Book review: Biography gives props to FDR's labor secretary

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.idahostatesman.com/READING/story/683451.html

BY MICHAEL HILL - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 03/01/09

Reading the biography of FDR's Labor Secretary Frances Perkins brings to mind the old saying about how Ginger Rogers had to do everything Fred Astaire did, except backward and in high heels.

Perkins, the first female Cabinet member, not only had to do more than her male counterparts to prove herself, she had to do it while dealing with rough-and-tumble labor leaders, a husband in and out of mental institutions, condescending bureaucrats and some Congress members hellbent on impeaching her.

Perkins would have notched a place in history simply by taking the job. But she earned it through a jaw-dropping number of accomplishments. Perkins took a major role in shepherding through Social Security, unemployment insurance, child labor laws and the minimum wage.

Perkins came from a well-off New England family, but immersed herself in the progressive movement of the early 20th century. Her social consciousness was galvanized when she witnessed young working women leaping to their deaths in the horrific 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Co. factory fire in New York.

As a public servant, Perkins was the rare creature with the heart of a reformer and the cunning of political operator. She cultivated powerful people who could help her, such as her early mentor, New York Gov. Al Smith. But her career took off when she hitched her wagon to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

FULL story at link.