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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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fix up the case and make a statement so that we can understand what it is and what law applies to you.” I called the lawyer and started to herd them out of my office, so I could get on with my work. Then they began to scream, “So the government turns us out! So we don't get heard!” They raised the greatest rumpus in the world.

We had two or three episodes like that. The point is that they would come in when they didn't really have a grievance that anybody could state. Sometimes there would be a grievance that could be stated, that a particular manufacturer was laying off people without regard to how many children they had. Well, of course, there was no law of man or the State of New York that could have prevented his laying a man off any way he chose. The fact that he had five children didn't keep him in a job under the law. You would try to explain to them what the law was and you would only be greeted with howls that that was wrong.

I began to catch on that this was something different from ordinary trade unionism. We talked about it a bit around the department. I sent some of the inspectors out to see what these places were like that they complained about. They were all right. Nothing





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