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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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years then. She wasn't an old-timer. However, it made one realize how the most unlikely person might be a Communist. From every human point of view it was unlikely that she would be mixed up in any irregular group. This made me realize how that type of person could be mixed up in an undesirable group, I don't know what I would have done if she had worked in some perfectly innocuous spot, but I think I would have done the same thing. I don't know whether I would or not. I never had to do it. It's hard to look back and see what you would have done then.

However, it was a touchy thing. It did bother me a little, but not greatly because of the sensitivity of her work. The phrase “sensitive job” hadn't been developed then, but it was work that was highly confidential and information that was extremely useful in a military sense to an enemy. That settled it for me right off. You can't have anybody around a thing like that who isn't completely - intellectually, spiritually, morally, in every way - trustworthy, with excellent judgment and an ability to keep her mouth shut. So she was dismissed after the hearing and we never saw her again in the department. She couldn't go any further with pleas. A dismissal is a dismissal





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