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However, they preferred it to be in the Department of Labor. That was their department. It was the right place for it. All things having to do with labor should be in the Labor Department. William Green was their principal spokesman before the Congressional Labor Committees, although other members of the AF of L leadership spoke. They all testified that they preferred it to be in the Department of Labor.
When I appeared in the last week, as Secretary of Labor, I described the bill, what it would do, what our experience had been under 7(a) of the NRA, in just as flat-footed a way as I could. I never at any point put myself on record as urging the Congress to pass it, but just urged them to consider these things. Then I urged them very strongly that if the bill was to be passed, it was to be placed in the Labor Department. I made the best argument I could for it.
I remember that at that hearing Wagner and Francis Biddle, who were present, both spoke after I did and Wagner said, speaking in great kindness to me, “I don't think Miss Perkins understands that if this act is placed in the Labor Department, the public will not have confidence in it because they believe the Labor Department is pro-labor. Whether that's true or not, whether the Department of Labor is more pro-labor than
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