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

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 444

Halsted Street and its area, and in the Chicago Commons which was another settlement on the west side of Chicago. They did home work of one kind or another. They eked out the family income in this pitiful way. There were all kinds and types of people, but we went out in the highways and byways and beat up an audience for Gertrude Barnum. They were very ignorant and without any consciousness of what was going on. They were earning their living the only way they heard of. It wasn't a living, but it was pennies.

They came into this meeting and Gertrude Barnum harangued them. I remember it because, as I was quite a young girl, I had never heard a labor union speech. I had no idea what an organizer said. At that time I thought trade unions were an evil to be avoided, if possible. You did good to the poor with charitable relief, friendly visiting, pleasant Sunday afternoons in Hull House, mother's clubs, and that sort of thing. I was just on the verge of becoming acquainted with the world as it truly is.

Gertrude Barnum was the first trade organizer that I ever heard make a speech. I was quite unprepared for the things that she said and for the very emotional drive that she made. Gertrude Barnum was a highly educated person. She may have been a graduate of Bryn Mawr - if not, it was Vassar or one of the Fastern colleges. She was considerably





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