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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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place for them in industry. What are our rules? Have they got to be modified? If so, how? If young persons are to be employed in industry, what special safeguards must be set up?”

So we were handling that in the Department of Labor long before there was any breath of the idea that we would ever be in the war. A very good plan was made. It was out of that that when we finally came to the war situation, the Children's Bureau was ready with a plan for the care of children, the care of soldiers' wives, the care of soldiers' families around the country. It was a brilliant job those girls did in the Children's Bureau - Martha Eliot, the physician, and Katharine Lenroot who was the head of the bureau, a very fine job.

It was also early n '40 that I suppose I called all the Bureau Heads of the Department of Labor together and said, “Now, the planning we've got to do now is how we will conduct each section of the Department of Labor in view of the changed world conditions due to the European war. Act as though the door was closed and nobody ever hears this, but if the United States should be drawn into this war - think about it. Always put the “if” in, but think about it - what are we going to do in this Department? How are we going to develop our





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