Episcopalians From The United States

"She set about eliminating the group as quickly and as quietly as possible. She did not call in the newspapers; her purpose was not to blacken the Hoover administration or to lay charges... but to reorganize the largest bureau in her department. Gaarson was asked to submit his resignation as Special Assistant Secretary of Labor... Sixteen members of the force, among them Doak's brother and nephew... were put on furlough... and the other seventy-one members were informed that, for lack of funds... their jobs... were abolished."

"A day or two later she returned to the office after dinner to work, not expecting to find anyone in the building except the night watchman. ...The elevator door opened directly on Gaarson, his brother and several other men. They were rifling the files. ...pulling out the folders, going through them, taking papers out and piling them on the floor. ..."If you have anything personal here, I suggest you come back tomorrow after the department is open, and that you tell Mr. White [Robe Carl White, First Assistant Secrtetary of Labor] what you want. ...Meanwhile I ask you to leave the building now." The "now" resounded. On the faces of many of the more thuglike men she could see a determination not to leave. Gaarson... decided to go... After they left, she telephoned for an additional guard and waited until he came. The next day she changed the locks on the cabinets. Once she had some programs on unemployment started, she would see what could be done about prosecution."

"[S]he had decided to abolish the group... But first she went to talk with the President. She saw him privately in his office... told him briefly about the force, quoted the report of Hoover's commission and described what she had found in the department. He was astonished and at the same time amused. "It's a great joke," he said, "that it should be you who runs into crooks. Go ahead and clean them out. ...""

"[S]he had that burdensome conscience that drove her to get something done that probably made the most significant difference in the life of America than almost anything that you can name."

"Doak... spoke often of the "radical element" among the laborers; he stressed constantly the threat to the country from "alien agitators"; and in order to find and deport aliens illegally in the country he had formed a special corps of investigators... Section 24 ...Section 24 of the permitted a Secretary of Labor, without regard to civil service requirements, to appoint to the bureau any persons he thought specially qualified to enforce the contract labor provisions of the immigration laws. ...In [First Assistant Secrtetary of Labor, Robe Carl] White's opinion most of the men Doak had appointed ...were dishonest. They had been recruited, White said, "out of the gutter.""

"Perkins was influenced by many books that exposed horrendous situations, including 's book How the Other Half Lives, an exposé... that "deeply moved" Perkins."

"She intended... to lessen the bureau's importance in the department, chiefly by increasing the strength of the other five bureaus: Labor Statistics, Women, Children, and the Employment and Conciliation services. Though Immigration was the largest, in her view it had little to do with the country's problems."

"[I]nto this enormous churning, seemingly endless insecure society, they introduced the notion of a secure society, social security. I do not believe that the Social Security Act would have made it into law without Francis Perkins."

"[B]ecause historians and biographers of have reported only the first half of her career, and those of Roosevelt only the second, its continuity has been lost."

"[F]or roughly twenty years, from 1925 to 1945, on social legislation hers was the dominant voice at the ear of the leader of the Democratic party, and among the party's most lasting achievements in that period are several for which she was the prime mover."

"She disliked personal publicity and often would do nothing to counter criticism even when it was patently unfair."

"Perkins' personality informed all her work. ...[W]hat Perkins chose to do was determined by her religion. Many Democrats supported the because it attracted votes; others, for humanitarian reasons; Perkins, "for Jesus' sake," because it brought the City of God closer to the cities of toil and industry."

"Not only was she one of the most important women of her generation, but even today, because of her work on minimum wage and on accident, unemployment and old age insurance, she has a hand in our daily lives. ...[H]er achievements have been too little appreciated."

"Frances Perkins brings to the Cabinet as Secretary of Labor the many years of training and experience which step by step have rounded out the preparation for her great responsibility. Even with the contribution of her vivid personality, the press, generally speaking, pays her the tribute of reporting the wisdom of the words and acts rather than idle "gossip" about the "first woman Cabinet member.""

"So it was done: one administration, Democratic, succeeded another, Republican. ...She had heard nothing from the Department of Labor; her predecessor, ... did not plan any ceremonial welcome. ...Except for an occasional fee from an article or speech, she had only her salary as a cabinet officer, $13,000 a year, to support herself, her child and husband. Sussana was doing well at the Brearly School and [her husband, Paul] Wilson was in a sanitarium... able, on occasion to come home. ...In Washington Perkins felt she... could afford, only a small apartment or a single room."

"[H]istorians putting the records together closer to the era in which Frances Perkins lived would have known that Frances was both a suffrage leader and a labor advocate, but scholars born later did not easily make that connection."

"[Perkins' daughter] Susanna's death... opened up one small box of personal documents, which... chronicled the mental health problems and physician's reports on Susanna and Frances's husband Paul Wilson, who both suffered from bipolar disorder. During her lifetime, Susanna had denied that her father had ever been ill... allowing it to appear that Frances had been an overly controlling mother, or that she had pretended that her husband was mentally ill to get rid of him. Concealing that information allowed allowed a generation... to believe that Frances had been a failure as a wife and a mother."

"I was badly bitten by the idea that I could have a place in the theatre... I harbored that idea for a little while. It would have been a great pleasure, but I soon dropped it because I got principle..."

"If facts were to be found, I was to devise ways to prevent it or overcome it either by social representation or by legislation at the municipal or state level. ...Ten cent lodging houses, employment agencies, the offices of the Philadelphia political "gangs," and the two police courts all became my haunts..."

"Social work was an infant then. ...I just lapped it up there... I discovered... that I had a mind that starts, operates on its own scheme, inquires, penetrates, goes to the bottom of things, puts two and two together and comes to some logical conclusions that have authority."

"[B]efore she accepted the offer she had to know if the President-elect would support her in advocating the programs she would wish to pursue as secretary of labor. ...[S]he pulled out a little slip of paper ...the list of goals about which she felt passionate. Among other items on the list were laws for minimum wages and maximum hours, for unemployment insurance and old-age insurance. ...Only when he firmly assured, "I'll back you," could she think about... accepting the offer. And so... on March 4, 1933 Frances Perkins became the first woman to serve in the United States Cabinet... The legacy of her years in office continues to affect the life of every U.S. citizen."

"And best (or worst) of all, I grew old during that time, so that now I am a settled and mature old spinster with an opinion on every topic under heaven... I've also acquired... a sense of humor—so that I no longer take myself and my doings seriously..."

"Because Doak seemed uncertain what to say, she... asked general questions... She quickly concluded that he had little information. ...[H]e could not describe any ideas they had discussed for combating the Depression. When she mentioned a program of public works as a method of providing employment and increasing purchasing power, he seemed to have no ideas beyond... "it'll cost a lot of money and wreck the Treasury." ...[S]he questioned Doak about the department's chief problems. "Well, the immigration business is always serious," he said. "We have lots of trouble with those people who come in illegally." ...The previous week a New York police lieutenant ...had come to her office to describe how a group within the Bureau of Immigration was extorting money from aliens. ...Specifically, the lieutenant had warned her to watch for ...the leaders of the Section 24 group. Doak had created the special section and appointed both men. ...It was not the sort of labor problem that Perkins had discussed with Roosevelt, but here it was in her department."

"I'm the last leaf on the New Deal tree, and I think perhaps I've clung here too long already."

"Harry Bridges is a card-carrying Communist, Franklin, but that's the single black mark against him and isn't illegal. I just don't believe a man should be punished for what he believes or thinks."

"We were in a terrible situation... Banks were closing. The economic life of the country was almost at a standstill."

"Just let the people know that they matter to you, that your plan is to mobilize the government to help them. If you can give them hope that things will be better, they'll bless you, Franklin."

"My generation was perhaps the first that openly and actively asserted—at least some of us did—the separateness of women and their personal independence in the family relationship..."

"The Employment Service is all but dead. It needs resurrecting and reorganizing. The Statistical Bureau needs revamping too, so it will be an honest fact-finding body. As for the Immigration Service—well, really, Franklin, it is altogether too reactionary for today's world."

"['s speech] first opened my mind to the necessity for and the possibility of the work which became my vocation."

"To know him is to love him... He's honest, high-minded, intelligent and—above all—independent. I have worked with him in government for years. There has never been any conflict between his official duties and his religious beliefs, I am confident there never will be!"

"I know what horror tales you've been hearing from manufacturers... They've told you they can't possibly operate under a forty-eight hour law. Well, they said the same thing twelve years ago when the Fifty-Four Hour Bill was under consideration. So, gentlemen, let us look at the facts. ...[T]here have been fewer industrial accidents, because the workers do not so often become careless through fatigue. Gentlemen, there is every reason to believe things will improve still further when the working day is shorter. ...A million women will be affected by the law... you don't need to fear employers... [T]hose million women have suffrage... Let this bill that means so much to them go to a vote. They'll be grateful to you!"

"I would not be where I am today if it were not for you and others like you. ...I do not regard you as paying tribute to me personally, but to Frances Perkins as a symbol of the genuine desire to bring happiness to those who have it not in their own power. So that industry may bear down kindly instead of bitterly. ...I promise to use the brains I have to meet problems with intelligence and courage. ...I promise that I will be candid about what I know, of the Labor Department or of the state of industry in this state and in country."

"I will fight for it up to the Supreme Court, if necessary... If the Industrial Commission does not have the right to make essential safety laws, it might as well close up shop!"

"The mothers don't want to bring their children [in for child labor at a vegetable cannery in Auborn, NY]—they need to. ...That need will never cease until employers pay decent wages! There ought to be a law assuring minimum pay, as well as one limiting hours worked!"

"Gentlemen... let me make a plain statement. As I see it, the Labor Commission is duty-bound always to consider two things about every recommendation. One: what will this provide in the way of health, comfort, decency and security? Two: what will it cost?"

"It is all-important to keep the human touch in whatever we do... This is the machine age... and we should make machines work for us—but let us not act like robots ourselves!"

"The day I need an armed bodyguard is the day I admit my job's too much for a woman."

"I am extraordinarily the product of my grandmother... Scarcely a week goes by that I don't find myself saying, "As my grandmother used to say," and then repeating something that apparently has been a guiding principle all my life."

"I think any compulsion other than moral compulsion is wrong. Let disputes be settled by public opinion, not statute."

"What is the trouble? How can we cure this? ...What can be done? ...I had to do something about unnecessary hazards to life, unnecessary poverty. It was sort of up to me. This feeling... sprang out of a period of great philosophical confusion which overtakes all young people..."

"His illness had changed him... Having known what trouble is to the very depths of his being, he can now sympathize with other people who have problems. I think he could make a very good governor of the state of New York."

"Who is that tall, thin young man with the pince-nez, who seems constantly to be looking down his nose at people?"

"Well... he'll only win that way once, I imagine. He doesn't look as if he'd be very popular with people. What I mean is, he doesn't look as if he really likes people."

"Organized labor has always had one of its own people as Secretary and will expect to continue to have. I do not qualify."

"Would you leave me free to do what I think is best for the Labor Department, Franklin? I'd try to keep you informed, but I wouldn't always be able to... [D]irect unemployment relief, a program of public works, minimum wage and hour laws, unemployment and old age insurance, abolition of child labor... These things need doing no matter who is Secretary of Labor."

"I never really saw really poor people before... My parents always told me nobody had to be poor—that they wouldn't be if they weren't shiftless or didn't spend everything they earned on drink. I don't understand how Mama and Papa could be so mistaken! ...Yes, I guess I do. 'There are none so blind as those who will not see'—and that's a favorite quotation of Papa's too!"

"I thought witch-hunting was a thing of the past, but that's what this 'red-baiting' immigration squad is doing. They see communists behind every foreign name."

"I shall always be most grateful to him. He made me rediscover that I had a mind. It had lain fallow, I am afraid, since my Mount Holyoke days."

"Upon hearing that Franklin D. Roosevelt won his NY state senate seat because many thought they were voting for Theodore Roosevelt."