Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 915

Secretary of Labor just to announce the union scale. The building trades, being what they were, very few people raised a rumpus. There had been no protest on it from building contractors who are accustomed to unions.

Anyhow, that seemed simple to them. They went and got hold of Arthur Healey. William Connery was Chairman of the House Labor Committee, and even then the union people didn't altogether trust Connery. Healey was a good scout and so they got hold of him. Connery was whimsical and I hate to say flippant, but he was almost that. He was sort of here today and gone tomorrow. I think he was probably a very nervous sort of a man and he sort of boiled up and then subsided. He was not totally reliable as to temperament. I don't know exactly why they picked Healey, except that he was a very good fellow and perhaps wanted to sponsor the measure. Now that I think about it. I guess Wyzanski had sold it to Healey as an idea. Healey came from Boston too. Wyzanski, whose reputation for being a Democrat was none too good, since his father had been a regular contributor to the Republican campaign fund, had been advised by me to make friends with some of the members of Congress who came from Massachusetts. Since David Walsh had been so kind as to sponsor him for the nomination, he, of course,





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help