From the Ashes at Boyertown – Safety Legislation for All

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on From the Ashes at Boyertown – Safety Legislation for All Pennsylvania’s most disastrous fire broke out one hundred years ago, on Monday, January 13, 1908, killing 170 people in the Rhoads Opera House, a second-floor auditorium on East Philadelphia Avenue in the small Berks County community of Boyertown. The World Almanac records the disaster as one of the five worst fires in the United States of the twentieth century. No family in the community of...
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Frances Perkins

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Frances Perkins On July 28, 1933, U. S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (1882–1965), the first female presidential cabinet member in American history, visited the Homestead, Allegheny County, plant of the Carnegie Steel Company, where the minimum wage was forty cents an hour. Steel executives, determined to keep wages low, prevent unionization, and suppress free speech encouraging labor organization, were...
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James A. Finnegan (1906-1958)

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on James A. Finnegan (1906-1958) At the 1956 Democratic Convention in Chicago, former President Harry S. Truman greeted Philadelphian James A. Finnegan (1906–1958) and asked how he was. “Very good,” replied Finnegan. “I hope it isn’t too good!” Truman quipped. Truman had endorsed New York Governor William Averell Harriman for the Democratic nomination for president. Finnegan served as campaign manager for former Illinois...
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