WEBVTT - Selects: Frances Perkins: Influential and Unknown 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.240 Hello friends, It's Josh and for this week's Select, I've 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:07.720 chosen our September twenty twenty episode on Francis Perkins. If 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:10.320 you haven't heard of her, that's okay. She's one of 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:13.400 the most unsung Americans ever and was even left out 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:15.720 of the history books for a while, all because she 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:18.800 was a woman. Check out this episode where Francis Perkins 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:20.920 gets her due. 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:30.440 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:36.040 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:39.400 there's Charles W Chuck Bryant and this is Stuff you 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:45.000 Should Know, The Amazing Unsung Woman Edition Volume two. At 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:49.160 least more than two. What number would you say then? 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:51.839 I don't know, but I'll tell you what if you 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.080 want to take a vote on maybe one of the 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.840 most undersung while at the same time being most influential 0:00:58.920 --> 0:00:59.920 Americans to ever live. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.280 Of Neil Diamond be Oh, he was very sung. 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:06.240 I know, I'm not a big fan. 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:12.480 Anyway, you would be hard pressed to overlook ms Perkins. 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:15.880 Yeah, miss Francis Perkins. 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:19.040 Totally agree. Had never heard her name before, had never 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:21.480 even known she existed. But yeah, the more you dig injury, 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:23.960 the more you was like, it was almost a crime 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.880 that this woman was virtually written out of the history books. 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:29.880 Yeah. And if you are. 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.039 One of those people who was unfortunate to not be 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.720 able to work right now during quarantine and the effects 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:42.600 of COVID nineteen, and you are not lucky enough, but 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:47.640 you know, deservedly enough receiving unemployment insurance, you can thank 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:49.440 Francis Perkins for that. 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:52.960 That's right. And every single person who's getting a check 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:58.960 as measley as they've gotten lately is getting one because 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:03.160 of this system that Francis Perkins set up. And what's 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:08.200 really I think worth noting too, this is exactly the 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:13.560 kind of situation that she got this passed for, that 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:16.919 she helped design this for totally. Because there's a quote 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:19.880 I can't remember exactly where the quote was, but to 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:24.560 paraphrase it, it's basically like, we need to we need 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:26.760 to always keep our eye on the long term and 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:30.639 plan for the worst case scenario. While yes, there's a 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.160 lot of immediate needs that we need, but there's always 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:34.880 going to be something that comes down the road, and 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.000 if we have planned for it, we're way better off. 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.320 Just imagine how disastrous it would be on top of 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.280 the current disaster. If there wasn't such a thing as 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:47.080 unemployment insurance and this is how we found out that 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:48.400 we really kind of needed. 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.040 Yeah, it would be dark age's stuff in this country. 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.600 Yeah. So if you have gotten your unemployment insurance check 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:59.919 and it has helped you, thank Francis Perkins somehow. 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.240 Yeah, and we want to thank How Stuff Works. That's 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.520 where part of this research came from, and some other places, 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:08.760 but notably. And I want to shout this out because 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.680 this is a library intern at the FDR Library who 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.840 wrote a paper called Honoring the Achievements of FDR Secretary 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:20.359 of Labor Jessica Brightman. This is really good stuff and 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.720 she's a library intern and we want to shout her out. 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:24.160 Yeah, she did great. 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:26.440 Or she was at the time. I imagine she's moved 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:27.919 on from that internship. 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.640 After she turned that say in you bet you're bippy. 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:31.720 She did so. 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:40.080 Francis Perkins was born Fanny Coralai Perkins in Boston in 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:45.480 eighteen eighty, but her relatives in her ancestors, came from Maine. 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:48.040 And it's kind of funny here at the beginning of 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:51.920 this how Stuff Works thing, it says she so undersung 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:55.520 the even residents of her hometown of Demara scott A, Maine, 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:58.560 didn't seem familiar with her legacy. I think that says 0:03:58.560 --> 0:03:59.280 more about. 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:03.000 Maine, right, They're like, we don't need to help her 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:04.160 put on airs. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.320 Well, then, just like you know, I don't ask, I 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:07.680 don't tell, I just don't. 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:09.800 Whatever she lived here, great good for her. 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.760 I want to say. Also before the residents of Newcastle 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:17.520 busta a vein in their forehead, she's also cited as 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.440 a native of Newcastle, Maine, and they're right across the 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:27.200 Demara Scatta River from one another. I think she's from Newcastle. 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:29.599 Was this like Adidas Puma thing? 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:34.719 Maybe? Maybe, except to imagine if neither town knew what 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:42.560 shoes were, that would be a pretty accurate analogy. Oh boy, 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.320 I love so she Yeah she was. She came from 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:51.320 really like died in the wool Yankee stock. Her family 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:55.720 came over I think in the sixteen eighties. Her she 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.359 had like her family had built an outpost during the 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.760 French Indian and wore her grandmother, who had more of 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:05.480 an influence on her, she said than anybody. Had a 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:11.240 cousin who she was close to, who founded Howard University, 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:15.960 and fought for the rights of newly freed African Americans. 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:18.920 She came from like a long line of people who 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.880 cared about other people, and yet surprisingly her parents were 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:28.240 very conservative. They were in favor of, you know, helping 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.719 the poor, but not mingling with them, helping them, like 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.200 helping them by like, you know, sending some money or 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:40.080 something like that. And they produced a child, Fanny Francis. 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.800 She changed her name, I think in I don't know 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:48.560 her twenties or thirties. She was the opposite way. She 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:52.120 was like, no, like, people are people and they all 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.440 deserve help, and there's a lot of injustice in this world, 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.360 and I want to change it myself. And she's one 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:03.200 of those people who actually did enact tremendous change for 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:04.320 all the right reasons. 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.839 Yeah, she said, people are people, so why should it 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:08.400 be you. 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.880 And I should get along so awfully? 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:13.839 Which one was that? Depeche mode? 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:15.920 Depeche Mode, I can't baby. 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:17.040 Hey, that's Emily's jam. 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.120 I mean she would She probably has that tattooed on 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:21.120 her body somewhere. 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:24.880 In fact, we're both taking that none of my business. 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:27.359 We're both doing that that silly, and I never do 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:29.120 these things on Facebook, But I have time now the 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.960 top ten most influential albums, And I was like, which 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:35.640 one are you gonna pick? New Order or depeche Mode 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:37.839 for her? Because that's a that's a tough one. 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:42.320 Well, I mean, can't She's got ten to choose from, right, Yeah. 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.520 But I think for her those two are so inextricably tied. 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:46.680 That it was one or the other. 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:48.080 I gotcha. 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:49.919 And she went to depeche Mode because they were first, 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:51.400 and that's probably more influential. 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:56.320 Depeche Mode was before New Order. Huh yes, I mean 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:59.560 technically if you count New Order as an out outcropping 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.040 of Joy than they were first. 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.400 Oh so well, Joy Division was different, though it. 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:07.520 Was pretty different, different enough that they might as well 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.480 be two different bands in which they were. You know 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.480 who we need to give us the judgment call is 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:18.200 Francis Perkins, who apparently would not have enjoyed our banter. 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:22.920 She was very much known as like a dour, serious woman. 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.840 But from what I can tell, that's actually a public 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.520 persona that she wore to get men to take her seriously. 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.640 Well, who can blame her because we'll see later on 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.960 about her. It's no accident that she's lost to history 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:42.200 in many ways. But what she was also was highly educated. 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:47.240 She graduated from Mount Holyoake in nineteen oh two, where 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:51.400 she majored in chemistry and physics, even though she made 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.760 her name in economics, which means she was a very 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:57.800 well rounded human and had a very large brain. 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:00.600 And apparently she had made it all the way through college. 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:03.960 In her senior year, I think she attended an economics 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:10.000 lecture by Florence Kelly, who was a huge wage justice crusader, 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:15.080 and that just changed her life. 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:15.120 Yeah, big time. 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:18.200 In nineteen this is post college, she went to Philly 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.520 and she became general secretary of the Philadelphia Research and 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:23.840 Protective Association. 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:25.440 What did she do. 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:31.400 There, Well, she was in charge of investigating employment agencies 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:35.559 that were fake and that preyed on women, immigrant women specifically, 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:38.360 and she had to sort of deal with the dregs 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:43.160 of society in that job and did so very successfully, 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.120 and then decided she wanted to keep her education going, 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.240 so while she was in Philly, she went to the 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.760 Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:56.560 Pennsylvania because that's super easy and light learning. And then 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:00.160 after that she went to Columbia where she earned and 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.680 MA and social economics in nineteen ten. 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.000 And we should say, like she's getting all of this schooling, 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.720 but at the same time, she's also set herself off 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:13.800 on a what's that like, learn while you work. 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.200 Program called internship. 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:19.880 Guess, So that's not exactly what I'm looking for, but yeah, 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:21.560 I mean it makes sense. So she set herself up 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.120 on a real world internship program. So while she was 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:28.360 in Philly working for that bureau, she was investigating those 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.840 those fake employment rackets, Like she was on the ground 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:38.239 doing this stuff, like carrying out these inspections, investigating factories, 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:39.880 like taking notes in like. 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:40.920 The early twenties. 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:44.200 Yeah, basically, yeah, while she's studying this stuff, she's also 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.199 out doing and seeing this stuff firsthand that she's learning about, 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.160 which from what I can tell, she really kind of 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:54.160 digested and held on to and it just kept driving 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:55.920 her for the rest of her life. What she saw. 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:58.240 I think that's called the School of Hard Knocks. 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.319 It is, But she enrolled then the Wharton School and 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.240 the School of Hard Knocks at the same time, which 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:04.640 is pretty impressive. 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:04.839 That's right. 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.760 And after Columbia, after she got that master's, for two 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.880 years she served as executive secretary of the Consumers League 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:16.040 of New York. And this is where she really felt 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:22.480 her life calling to improve wages, improve working conditions because 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:27.319 this was nineteen ten through nineteen twelve and things weren't 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:32.080 great in factories at the time. We could do a 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:34.640 podcast on I don't know what the focus would be, 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.240 necessarily because we've done labor unions. 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.679 But just labor conditions. Yeah, maybe so eye opening, But 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:44.880 she did. This is one of the things she did. 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:49.840 There's very few more depressing words than these strung together. 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:55.679 She improved working conditions for children. Yeah, that was one 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:57.960 of the things she did, I know, And that was 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:00.320 at the Consumers League of New York. And she got 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:03.480 there and was like, yes, I've achieved one of my 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.160 first goals, which is working directly with the same Florence 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.920 Kelly who gave the economics lecture that changed her life 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.319 years before Mount Holyoke. 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:13.600 That's right. 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:15.840 Yeah, So she was one of those ones who said 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:17.400 I want to do this, and then would do it 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.080 and then would move on to the next thing. 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:19.920 Yeah. 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:21.960 She wouldn't stand around and wait for the statue to 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:22.840 be built in her honor. 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:24.520 Exactly, yeah, exactly. 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:29.200 So we take a break, Yes, all right, we're gonna 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.600 take a break and talk about a pretty devastating fire 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:34.360 in New York City that changed the course of her 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:59.880 life right after this. What fire, Chuck, I'm talking about 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.920 the Triangle shirt waist fire in Manhattan, sort of near 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.079 Washington Square Park in Greenwich, right next to Washington Square 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:09.880 Park in Greenwich Village. 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:11.960 I think it's an NYU building though. 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:13.960 It is, and I tried to pinpoint if that was 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.199 the building where I actually had my film classes. 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:17.040 Was it? 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.439 I don't know. I can't quite tell. 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:20.520 We got to know, Chuck. 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:22.600 I'll see if I can find out. 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.880 But a shirt waist was a woman's blouse, is what 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.160 they called it at the time. And this was a 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:33.000 factory that made women's blouses. If you worked there, you 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:37.040 were probably a young woman, you might be an immigrant. 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:39.760 You would work about fifty two hours a week. 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:43.240 Oh, I saw twelve hours a day, seven days a week. 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:46.360 What does that math turn out to Let's. 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:52.960 See seventy seven hundred and twenty Wait, I can't do 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:53.960 math out loud. 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:56.800 Well, let's say between fifty two and eighty hours a week. 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.559 No, No, it was way more than that. Twelve times 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:03.520 seven eighty four. Yeah, that's what I said, eighty four 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.800 hours a week. But like, even that doesn't sound that big. 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.120 Twelve hour days, seven days a week, just to keep your. 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.200 Job, right, so I saw fifty two. 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:17.440 Either way, they made between seven and twelve dollars a 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.439 week making these blouses for. 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:22.760 Women, which was not good even back then. 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:24.600 Yeah, it wasn't good. 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.200 And because this was a factory in New York in 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:31.240 nineteen eleven, they had the doors locked, they had the 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:35.160 staircases locked. They thought it prevented theft. If you remember 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.880 what happened to locked doors and stairwells in our Hotel 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:41.439 Fire episode, the same thing happened here on March twenty fifth, 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:47.560 nineteen eleven when the triangle shirt waist fire started because 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.600 they think of a match or a cigarette but thrown 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.680 into a waste spin and it just, you know, everything 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.840 in there was flammable practically that wasn't metal because of 0:13:57.840 --> 0:13:59.719 all these fabrics like highly flammable. 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:01.320 It went up really quick. 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.640 It's one of the deadliest US workplace disasters of all 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.040 time to this day. Four one hundred and forty six 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.120 workers died, one hundred and twenty three of which were 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:17.120 women and girls between the ages of generally between fourteen 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:17.679 and twenty three. 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:19.240 The oldest was forty three, but that was kind of 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.280 an outlier, and. 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:23.720 Sixty two of those people jumped to their death in 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:27.720 front of full view of New York City, including. 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:29.640 Francis Perkins. 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.040 Right in front of Francis Perkins. She didn't jump to 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:37.400 her death, no, no, no, So yeah, she's literally witnessing 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:41.040 one of the turning points in history as it happens, 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.120 seeing teenage girls jump out of the ninth floor of 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.320 this building because it's on fire. And not only is 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:52.120 she witnessing a fire that will change history, she is 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:55.440 one of the people that will force history to change 0:14:55.640 --> 0:15:01.280 because of this fire. The fate or the destiny that 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:05.040 put her a block away from this fire when it 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:09.440 happened is it's just astounding to me that she was there, 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:11.160 because she went on to be one of the people 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.880 who said this is never going to happen again, and 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.560 under her watch, it basically didn't. It was the worst 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:20.440 that it ever got and it never got that bad 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:26.440 again because of the safeguards she forced the state and 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:30.080 then later on other states in the federal government to adopt. 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:32.800 Yeah, I mean, she was already kind of headed down 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:34.920 this road anyway, she was already part of the New 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:39.920 York State Factory Investigating Commission, and because of this fire, 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:41.880 which she I don't think we said, she was just 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:46.280 having tea across the park there, ran over and saw this. 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:48.560 One of the things she saw. 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.400 At one point, there were twenty people that had managed 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:53.760 to get out a window onto a fire escape, one 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.120 of those tiny, little flimsy New York fire escapes, and 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.880 that all twenty of those people and collapsed, and they 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:02.600 all fel to their one hundred feet to their death 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:03.560 right in front of her face. 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.400 Yeah, we need to do an entire episode on that, 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.160 at the very least, just to shame the two owners, 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.800 who's who were just totally responsible for all those deaths. 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:13.400 Yeah. 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.120 Absolutely, but this was sort of just the way it was, 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.960 I mean, not absolving them, but she saw this as 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.360 part of the bigger problem, not like these two owners 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.720 are responsible, but she was like, it was an indictment 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:26.400 of the system. 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:29.200 Yeah, it was. But at the same time, those guys 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:33.480 were particularly nasty examining for sure, the system. They weren't 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.600 averaged by any means from what I understand. 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:38.680 No, but what was average was the fact that they 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:42.200 didn't have fire codes, and she's the person that brought 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:42.560 that in. 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:43.560 By the time she was in. 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:48.040 Her early thirties, she had called for and successfully called 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:54.440 for exit signs, occupancy limits, sprinklers, fire escapes, unlocked doors, 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:58.000 and stairwells, how wide the doorways had to be depending 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.200 on your factory floor, like all these of common sense things. 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.200 Like a lot of people saw this stuff happen and 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.880 saw this incident that day and were horrified, but Francis 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.520 Perkins said, nope, I'm going to change it. I'm a 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.320 woman in nineteen eleven and I'm in my early thirties, 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:17.240 but I'm going to make this happen. And she did. 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.720 She did. She was appointed to the New York Committee 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.280 on Safety under the recommendation of Teddy Roosevelt, which says 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:26.480 a lot because that means she'd already made a name 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.640 for herself in her twenties in New York City politics, 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:32.560 to the point where Teddy Roosevelt would say, like, you 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.239 really kind of need this woman on there. And then 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:37.840 let's not forget the fact that that operative word here 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.320 was woman as far as society was concerned at the time, 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:45.680 and this legislation that she got passed through in New York, 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:47.440 or that she helped get passed through in New York, 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.240 like I was saying, it became a model for other 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:55.640 states and then eventually the federal fire codes because of this, 0:17:55.760 --> 0:18:00.000 because of largely because of her efforts, and she made 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:01.920 a name for so she'd already made a name for self, 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:04.240 but this really kind of helped cement her name. And 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.320 she started working closely with a guy named alfredy Smith 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:12.320 who was an assemblyman from New York, right, but he 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:17.280 she won his respect pretty easily. I think they worked 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:22.399 on this New York Committee on Safety together, and so 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:27.240 when he became governor, she kind of rose along with him. 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:31.200 She was appointed by him to New York States Industrial Commission, 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:33.600 which made her the first woman to be appointed to 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.720 a state government position in the country. And with her 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:39.960 eight thousand dollars salary, she was the highest paid woman 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.040 to hold any office in the United States at the time. 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:46.960 So she became important pretty quick. But she became important everybody, 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:51.200 This is really important to remember by hard work and heart, 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:56.200 which is just a wonderful combination. Like amazing things happen 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:58.840 from people who have that combination. 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:05.760 Yeah, and she ingratiated herself to these male politicians a 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:09.359 couple of different important times in her life, and the 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:11.600 first one was Alfredy Smith, like you were saying, so 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.560 she rose along with him because he knew He was like, man, 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.040 I don't care if she's a woman or not. She 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.480 works harder than anyone I know, and she gets the 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.359 job done. So I'm just going to bring her along with. 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.560 Me and not just works harder. She was known as 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:31.880 a policy expert about worker safety and wage justice by 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:32.640 this time, too. 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:34.960 Well, yeah, I mean I talked about her very large 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:39.440 brain and her higher education. She was super super smart, 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:43.000 Like I said, she majored in chemistry and physics, even 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:44.520 though her real love was econ. 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:46.520 So it's like, are you kidding me? 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:47.879 No, we're not kidding at all. 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:49.640 So no, it's very much true. 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:53.120 So, like you were saying, she first kind of rose 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:55.800 to prominence with Alfredy Smith, who, from what I could tell, 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:59.080 I didn't get to research him very much, but the 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:01.280 stuff that I ran across the references to him, he 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:05.520 seemed like a genuine like true believer crusader and justice 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:09.680 social justice as well. So they were like a good 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:12.639 a good pair, and he made it as far as 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:16.720 New York governor. He ran for president and didn't win. Uh. 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:19.639 And when he didn't win, he, I guess lost the 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:24.720 governorship and was succeeded by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And so 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.840 Roosevelt came in came into power in New York as 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:31.560 the governor of New York. Uh, and Francis Perkins was 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:33.920 already there, and it had already built up a reputation, 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:38.800 and Roosevelt recognized the kind of person she was pretty quickly, 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:41.920 because a lot of people are you know, you can 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.240 give a lot of credit or a lot of vilification 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:47.679 to Roosevelt for his New Deal policies, depending on your 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:51.280 political stripes. But if you, you know, if you admire 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:53.919 him for it, and I think most people should. He 0:20:55.880 --> 0:21:00.320 it wasn't just him. One of his great talents to 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:04.400 recognize talent in othersah and to bring those people together 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:08.840 and then enact policies based on their expertise and their recommendations. 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:12.080 And one of those people was Francis Perkins, starting when 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:14.480 he was governor of New York and then also when 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:15.720 he became president too. 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.440 Yeah, So when he came into his governorship, she had 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:23.199 already been named and was the chairperson called it a 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:26.200 chairman back then in nineteen twenty six of the State 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:27.160 Industrial Board. 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:29.720 She was doing a great job there, and. 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:33.200 Then in nineteen twenty nine FDR appointed her as the 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:35.359 Industrial Commissioner of the State of New York. 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:38.080 And what happens. 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:42.359 The stock market crashes, the Great Depression hits America like 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:46.359 a punch in the face, and she was the one 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:49.760 who stepped in and got it in his ear and said, 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:52.560 you know what, I know that we have to feed 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.280 people right now. We have really immediate needs. But like 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:57.480 you mentioned earlier in the episode, she thought about the 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:01.760 big picture and long term goal. She said, we need 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:05.800