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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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practical. She offended some people by her direct way. I was blamed for it. People used to come and tell me to get rid of her. I couldn't. She has been of inestimable value to me.

She stayed with me all through the Department of Labor. She did not come over to the Civil Service Commission with me. There was no job here for her at a salary level which she had attained in the Department of Labor. She's really a specialist in anything having to do with the Department of Labor. She's still over there (1952). I didn't know whether Truman would run or not. At that time everybody was saying, “The Democrats are finished. As soon as he fills out the unexpired term, that's the end of the Democrats.” It was all right for me to get out. I was grown up and so forth. But I didn't want her to be out on her nose in a change of administration. I thought it was better for her to stay there. She's very useful there. She's more useful there than she would be here. She could learn the technique here because she's a smart person, but the Civil Service Commission is very, very correct. If you try to run somebody in at a higher grade, they think somebody in the Department should have that job and not somebody from the outside. We're full of people who grew up in the Department.





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