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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION

One of the first things I had to do on the Industrial Commission was to get acquainted with the two Republican members on the Board - Mr. John Higgins and Mr. Richard Curran. I had to get acquainted with them and work myself into a position of influence with them. Miss Jay said to me the other night, “From the outset you paid attention to two things - one was a systematic method of reviewing the work of all the referees on workmen's compensation cases so that there shouldn't be this wide divergence and difference in the decisions made in different parts of the state by different referees. Don't you remember that you initiated the idea of referees' conferences? They had never been held before.” I did remember it. “And you got Mr. Higgins, the Republican member and Chairman, to agree to it. So you held referees' conferences.

“I remember these conferences because I prepared the notes for these conferences. You really laid down the law to the referees as to how they should take testimony, how





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