deaths in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire to raise awareness about factory safety and child labor laws. What will be the deciding factor for everyone to come together in an effort to save millions of childrens lives, after millions have already passed.
2) http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=5&hid=21&sid=92123e10-c412-4bf4-a357-73a94ded5a51%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ofs&AN=504935280
The feature article written by Amy Kolen is both a reflection and example of her grandmother's personal experience of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Throughout the article, Kolen switches from her grandmother's written thoughts of what had occured, and back to her own reflection and memory of the event. Kolen's goal in the article is to give a much more precise view of what conditions were like before the fire, and how workers, like her grandmother were treated. Such trecherous conditions were described with " Triangle workers were charged for supplies and for the electricity they needed to run the sewing machines. They were also charged "rent" for the chairs they sat in eight to thirteen hours a day, six days a week, in overcrowded rooms--chokingly hot in the summer" (Kolen, 13). While these people are so desperate for work, they must pay for their materials to work with. Under a company ran by two very wealthy men, they veered away from supporting their own company because they knew they could take advantage of the immigrants work. None of the other articles I have seen so far have gotten into such depth of the conditions before the fire, and it only makes me cringe more. Kolen continues addressing the fire with her grandmothers recollection that "Triangle was not unlike any other factory at the time". For me, this puts the incident in a much broader perspective. This fire could have happened anywhere in the country, at any time. Conditions all around were similar, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was a huge leap in achieving justice for all labor conditions.

3) http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/298856?terms=triangle+shirtwaist+factory


"Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire: newspaper account (1911)." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 9 Feb. 2012.

This newspaper article is dated from 1911, right after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. What is fascinating about the way the article is written is the way the paragraphs are seperated. Phrases like "all over in a half an hour" and "leaped up in flames" seperate the paragraphs, giving the article more emotion than a simple summary. In using powerful language like this, it makes me not only feel sympathetic, but need to ask the question "how could something like this not have been predicted?". In an emotion packed description of the company's lack of safety measures, the author of this article adds "The one little fire escape in the interior was resorted to by any of the doomed victims. Some of them escaped by running down the stairs, but in a moment or two this avenue was cut off by flame,". Using the word "little" creates the negative conotation that it was so simple to provide simple safety measures to protect their workers, yet the managers Harris and Blanck failed to do so. The "doomed" victims signifies that anyone who saw the conditions that these workers were living under could easily predict that there was no hope for them to get out alive. I finally was able to come across in this article something about a survivor of the fire. Although very few men compared to women were involved in the company's endeavours that day, this article talks about a man, Hyman Meshel, a survivor. In detailing how Hyman acted after the fire, the article describes him with "He was found paralyzed with fear and whimpering like a wounded animal in the basement". Historically, men have always been seen as the "superior" ones, or the ones that can never be defeated. As so many women died around him, Hyman was left to be mentally tormented by the memories of something out of his control, but in control of people like Harris and Blanck. Harris and Blanck allowed 146 people to be killed that day, and left few others, like Hyman, to live a fearful life.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

          The Triangle Shirtwaist Company was a clothing factory that caught fire on March 25h, 1911. With sweatshop-esque conditions, the factory did not have a sprinkler system, all of the exit doors were locked, and posessed a poor ventilation system. Addictionally, faulty fire escapes were an aspect of the companys layout. Although the building was a so called "fire-proof" building, the premises was littered with flamable cloth. The vast majority of workers in the factory were women immigrants of Italian and Jewish decent. Of these 500 employed people, most were under the age of 25. At 4:30 P.M, the building caught fire. Scrambling for their lives, 146 of the near 500 employees were engulfed in flames. The efforts of the firefighters were overturned when they were inable to reach the top floors of the factory as the collapsing fire escapes forbid the fearful women from exiting. Other attemps, like nets for women to jump into, failed as they were not able to hold the weight of the women jumping into them. The aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire included the a trial for the two company managers, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck. They were tried for man-slaughter. The bias all male jury claimed the women of the fire were simply in panic, and this wasn't the fault of the two managers. Eventually, the two men were ordered to pay 75 dollars to each of the 23 families effected. Such injustice raised awareness to government officials about labor conditions. Ultimately, New York legislatures response was the passing of multiple laws enforcing better, safer working conditions for labor workers. In a larger sense, New York was a launching point for the progression of labor working conditions that would eventually raise awareness to the entire country.