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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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of the fact that the wages were not very good and that she was extremely anxious to keep the union out of there. She asked me not to mention the unions in my speech. I had spoken of the unions out at the club meeting the day before and she didn't want anything said about unions because it would put wrong ideas in the heads of the girls. They obviously couldn't have a union. That was that.

I said to myself, “I don't know how she's going to deliver the labor vote out of these girls, who are just ordinary young women.” They wouldn't have had any influence at all. She might get them to vote for Al Smith, but they weren't going to get the workingman's vote and the working people's vote of Kansas City just on that.

I began to inquire around and I found that she was no shucks as an employer. The organized labor people never heard of her. Outside of the strictly garment trades and retail trades and the publicity that she had had she wasn't regarded as a great factor in the manufacturing or business life of Kansas City. But she was on the way up and I was always encouraging women to get along in industry. It seemed to me that it was a good thing to do.

I was much interested in her and always retained my interest in her. I think she regarded me as a friend and I





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