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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Part:         Session:         Page of 912

Interviewer:

Who was for and who was against?

Perkins:

I remember I got Hillman to stay with me and be against a War Manpower Commission, on the grounds that it wasn't necessary. For the most part, the Army tended to be for it. It would? Well, not necessarily. You wouldn't have thought Bob Patterson would have tended to be for it, but he was. However, Hershey was not for it--the man who was in charge of the draft. He said, “We've got enough headaches as it is drafting military personnel. Why do we try to draft civilian personnel? It can't possibly be military.

He was against it, and he talked against it. I don't seem to remember whether the agricultural people entered into this scrap, or not. Hopkins was against it.

Interviewer:

I brought in this agricultural thing. Would you have remembered it on your own as being of great importance?

Perkins:

Oh, yes. Yes, indeed, I remember the land army. Because that was one of the great problems, you see, was a method of harvesting crops and taking care of cattle. That's the principal thing that I remember. Care of cattle. That was of course supposed to be one of the great contributions that women could make if they but would do so and if their talents were appointed and located. Instead of which, of course, the women that wanted to work were all going to work





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