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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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the New York Department of Labor, “You sit in here a few minutes. I'd like to know what you see that strikes you as odd, if anything.” So she sat down, coming in like a stenographer to apparently take notes. After she'd been there half an hour she wrote me a note and said, “Those two men are Communists.” We both spotted the same ones and we both spotted them from tactics and from nothing else.

You couldn't testify to a man's being a Communist because of the way he behaved in a conference. I don't mean to say that I made a charge that they were Communists. I just made a mental note. This type of mentality develops out of the Communist movement and it doesn't develop anywhere else. It is a technique which is apparently taught by those who would prevent a peaceful, orderly, intelligent, sensible settlement and agreement about anything. They actually don't care what the matter is that's under discussion, whether it's the price of eggs, or wages, or whether you prefer a foam rubber mattress or a hair mattress. It doesn't matter what the question is. It's of no consequence, provided they can keep a disagreement alive, keep an agreement from being formed. It's most bewildering.





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