Quotations ~ Frances Perkins (1880 ~ 1965)
ut of our first century of national life we evolved the ethical principle that it was not right or just that an honest and industrious man should live and die in misery. He was entitled to some degree of sympathy and security. Our conscience declared against the honest workman's becoming a pauper, but our eyes told us that he very often did.”
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins - Secretary of Labor 1933-1945
rances Perkins lived a life that was dedicated to improving the lives of working Americans. Her determination helped change the conditions that so many men, women and children were forced to endure at the hands of their employers.
Born in 1880 in Boston and raised in Worcester, MA, Perkins attended Holyoke College majoring in natural sciences and in her study of economic history she became aware of the disparaging differences between the lives of the comfortably middle class and the poor of the urban slums. She attended lectures of labor and social reformers and volunteered as a teacher in settlement houses, a area of urban and housing reform, where she learned from the workers themselves of the dangerous working conditions, the withholding of wages by employers and the inability to receive medical care for injuries sustained on the job.
In 1909 she moved to New York to attend Columbia University. She graduated in 1910 with a Masters degree in Sociology and subsequently served as secretary of the New York Consumers’ League. Working with Florence Kelley, the head of the National Consumer’s League, she was successful in lobbying the passing of a bill that limited the work week for women and children to 54 hours.
In 1911 Frances Perkins was a witness to the tragedy of the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York City where 146 workers were killed, many by jumping from the burning building. Most of the victims were young women textile workers who were trapped in the building when the fire began because all the exits were locked from the outside. Speaking of the event Perkins said it was “seared on my mind as well as my heart – a never-to-be-forgotten reminder of why I had to spend my life fighting conditions that could permit such a tragedy.”
Her life efforts for the benefit of workers are immense.
- She spoke and marched in support of women’s suffrage.
- 1918 she was invited to join the New York State Industrial Commission.
- 1926 she became chair of the Commission.
- 1929 Governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her Industrial Commissioner of New York State.
- as Industrial Commissioner she expanded factory investigations, reduced work week for women to 48 hours, supported minimum wage and unemployment insurance laws.
- 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her Labor Secretary. In this capacity she was instrumental in passing labor legislation:
- Wagner Act of 1935 (also known as the National Labor Relations Act): gave workers the right to organize unions and bargain collectively.
- Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: established a minimum wage and a maximum work week for men and women.
- Chaired the Committee on Economic Security, responsible for legislation that ultimately became the 1935 Social Security Act
- 1945 headed U.S. delegation to the International Labor Organization Conference in Paris. Appointed by President Truman to the Civil Service Commission.
- Became a professor at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Frances Perkins died at the age of 85 in New York and was buried in her family's plot in New Castle, Maine. She had an immense impact on the lives of working people in America who she believed deserved economic security and justice.
LinksAFL-CIO History: Frances Perkins (1880 - 1965)
Social Security Pioneers: Francis Perkins