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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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They'd all begin to talk at once. You'd find yourself pounding on the table, saying, “Now ladies and gentlemen, we must have some order. Please don't all talk at once. Will you appoint a spokesman who will make a statement, because I don't understand what your grievance is. We can't do anything about it until we understand what it is.”

Then they would get off into a huddle in the corner. Some man would say that he was their spokesman and he would begin to speak. He would start to tell a fairly disconnected and always emotional story about somebody having no job, somebody having been turned out of work and somebody else having been kept on when he shouldn't have been. Then somebody would interrupt him. Then in a few minutes there would be three of four talking again. The public official honestly trying to cope with this and trying to find out what was going on would find himself just spending all his time trying to keep order and to keep a semblance of parliamentary procedure.

The first time this happened I said, “Well, I think you haven't quite gotten your case in order. I'll ask one of the men in the lawyer's office to interview you. You go with him and he will help you





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