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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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It was very well conducted, considering the situation. The committees met in the various meeting rooms, and the caucuses of the employers and the caucuses of the workers. It was a big meeting. It was a long meeting. It lasted, I think, fully three weeks if not four. It was a terribly long meeting. But it was almost necessary, because so many things had to be straightened out, and so much righting up had to be done. People who had died or disappeared--substitutes had to be found for them, you see. There were a lot of new employees, new members on the staff. And of course, they still were located in Quebec. They hadn't moved out of Quebec. The whole I.L.O. staff, or a sufficient part of it, moved over to Paris for the occasion, and got some headquarters there.

Then there was the usual entertaining between delegations, which in Geneva had always been a considerable part of the I.L.O. because it was the way you became acquainted, you see. You went out to a reception. You went to a dinner. You went to a luncheon. You went to various other things every day, and in that way people got acquainted. There always was a strict limit on the length of time these entertainments would take, but people met, and they came to know each other.

I know Rapallier of Switzerland was here. He made one of the finest speeches I ever heard on the theory and policy of the I.L.O. He was the President of the University of Geneva.





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