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Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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love and only incidentally made their living there. They recognized that the mercantile situation was the economic basis of New York. They wanted to promote trade, but they wanted to promote good trade. They wanted to promote culture. They wanted to promote a good life and were concerned about it. We could get the Merchants Association to agree with us about many social projects. Bob Binkerd will say the same thing. The Merchants Association backed all kinds of housing reform. The Merchants Associationed joined up with us in great style to support the legislation which came out of the Factory Investigating Commission's investigation of the old buildings of New York. The idea of supporting legislation that was going to make people who rented space in New York buildings pay through the nose was one that the Merchants Association was for. That's very interesting.

I don't remember whether Mr. Morgan was President or Mr. Woodin was President when I was first asked to speak before the Merchants Association, but I knew them both. Woodin was a first class man. He really was splendid. He had a fine point of view about this whole mercantile area of life, and particularly about the part that good businessmen ought to play in the development of civilization - not just to make money for themselves, but to develop the civilization of the country, of the community and of New York. He was





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