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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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the wireless. They can speak to each other, and communicate information.”

I was quite alarmed from the stories that he told me. I think this was before we were at war, after the World War had begun however and we had much shipping afloat. There was a union for the radio operators and we began to get a line on it. I remember talking to Curran about it, and what he knew about it. I think I also talked to Harry Lunde-berg about it. Ed McGrady had left us by this time, but I asked him to see what he could find out. Nobody could get much of a line on this union, the Radio Operators of America. Everybody who looked into it agreed that there were some pretty hotheaded people among them. That was about as strong as they would put it. A couple of our own conciliators would use stronger terms, saying, “Oh, they're damn Communists.” But nobody could prove this on them. There was just a kind of queer suspicion that all was not well with the Radio Operators of America.

Then we began to hear about an extraordinary young man. You heard about it in the strangest ways. This extraordinary young man began to be mentioned to you by people in good society. He was supposedly





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