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

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 912

that, and I think it's true. I think that was at the back of his drive for power. His wife understood him beautifully, and she never would say this definitely, but she implied, you see, that his drive for power was just a necessity to protect the miners. “Protect the miners.” Now, of course, she was equally bitter, with him, against William Green and Phil Murray and that crowd.

Interviewer:

She saw things his way.

Perkins:

She saw things his way, but she did see through him, to a certain extent. She knew when he was showing off, and when he meant business. I know him to have been brutal to John Brophy, and I always looked at Brophy with a certain surprise. He looked to me just like the kind of a man that you would be brutal to--or that a man like Lewis would be brutal to. He was little and pale, and had pale hair and blue eyes--unequal to stand up before this torrent. He was a man of some learning and some intelligence, and great piety and great conviction. He was one of these dedicated fellows that you talk about, you see? And he couldn't see his way clear to give up his principles, or set aside his principles, because Lewis told him to. As you look at him you could see that he was just the kind of person of whom Lewis would say, “We'll have to wash him out.”





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