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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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be affected by it to know what it was to be, giving them a chance to protest. All of this is very bad administrative law. I think that it should have been checked in some way. It should have been checked by the Attorney General, as a matter of fact, earlier. It shouldn't have got going that way.

At any rate, we then proceeded to get wage and hour legislation drafted up. My memory is that we had the legislation all framed up and approved by the President, and that it was introduced late in the session in '36. That would be partly for political reasons, because of the election coming up in '36. The NRA had been turned down by the court. It was washed out. This control of wages and hours which had been so popular with the people, and which they believed had been the basis of the almost good recovery that we had made - at least the progress that had been made - had been taken away by the Supreme Court. We couldn't appear futile and helpless, not knowing what to do next, running around like chickens with their heads cut off. We couldn't be doing that and still go and ask for the votes of the people, the confidence of the people. I remember plainly that I thought of that then.

We had the bill ready as a bill quite early in '36.





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