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Interview 82 with Miss Frances Perkins by Mr. Dean Albertson on Thursday, 8 April 1954 at 2127 LeRoy Place NW, Washington, D.C. This interview taken on a tape-recorder.

It really worked out not as badly as you would have thought it would. On one occasion I had an opportunity to make a little speech to the people who were the heads of Bureaus in the Department of Labor. I guess it was as the war was drawing to its successful close. I wanted to indicate to them somehow the degree of approval and gratitude I had to them for what they had done. I remember noting then that a good deal of this activity in industrial life of the government would have been disastrous if they hadn't taken, not only a competent role, but a very self-denying role. I congratulated them upon their ability to humble themselves and to take a second place, take a back seat in this particular situation during the early days of the war. I remember that they were very much touched by my comments. It was perfectly clear that they had all felt that way and that they were doing it out of the highest of motives.

I know nothing about the contests in the other departments, but I think that throughout the government, by and large, the people turned to and did what they had to do. There probably was more straining between individuals at the top than I realized. Only once in all this time, Dan Tracy,





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