Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant

Maybe we shouldn't make labor for children better. Maybe we should not bring our children to work and make them work. So let's just get rid of child labor altogether.

Yeah.

Totally.

Yeah.

Totally. Yeah.

Is that our cherry on top at the end?

Oh, man. And not the drunk guy. I hate that guy. Okay. So when FDR passed away in 1945, she was the longest serving labor secretary and one of only two cabinet members to serve the entire length of his super, super long presidency. And she held over into Truman as well. He was like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So you're welcome to stay, which you don't see a lot of that anymore. Yeah.

She published a biography, a bestseller about FDR called The Roosevelt I Knew. And here are a few other just sort of career feathers in her cap. She was the head of the American delegation to the International Labor Organization in Paris. Truman appointed her to the U.S. Civil Service Commission, which was a position she held until 1953 –

And she basically accomplished every single one of her goals while she was Secretary of Labor except for one thing she went in there wanting to do, which was universal access to health care.

That's right. And then after that, she did what a lot of people in public policy do. She went on to teach and lecture at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. She did that until she was 85 years old when she passed away in 1965.

Can you imagine? Yeah.

Well, and, you know, we mentioned why she's undersung there. You know, history is written by men. We all know this. And a lot of those New Deal histories in the 70s and 80s didn't even mention her, which is just staggering that you can write a history of the New Deal and not mention Francis Perkins. It's just like a black eye on any author that did something like that.

It's nuts.

So the cherry on top here at the end is World War II. World War II was not a cherry on top. But she was watching Hitler do his thing in Germany and got really worried. She's like, man, that guy's cranked up. She read about anti-Semitism and everything that was going on with the violence there, and she wanted to help German refugees escape.

And at the time, the Coolidge administration, the immigration laws that came through his administration were really tough. And Americans were very fearful that relaxing these laws would increase the job competition and that Americans weren't going to have these jobs. And she said, you know what? I don't agree. The immigration service is under the Department of Labor.

And so I am going to put some quotas down to get some of these refugees here and to aid them. And she did that to great success.

I'm going to call this Helping a Helper. And this is from Tawny. Tawny says this. Hey, guys, I've been sewing face masks for almost a month now, and I'm close to my 1,000th mask.

That's a lot. I have given and donated to friends, family, coworkers. I'm a 911 dispatcher, by the way. Healthcare workers, retail workers, delivery people, postal workers, and other essential workers. People wearing funny hats. People wearing funny hats and complete strangers. Now that face masks have become mandatory here in San Diego...

The need has grown substantially, and through all of this, you three have been with me and keeping me company. I should talk about Jerry, too.

Old episodes and new have entertained me through the tedious hours of cutting fabric, ironing, pinning, and sewing. I started listening to your podcast while I was in the Navy and soon introduced you guys to my husband, who is still in the military. We have both listened and learned through the years together. Thank you for continuing your show and helping the helpers of the world.