Maine Gov. 'Disses' Frances Perkins, the Woman behind the New Deal

[roxiejules]

and the Frances Perkins Center responds:

http://bestpossiblelife.wordpress.com/


Frances Perkins, the Woman behind the New Deal, once a household name and the first woman to hold a US Cabinet position is being erased from the Maine Department of Labor by the new Republican Gov.


Believe it or not, the governor of Maine wants to remove a mural depicting the history of Maine workers from the lobby of the Department of Labor because it’s “not friendly to business.”

The Maine Department of Labor has also been ordered to rename the meeting room now known as the Perkins Room.

We are aghast at this action. It is an attempt to erase history and a direct affront to the millions of workers in Maine and the country who built thousands of businesses. It’s also misguided. Frances Perkins wasn’t opposed to business; she simply wanted the drive for profit to be balanced by workplace safety, fair wages, and economic security.

Is this part of a national plan to weaken respect for working people?

For more about the Maine issue, read this article: http://dirigoblue.com/diary/2809/acting-head-of-dept-of-labor-orders-murals-in-lobby-removed








Frances Perkins: The Woman Behind the New Deal

http://bestpossiblelife.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/frances-perkins-the-force-behind-social-security/

Social Security is, rightly, thought of as one of the major accomplishments of FDR’s presidency. But he wasn’t alone in the fight, and the whole project may have failed if not for the passion of Frances Perkins, his Secretary of Labor. Indeed, Perkins sometimes had to fight against FDR’s whims to secure a package that would ensure a better future for American citizens.

FDR had drawn up ideas to tackle these issues when he got into office, but officials were too busy to deal with them. A year into his presidency, Perkins decided the time was right, notes biographer Kirstin Downey in “The Woman Behind the New Deal.” “She nagged the president to get it started. ‘It is probably our only chance in twenty-five years to get a bill like this,’ she told Roosevelt.” She knew that the dire conditions of the Great Depression were the only hope for passing something so radical: “Nothing else would have bumped the American people into social security except something so shocking, so terrifying, as that depression,” Perkins later said.

The process was rough going, with worries over court challenges to the final legislation, internal struggles within the committee, and even FDR himself publicly doubting whether it was the right time to deal with old age security. Details were hard to resolve and they were close to bumping up against the arbitrary Christmas deadline FDR had set. On December 22 or 23, Frances called committee leaders to her home, “led them into the dining room, placed a large bottle of Scotch on the table, and told them no one would leave until the work was done,” Downey writes. They met the deadline.

Perkins’ tireless, selfless work paid off in the end, and FDR signed the bill into law on August 14, 1935. On the day of the signing, Perkins said it was “one of the most forward-looking pieces of legislation in the interest of wage earners.” By 1936, 1 million people were receiving benefits, made up of nearly 750,000 elderly, 184,000 dependent children, and 18,000 blind.




“The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.”
–Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, 1933 – 1945


Democracy Now story on Frances Perkins: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/31/the_woman_behind_the_new_deal

[quitnesset]

1. Cancelled my Maine Vacation

I wrote to the gov. Last night, with a copy to the hotel where we usually stay in Bar Harbor to tell him that due to his actions we choose not to vacation in Maine this year as we have done for each of th past five years. Vote with your vacation dollars, and go to beautiful Cape Cod instead.

[roxiejules]

4. Great idea

Maybe let the Chamber of Commerce know as well.

[roxiejules]

5. Contact info for Maine Chamber of Commerce

http://www.mainechamber.org/mx/hm.asp?id=ourstaff


Maine State Chamber

125 Community Drive, Suite 101
Augusta, ME 04330

Main Office Phone: [phone]

Dana Connors, President

[e-mail]

[jtown1123]

6. That is AWESOME. Money speaks.

[Welibs]

2. Republicans don't want to govern, they want to be Kings and Rule.

Government should work FOR the people, not against them as the Republicans historically do. In Europe, Canada, Britain, Australia etc., governments are designed to do the 'people's' business. Oh I know they are not all perfect and many have corruption too, but they know who they work for for the most part. Republicans do not work for the people and they never do the people's business.


And I don't believe these baggers are Republicans. They are fascists and they intend on forcing their will and their beliefs on the entire country.

[Pholus]

3. A clever person might keep the name "Perkins" but tell the Rubes it's named after the restaurant...

A 'Murikan business that flies a 20'x40' flag out front proud and loud.

Let em try and stop you and then call them anti-American unpatriotic big-government LIE-BRULS.

They'll stop. You just have to know how to speak MORAN.

[clyrc]

7. I read "The Woman Behind the New Deal"

It was a really good book and I was angry that I had never heard of this woman before I picked the book up.

[roxiejules]

8. She was a real hero

[roxiejules]

9. Link to radio interview with Gov. on right wing radio yesterday

Note caller who suggests one of the rooms be named after Ronald Reagan and the Guv agrees, even says he has 3 portraits of him hanging up already.


Gov. LePage joined WKRO to discuss the offending mural and take calls.

http://audio.wrko.com/a/38404034/gov-paul-lepage-of-maine-makes-waves.htm

[yellowcanine]

10. How Soviet of him. The Politburo would have heartily approved.

Someone needs to remind LePage that it was the Soviet Politburo who used to try to alter history by erasing individuals from the public square.

[southernyankeebelle]

11. Does anyone know how much this idiot won the governorship? I always thought the

people in Maine were kind of progressive. Does anyone know how the people are reacting to this governor?