Friday, June 25, 2010
Political Cartoon #2
As a response to this posting, write one paragraph addressing all elements of this political cartoon. What did the artist mean when he drew the inspector of buildings as a skeleton? What is the sign on the building talking about?
Political Cartoon #1
Post a one paragraph response to this political cartoon. Explain how it relates to the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. Be sure to address all elements of the political cartoon.
Clara Lemlich
Life in the Shop
by Clara Lemlich
First published in the New York Evening Journal, November 28, 1909.
(Lemlich was a union member who called for a strike in 1909 based on condition described in her article.)
First let me tell you something about the way we work and what we are paid. There are two kinds of work- regular, that is salary work, and
piecework. The regular work pays about $6 a week and the girls have to be at their machines at 7 o'clock in the morning and they stay at them until 8 o'clock at night, with just one-half hour at lunch in that time.
The shops, Well, there is just one row of machines that the daylight ever gets to-that is the front row, nearest the window. The girls at all the other rows of machines back in the shops have to work by gaslight, by day as well as by night. Oh, yes, the shops keep the work going at night, too.
The bosses in the shops are hardly what you would call educated men, and the girls to them are part of the machines they are running. They yell at the girls and they "call them down" even worse that I imagine the Negro slaves were in the South.
There are no dressing rooms for the girls in the shops. They have to hang up their hats and coats-such as they are-on hooks along the walls. Sometimes a girl has a new hat. It never is much to look at because it never costs more than 50 cents, that means that we have gone for weeks on two-cent lunches-dry cake and nothing else.
The shops are unsanitary-that's the word that is generally use, but there ought to be a worse one used. Whenever we tear or damage any of the goods we sew on, or whenever it is found damaged after we are through with it, whether we have done it or not, we are charged for the piece and sometimes for a whole yard of the material.
At the beginning of every slow season, $2 is deducted from our salaries. We have never been able to find out what this is for.
Assignment directions:
After reading Ms. Lemlich's article, write a journal entry in your notebook from the perspective of a factory worker (male or female) or one of the factory owners. Describe who you are and your thoughts on working conditions or labor unions.
3 questions YOU have about Uprising or the video
After viewing the video and answering the three questions, post three questions you have about Uprising or the video.
Question #2
If you were an owner of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, what changes could you have made to prevent the loss of life in the fire?
Video: The Triangle Shirtwaist factory
After viewing the video clip, post your response to the three questions in the posts above. In the fourth post, write three questions you have about the book Uprising or the video clip.
Snopsis of Uprising
Uprising takes place in New York City in 1911. Thousands of immigrants had flooded the city looking for work in the years before. Many of them took up work in sweatshops like the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. Uprising follows the experiences of Yetta and Rahel, Russian Jews who came to America in search of freedom. They befriend a young Italian girl, Bella, who also comes to work at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. Their story chronicles the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment, the growing labor movement, the suffragette movement, and the terrible tragedy of the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. The tragedy that took the lives of 146 people has greatly influenced current laws concerning fire safety and building codes.
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