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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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encouraged to believe that we should go ahead. We're ready to take on the next order. We can lay the keel next week.” That would be called “business as usual” because they wanted to continue to make ships and not have them go to some other company. Actually, they were encouraged by the Navy to expand, and expand, and expand, because they were building better destroyers, at a quicker speed, with a lesser margin of failure than any other shipyard. They were almost turning them out mass production style.

When people didn't like that, they called it “business as usual.” Now, I haven't a doubt that there were people in the WPB who were shaking down something for their own firm. But it was not a large and important operation. Since we in this country believe in the strickest equality for other people, you can't say publicly that you condone it. But actually when you are dealing with a great problem, when you want 10,000 ships, you really mustn't be too careful because you might miss a thousand of those snips and you need them badly. You can't be too darn fussy. You've got to wink.

I don't know what makes the human race tick. I know that greed and avariciousness are both sins, but they're one of the motives that make people start and get going on projects the end results of which are useful. Unless actualy dishonesty or actual fooling of the government had broken out, I would have been one of those who said, Close your eyes





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