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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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illegal had happened.

We would also get claims for workman's compensation. A man with an ordinary workman's compensation claim, which was being handled properly, would appear for the adjudication of his case before a referee. Half a dozen men would appear with him. They'd all come right up an start talking to the referee, all talking at once about how this man had been ruined for life, how he was ruined for life by his employer. The referee would try to say, “He'll get an award for compensation.” Then you'd get some emotional hysterics, about “What would compensation do for him?” It was a very bewildering thing for these honest simple men who were referees. There was no subtlety about them. They were always going to make the award that the law prescribed for the kind of injury he'd had.

Then, of course, you began to hear that they were making demonstrations here, there and everywhere. Again, we thought of them as just crackpots and a nuisance. You gradually learned to cope with that nuisance so that it wouldn't bog you down so you couldn't get any work done. They never seemed to be the least bit alarming people, nor, as I look back on it now, do I think they were. I think they were





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