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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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of them. They were likely to be young lawyers, young accountants. They were young men with some education and they got the assignment to be a labor relations man. They were sent out to the various factories, where the big contracts were, to just see to it that no occasion arose that would bring about a stoppage of work. They were ordered to do this by the army and navy, who after all gave the contracts and paid the bills.

The War Production Board's duty in all this, as I recall it, was to coordinate all those orders, to develop new sources of supply for the army. But when the order was given and the contract signed, I think it was signed by the army, navy, or air corps.

Now, if it is true that there are specific causes of stoppages of work, then you might foresee that a condition which exists would eventually cause a stoppage, that the man would resent it, that the men wouldn't take it. That's what the army and the navy both assumed. When you said, “causes,” they thought only of objective causes and not of subjective causes. Their young menwere out all the time looking for accident hazards, fire hazards, noxious gases and fumes, location of sanitary facilities, suitability of lunchrooms, and so forth. These are all necessary things, but they don't cause strikes, or they practically never cause strikes. The sanitary facilities have to be pretty





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