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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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suite in the hotel. Otherwise the labor leader will be at a disadvantage in dealing with what he calls “these bloated employers.”

He had a picture of employers in his mind as vain and pompous men, which some of them are and some of them are not, of course.

Interviewer:

He imitated them.

Perkins:

Well, yes indeed. He imitated them because he believed that that was the key to equality. You see, it was in this that his weakness lay--that he did not see that Andrew Furuseth, who lived in a single room, you know, a little bit of a hall bedroom with an iron bed and no heat in it, and lived on the day's pay of an able seaman, had just as much influence as he did. I mean, that it was a matter of quality and character. He believed that he could deal with them as equals, and he believed that they were more motivated by vanity and a sense of importance than they actually are--although I agree with him that there are hundreds of employers who are equally impressed with their own importance, largely because of the build-up which luxury and easy accommodations gives them. Now, those are the lesser men, and they are rarely the great plotters, it's true. They are the lesser men who strut around in fine clothes





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