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WALSH-HEALY PUBLIC CONTRACTS ACT

There wasn't much trouble about getting the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act through. I think I have already said that before we even came to Washington Mary Dewson and I had consulted Felix Frankfurter. This was before I knew I was going to be Secretary of Labor. We had consulted him as to what in the world could be done in the federal government, how was it possible to make any progress through minimum wages and maximum hours, and the abolition of child labor, and all these other things that we had led Roosevelt to make large commitments on - not specific, I'm glad to say, because we knew just enough not to. But at least as a candidate he had expressed a desire to move in that direction.

I think I've already mentioned that when I made a speech in the Boston Temple during the campaign, Felix Frankfurter had kindly said that I had given him a new idea in campaigning. So I consulted him, saying, “You've said this is obviously what the people want. How are we going to do this?” Mary Dewson and I were both





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