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Notable New     Yorkers
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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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any more power, than farmers have, or business man have. You vote where you live and that's it. There's not much sense of group power. I think it was this socialist nursing bottle that he had been raised on that probably gave him these ideas - that the workers and their labor are somehow or other to be expressed through political action, rather than through economic action. Although he had lived long in this country and was thoroughly Americanized, I think that was what gave him these ideas of political importance, and that was why he didn't just go in and join the political organization of his district or his precinct. He thought of his little union and the other unions allied with it as having a core of influence.

Of course, when it came to the convention, which is made up of delegates chosen by the districts in which they live and the States in which they live, a little group of Amalgamated Workers and other allied needle trades workers doesn't have any place to grab hold. It's a voice, but it isn't a voice with a vote, or with any real influence. However, Hillman obviously believed that he had acquired some influence.

I never have known the truth of this alleged fact that the President had said, “Take it up with Sidney,” that got bandied around. I don't know who started that





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