“I promise to use what brains I have to meet problems with intelligence and courage. I promise that I will be candid about what I know. I promise to all of you who have the right to know, the whole truth so far as I can speak it. If I have been wrong, you may tell me so, for I really have no pride in judgment. I know all judgment is relative. It may be right today and wrong tomorrow. The only thing that makes it truly right is the desire to have it constantly moving in the right direction.” ? Frances Perkins, Early speech as New York State Industrial Commissioner, 1929
In this world, there are whiners and then there are doers. From politicians to blue-collar folks, I focus my energy on those seeking solutions and avidly attempting to improve the world. Many times these people go through life humbly and don”t get much, if any, recognition. Most don”t do what they do for recognition. They are models for society. A woman I learned about recently, thanks to my wonderful dad, is Frances Perkins.
She was the first woman cabinet member and Secretary of Labor from March 1933 to July 1945. She served longer than any other Secretary of Labor. She overcame restrictions and prejudices in a time when women were not taken seriously and established herself as an equal in a field that was dominated by men. She helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition. She and Interior Secretary Harold Ickes were the only original members of the Roosevelt cabinet who remained for his entire presidency. During her term as Secretary of Labor, she championed many aspects of the New Deal, including the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration and its successor, the Federal Works Agency, as well as the labor portion of the National Industrial Recovery Act. She established the Social Security Act along with unemployment benefits and pensions. She began the welfare system to assist the poorest Americans. She crafted laws against child labor. With the Fair Labor Standards Act she established the first minimum wage and overtime laws. Additionally she defined the standard 40-hour work week. She formed governmental policies for working with labor unions.
Her actions and ideas changed the lives of all Americans.
She did all this as a wife and a mother. Her husband suffered with chronic mental illness. She was dedicated to her family with a fierce loyalty that she extended to the rest of the country.
She was intelligent and compassionate. Her work is historical and incredibly important to the country”s overall well-being.
Most people have never heard her name.
Her given name is Fannie Coralie Perkins, born, April 10, 1880. She wanted to be taken seriously so she changed her name to Frances. She did her undergraduate work at Mount Holyoke College, and graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.
Her mission in life was to pursue social justice. She valued individual liberty. She was first and foremost, a real public servant. She regularly visited factories and developed a compassion for the problems of working people and working poor.
In 1911, she witnessed the Triangle Fire in New York City, where 600 women worked and 146 died as they were trapped by fire in the upper floors of the Triangle Shirt Waist Company. The experience inspired her to intensify efforts for factory safety.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office as Governor of New York in 1929, he made Frances Perkins his chief labor officer — the State Industrial Commissioner.
She was named chairman of the committee on economic security, established by Roosevelt in 1934. There she investigated social insurance and reported on its findings in six months. That report recommended “unemployment insurance and old-age insurance.”
She resigned as Secretary of Labor in 1945, but was quickly called back the next year to serve as one of three Federal civil service commissioners, a post she held until 1952.
Even at 80 years old, she still lectured and gave inspiring speeches. Perkins died in 1965, but her legacy lives on.
“I have had the greatest blessing any one can have, man or woman. I have had a happy personal life. I have had the friendship of a husband who has put a brilliant mind to work on some of my knotty problems, and let me have the praise. I have had a good daughter, who has grown to girlhood without being a troublesome child. And I am thankful indeed for the women who have helped me bring up my child and take care of my home. There is no coin in which I can repay those fine and loyal helpers who have worked for me and with me in that intimate way.” ?Frances Perkins, Early speech as New York State Industrial Commissioner, 1929
Mandy Feder is the Record-Bee news editor. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 Ext. 32.
