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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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think you should tell me. I'll handle this story properly. I want to do a personality story on you. I want to do it in a very friendly way. I want to do it so as to prepare the way for the announcement. I want you to tell me just what your plans are, so that I can prepare the way.”

I said I wouldn't and I didn't. She was mad at me for years. For years she couldn't say a civil word to me or about me, because I didn't do that. But it had not been offered to me at that time.

It was sometime in there that Mary Dewson came to me and said, “Frances, we've got to straighten out a few things here.”

Josephine Goldmark had cornered me in the club and had said, “Frances, these little items in the newspaper are the most exciting things in the world. If you should be Secretary of Labor, can you think what would happen? Isn't it wonderful?”

I said, “Josephine, I'm not going to be Secretary of Labor. Just stop talking about it. Stop thinking about it. This is a pipe dream. It is just something that you, as a Consumers' League person, think would be wonderful, but it wouldn't. As a matter of fact, Josephine, I cannot possibly do it. I couldn't possibly do it if it were offered to me. It's not been offered and I don't believe it will be offered.





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