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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Part:         Session:         Page of 912

Perkins:

No, he wasn't all gone. He was a practical man with his feet on the ground. Having had that one experience, he had apparently thought it all over. He may have had other experiences too, but at least that had bred in him a sense of stopping short of carrying the battle too far, so far that the people with him can't endure it any longer. One of the reasons he was so successful with the United Mine Workers was that he knew just about how long they could stay out, and not suffer too much. He had it all figured out on an economic basis. It would be worthwhile for them to stay out a certain length of time, you see, and lose a certain amount of wages, because they would make it up in the new wages they were going to get on a higher scale.

Interviewer:

Well now, the opposition could figure that out as well as Lewis.

Perkins:

Certainly, certainly. But they couldn't figure it out as well, because they were not as aware of the emotional factors in the relationship of the “old lady”, as Lewis used to call her, meaning the wife of the miner. The “old lady's complaint,” and the “old lady's rumpus,” and the fuss that the wives were going to make and the families were going to make--not that he ever felt that they would go back to work when he told them not to, but that he was very cautious to know just where the breaking-point was.





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