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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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than Irene. There was a big gap between them. I was obviously a great deal younger than Irene Gibson, the lady I was traveling with at the moment.

It didn't make any difference. It was all right. They accepted me on those terms, and because I was a great admirer of Robert E. Lee.

Then I proceeded to do what I was supposed to do - to tell them what a great man Al Smith was. I took the line of saying what his conscience was, what his approaches to the problems that he had before him were. I talked about the social problems, the great poverty we had in the slums. They didn't have poverty in their slums in Maryland, but we were so unfortunate as to have it in New York. There were some other places in the United States where they had it. He had understood this. He had understood how you had to help to remove the poverty, how you had to open opportunity to children, and so forth; how he had understood the needs of the working people, what a great influence he'd had in opening up land in the State of New York which had been not used properly and was now being used for great public parks. They could see that. People could ride in the parks. Children could play. That was all very good.

I talked about the social legislation and the labor





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