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Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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business. That was not operating. The capital had already been divided among those who owned the capital. Mr. Mitchell pressed them however as to whether they had made any substantial increase in the wages of the workers during that period. It seems they had made very slight ones. The workers had not been in touch with other parts of the country at that time and so on. He developed the case very nicely. He was pleasant to them and kind to them.

Then we heard the workers that afternoon. It was my idea to send for the Bureau of Labor Statistics people on the theory that neither the workers, nor the employers were giving us, or were able to give us, the fact with regard to the copper industry and with regard to wages, prices and profits in the copper industry. We had someone from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and one other person come over from Albany. They got there by the afternoon. Then we suggested that the employers, or some of their subordinates who were aware of their profit and loss situation and their wage situation, go into a comparison of the wage schedule with these people that had come over. Then we suggested to Flynn and Packy Downey that they take up with the men the question of two or three elements upon which they might settle. One of us got the idea that the fact that they were paying less than other copper manufacturers in wages





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