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to get a minimum wage fixed.”
Of course that wasn't awfully different from the way a minimum wage was fixed in the State of New York, but that minimum wage was based upon the cost of living. It was a subsistence wage for women only and was in the more exploited trades - the very low paid trades. It was not a general wage for everybody, but was just for the brush-making trade, or the candy-making trade, which were notoriously low paid and employed mostly women. It was a method of keeping wages from falling below subsistence wages.
At the moment I can't remember whether the minimum wage law was passed while Roosevelt was Governor or while Smith was Governor. I believe it was after Roosevelt became President. These episodes merge into one episode in my mind. It happened while I was in the Labor Department, but whether it happened while I was Chairman of the Industrial Board, or when I was Industrial Commissioner, I can't for the life of me say. A glance at the annual reports of the Department of Labor will solve that problem. My inclination is to think that it was done under the Roosevelt administration, but rather early, and that it was based upon recommendations that had been made by Smith. These recommendations had been made more than once, but it takes two or three years to get a recommendation into law in the State of New
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