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

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 564

want to see me?” and he turned. I said, “Oh, Senator Harrison, how glad I am to see you. Was it you who was waiting?”

He was a little sore and snapped, “Yes, ma'am.” Of course I apologized and said that these wore the old staff, that I was new, that we didn't understand each other, that they didn't tell me who was there, that I had no idea he was there, that I wished he had let me know he was coming and we would have prepared for him. I was as nice as I could be.

Well, he was mollified. I said, “Do come in now, won't you?”

“Well, I can't now. I only came to pay my respects. I've got an appointment on the Hill, have to hold a hearing. I'm sorry I can't stay.”

Anyway, it was all right. We had our little talk by the elevator and within two days I went up and called on him. Harrison was never mad, but he must have told somebody when he went back to the Hill, probably one of his secretaries, “They've got a crazy crowd down there in the Secretary of Labor's office. They didn't even know me.” I learned then that on Senator can even comprehend that there is anybody in the world who doesn't know him. That was a great lesson to me. The secretary, or whoever he told, must have told somebody because the newspaper men published it and said





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