"I remember... we heard the engines and we heard the screams and rushed out and rushed over... We could see this building from Washington Square and the people had just begun to jump when we got there. They had been holding... standing in the windowsills... crowded by others behind them, the fire pressing closer and closer, the smoke closer and closer. Finally the men were trying to get out this... net to catch people... they couldn't wait any longer. They began to jump. The window was too crowded and they would jump and they hit the sidewalk. The net broke, they [fell] a terrible distance, the weight of the bodies was so great... that they broke through the net. Every one of them was killed, everybody who jumped... It was a horrifying spectacle. We... felt as though we had been part of it all. The next day people... in all parts of the city... began to mull around and gather and talk."
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Episcopalians from the United StatesWomen academics from the United StatesSociologists from the United StatesWomen politicians in the United StatesUnited States Secretaries of Labor
Original Language: English
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Frances Perkins
1939 – 1945
Frances Perkins (April 10, 1882 – May 14, 1965) was U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945. She was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Cabinet and was largely responsible for the U.S. adoption of social security, unemployment insurance, the federal minimum wage, and federal laws regulating child labor. During her term as Secretary of Labor, Perkins executed the , the and its successor the , plus the labor portion of the . With the Social Security Act she established , pensions for the many
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