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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Part:         Session:         Page of 542

it can be easily looked up, that a general strike was a situation in which a large number of trade unions, embracing all of the major activities, or most of the major activities of a community, went on strike simultaneously, and had the effect of preventing the ordinary flow of life and business in a community for the purpose of seizing the power and management of a community, or for the purpose of forcing upon an unwilling comunity certain demands of their own. When such an event took place, it was a general strike. Its purpose was the overthrow of government and it was something that could not be tolerated. The purpose was the overthrow of the ordinary processes of government.

I remember listening to this as Homer Cummings read it out in a very lugubrious voice. He said, “This exactly describes what's happening in San Francisco today.”

I said to him, “Well, Mr. Cummings, let me say this to you. It does not exactly describe what is happening in San Francisco today. I think my information is correct and comes from more direct sources than any that you could have.”





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