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

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 915

I think they pretty well took Wagner in. They flattered him a good deal. They kept him always with them. They were always giving parties for him and they were always attending on him. Wagner led a lonely life in Washington. His wife was an invalid for many years. She never was able to come to Washington. He didn't have much fun. These people were very pleasant and agreeable to him. I think he liked them and he sort of followed along with their ideas. Anyhow, he supported them. He didn't rebuke them.

These things all happened slowly. My time sense is getting ahead of me. I can't tell what year they happened in really.

At any rate, I was not able to move Madden. So I sent for Edwin Smith, thinking that Edwin Smith as a practical administrator, who had administered the labor acts of Massachusetts, had the same point of view that I had. He was a practical administrator in government and he knew that you had to keep in touch with the people, that you had to be in touch with, and generally harmonious with, the views of the governor and the legislator, but particularly with the governor who had appointed you. To the same extent I took it for granted that he would see my point of view that if the President





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