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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Part:         Session:         Page of 191

her.” Because they still have charges against her, you see, that they could use to force her to appear.”

Interviewer:

Did you ever have any feeling about the F.B.I.'s role in all this?

Perkins:

Their role in this? Well, I had no feeling about it. I mean, I recognized that their investigative powers are very large. The powers of the F.B.I., you see, have been regularly enlarged since they were created, John Lord O'Brian described to me one time the way in which their powers had been increased and enlarged. John Lord O'Brian has a very healthy respect for the F.B.I., as I have too, and in general they are very careful and punctilious investigators. They get kicked out like a thousand of brick if they make the slightest mistake. I mean, there's no mercy for them. They have no appeal, they have nothing, if they make any errors in reporting. Also they get kicked out if they make any errors in loyalty to the head of the F.B.I. I mean, it's a very dangerous job to be in. You have to be all right, and you have to be all right with the head, and you have to be all right with the subordinates, and you have to toe the mark. I don't know how the F.B.I.'s conducted, how it's run. I can't even conceive of it. But on the occasions that I have had opportunities to talk with Mr.





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