Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 654

Department of Labor and wait to be called as a witness, then to be cross-examined by a doctor whom they regard as an ignorant fool, who represents the insurance company, or an ignorant fool lawyer, who represents the claimant. It bothers them terribly. They don't enjoy it.

But there were these few men that we got who said they would do it for us. It was really a great asset. That took money in the budget, even though we never paid them over $25 or $50. That was all we ever could think of paying them for the most valuable kind of use of their time.

This kind of thing was a great shock to the Governor. I remember his saying, “Wouldn't you think that a man who had been through our medical schools would be honest? What kind of medical schools are they? Don't the medical schools teach them anything about their duties to society?”

“Well,” I said, “they all take the famous oath. They all sign that.”

“But are they taught it? Do they know what it means? What kind of medical schools did they go through anyhow? What do they get besides surgery, materia medica and anatomy? Don't they have anything that gives them a knowledge of what their duty is in life?”

I remember his being very irritated about that and feeling that we ought to get after the medical schools. Of





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help