Click here for Heather Cox Richardson's August 13 entry in her Letters from an American.
Frances Perkins was FDR's secretary of labor from 1932 to 1945. Early in her life she became aware of the difficulties faced by the working class, and she witnessed the 1911 fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. (Click here for an article at History.com; click here for the Wikipedia entry.) 146 garment workers -- mostly immigrant teen-age girls who didn't speak English -- were killed when a fire broke out in their sweatshop factory on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors; the doors were locked so that workers couldn't sneak outside for a cigarette. Many were burned to death; others leaped to their deaths on the sidewalk below.
Perkins had been active in volunteer organizations working to improve the life of workers, but she was galvanized by the fire into believing government must provide a safety net for its citizens. She worked toward this end through the early years of the Great Depression, and came to believe "“The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim
to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.”
HCR says: "While men like President Herbert Hoover had embraced the idea of a
“rugged individualism” in which men provided for their families on their
own, Perkins recognized that the vision of a hardworking man supporting
his wife and children was more myth than reality: her own husband
suffered from bipolar disorder, making her the family’s primary support.
She understood that Americans had always supported each other."
She was the driving force behind the Social Security Act, which "established a federal system of old-age
benefits; unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and
neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and
public health services. It was a sweeping reworking of the relationship
of the government to its citizens, using the power of taxation to pool
funds to provide a basic social safety net."
But in 2024 it is no longer guaranteed that Social Security is “safe
forever.” The Republican Party has called repeatedly for cuts to the
popular program. As recently as March 2024, the Republican Study
Committee, which includes the Republican House leadership and about 80%
of House Republicans, said it is “committed to protecting and
strengthening” Social Security by raising the retirement age and cutting
benefits for those who are not yet approaching retirement. The Heritage
Foundation, the main organization behind Project 2025, said in June
that the retirement age should be raised.
Click here for HCR's entry in Letters from an American of August 24 which gives a shoutout to Frances Perkins in the context of Kamala Harris's nomination at the Democratic convention, along with much more.
