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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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me to remember what we had done.

Among these things was to break up certain, what I call, prejudiced rulings of law in the interpretation of workmen's compensation law. This common law thing was one of them. Another thing that I introduced and did on my own personal initiative was to break up what I called the medical racket. I talked this all over with the Governor and he would tell me to go ahead.

The medical racket was the method by which the insurance companies would bring in high priced specialists to testify that the man's present condition was in no way the result of his accident. Although he was very lame, and you might see him very lame and his leg didn't function, he had whatever that disease was before he had the accident. The accident had merely exacerbated it. Higgins and Curran were strong with me on the point that exacerbation of a previously existing condition should be held to be the result of the injury. A man had varicose veins, let's say. All right, they were varicose veins under full control. They weren't very bad. They didn't hinder him. He wasn't disabled. He did his ordinary work. He has an accident in which he falls and breaks his leg. The bone heals but circulation is hard to restore. The varicose veins become





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