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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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very intelligent things.

I first met him when he was Secretary of Commerce. He went around the country. He invented a program of standardization of parts so that we didn't have such multiple manufacture of things that were meant for the same purpose, but were different in size, method of operation and that kind of thing. Of course it has resulted in their cutting down the number and types of faucets and bathroom fixtures from about twenty-seven to four. The result is that if you happen to own an old house like mine you can't replace your faucets when all the plating wears off, or the little china piece that says hot and cold breaks. You can't replace that without replacing all the pipes in the house, because they're not making faucets that size any more. Your faucets fit your pipes. That was part of the standardization program.

Nevertheless, that program brought Mr. Hoover into the field of factory construction and fire prevention, or at least I thought it did. I went to some meetings that he was addressing on this standardization. I was very much impressed by him, what he knew, the way he answered questions from the floor, mine included, about human beings and what they should do. I thought he was very good. I thought his engineer's attitude and approach was fine. He was concerned about fire prevention, safety, accident prevention





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