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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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more of the seamy side of life. But I had seen something of the seamy side of Italian life and I knew they were very likely to do anything.

That night I called John Mitchell, certainly by the next day I did. I assured him how dangerous it was, how hazardous this thing was, how absolutely wrong were the employers in not coming into conference. We had the right, and I quoted him the law, to hold hearings. It's in the law that the Industrial Commission - it's still in the law - may when conditions of public welfare so demand, hold a public hearing. For that purpose they have the right to subpoena witnesses and papers - subpoena duces tecum. That's practically never used, but I knew it was in the law. It was not anything that had been written in by the Factory Investigating Commission either. It antedated the Factory Commission's regulations. According to Packy it was put in to give the mediators something to pull in the labor commissioner with so that he could come and make an investigation. It was really put in, so I was informed later by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so that the Bureau of Labor Statistics could get information about the number of people on strike and things like that. It was there and it had never





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