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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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ocean. He doesn't want the British even defending Singapore.” It was a little joke of Roosevelt's. But I daresay it was based on some reality.

On November 14th in Cabinet meeting there was a discussion of whether Roosevelt should call out the army to break the captive coal mine strike. Roosevelt wasn't going to call the army out, but people said he ought to. People when angry who have a soldier under their control think in terms of turning the soldier into the situation, but, of course, the one answer is, “How do they dig the coal?” It's a complicated process. I may say that in this Harold Ickes was a realist. He always agreed with me. You could have the army take over the mines, but who was going to dig the coal. You can only dig coal with coal miners. There never was any intention on the President's part to call out the army. He thought of that as the most impractical thing in the world. You had to find some other way to do it.

Of course, that strike was a difficult and complicated one. There were so many strikes in the coal industry that I can't pinpoint the detail of this one strike. There had been many coal strikes in the previous few years and there would be many in the future. They tend to get blended in my mind, although they can be unravelled. Captive coal mines are those that are run by something else, such as railroads or steel mills, and not owned by a coal company. The steel





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