On March 4, 1933, Frances Perkins was appointed Secretary of Labor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, becoming the first woman to serve in the cabinet. She was a key leader in the development of FDR's New Deal programs. In 1934, she became the chairwoman of the President's Committee on Economic Security.
From the Frances Perkins Center:
In the election of 1928, Smith lost his bid to become the nation’s president, and New York elected a new governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt asked Frances Perkins to become the state’s Industrial Commissioner, with oversight responsibilities for the entire labor department. Soon, she became the most prominent state labor official in the nation, as she and Roosevelt searched for new ways to deal with rising unemployment. “We have awakened with a shock to the frightful injustice of economic conditions which will allow men and women who are willing to work to suffer the distress of hunger and cold and humiliating dependence. We have determined to find out what makes involuntary employment,” she said.
Boldly, Perkins challenged the Hoover Administration’s prediction in January of 1930 that employment was on the rise and recovery from the depression was in sight. Angry at what she considered a heartless deception, she called a press conference and announced that Hoover had been wrong. Figures from the New York Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a steady decline in employment, with that January’s unemployment slated to be the worst in sixteen years. Her confrontation with the White House made front-page news throughout the country. As the Hoover Administration continued to make reassuring statements about the economy, she countered with statistical evidence of growing unemployment. “It is cruel and irresponsible to issue misleading statements of improvement in unemployment, at a time when the unemployed are reaching the end of their resources,” she said.
From her position in New York State, Frances Perkins worked with representatives of labor and industry to explore long-range programs to increase employment. She helped organize a conference on unemployment of the seven industrial states of the Northeast. She reorganized and expanded the state’s employment agencies, but increasingly, her focus was on devising a program of unemployment insurance. With her encouragement, Roosevelt became the first public official in the country to commit himself to unemployment insurance, and in 1930, he sent Perkins to England to study the British system. In October, she returned, armed with recommendations for an American version of that program.
With the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt as President in 1932, Frances Perkins’ years in public service in New York were over. Soon, however, the policies and programs Frances Perkins had advanced for the State of New York were about to be tested for all the nation.
When, in February, 1933, President-elect Roosevelt asked Frances Perkins to serve in his cabinet as Secretary of Labor, she outlined for him a set of policy priorities she would pursue: a 40-hour work week; a minimum wage; unemployment compensation; worker’s compensation; abolition of child labor; direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief; Social Security; a revitalized federal employment service; and universal health insurance. She made it clear to Roosevelt that his agreement with these priorities was a condition of her joining his cabinet. Roosevelt said he endorsed them all, and Frances Perkins became the first woman in the nation to serve in a Presidential cabinet. [...]
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“Feminism means revolution and I am a revolutionist.”
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On this date at Daily Kos in 2003—The logistics of a one-front war:
There has been much hand-wringing from various quarters about Turkey's decision to deny US troops overland access into Iraq. While many have argued that Turkey's decision will lead to higher American casualties, in reality it shouldn't make much of a difference.
Turkey's decision has presented the US with several tactical problems (we already know the political damage the decision wrought). For one, it makes it difficult for the US to secure the northern oil fields. It also prevents the US from trying to stabilize the region before it is sundered apart by fighting between seperate Kurdish factions, Turks, Shi'ites and god knows who else.
But the biggest problem of a one-front war is logistical -- and could ultimately lead to a longer war.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Greg Dworkin collected buzz from the new Jane Mayer piece, Trump's insane CPAC speech, the Dem inquiries ramping up, and the "emergency" going down. A new twist on emoluments, and the return of the scourge of motions to recommit.