Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 912

can't do that. The people who make lampshades on East 31st in a little hole in the wall cannot be made to go over to Jersey City where there was a great munitions plant. They couldn't get there in the first place. The old man liked to work there because it was near where he lived. You didn't have to bother about them. They all found jobs. The less you did, the better. The more you tried to make them go somewhere the more trouble you had. We were in a period of expanding employment. All you had to do to get a job was to read the “help wanted” ads and take your pick. People didn't like having the factory where they made lampshades closed. There were all kinds of personal reasons why they preferred to work where they did. But, when that job was no longer, they found themselves another job.

To be sure, the Employment Service was right there to tell them where there were jobs. The Employment Service was always in a row because they were forbidden to give people information about jobs, except those in essential industries. The War Manpower Commission even tried to get the newspapers to stop printing “help wanted” ads. It was just absurd. They claimed it was logical. We were totally mobilized and didn't need to waste ink and paper on “help wanted” ads. The Employment Service could take care of it all.

However, people would say, “That fellow in the Employment





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help