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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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operation which will give them work for years. Then we developed the WPA which was saving the pride of the little men, as well as of the professionals and laboring men. We had just then put through this great program of unemployment insurance. We established free public employment offices. We set up old age insurance.

I went on with what we had given the people. At this moment I can't relate all the benefits, but I think there were some eighteen or twenty items. The whole purpose of everything we had done had been to bring healing and help to the common people, the people who were down and out.

I don't remember too well who was there that day, but they were all politicians. I seem to remember that Joe Robinson was there and said, “Yes, yes, she's right.” Jim Farley and Charlie Michelson came in later and said, “That's the stuff. Write that into the campaign book.”

I've said many times, and said then, that we went ahead with this program in '33, '34 and '35 out of sheer humanitarianism and because nobody could think of anything else to do. This had not been evaluated by the politicians as politically important. In fact, they didn't think it was. It didn't occur to them that it was politically important. I have often said what I said to Jim later





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