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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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couldn't do it. I knew it would just be ridiculous to expect Hillman to do the things that the Department of Labor had done in the past, was equipped to do and was planning to do in the future. In the first place, he would have to build up a totally new staff. You have to hire people You don't do it out of your own head with lead pencil.

The President had said that every department would give this advisory commission all the assistance possible, help them in every possible way. It was our patriotic duty to do so. Of course, everybody nodded and was willing to help anybody who needed it. I think probably every person sitting there had the same feeling that I did, “My department will have to do it anyhow.” What could Chester Davis do if he didn't have the Department of Agriculture to do it for him? What could Hillman do if the didn't have the Department of Labor? What could Knudsen of if he didn't have the Treasury, Commerce, Interior and everything else doing things for him.

The next day the news was broken publicly. Everybody was distracted. Everybody thought everything was going to be changed. I remember saying to my people in the Department of Labor, “I think we should go right on doing what we have always done. I have written a letter to Hillman, and I've sent it off post haste so that it's already in the mails, to say that





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