The Frances Perkins Center in Newcastle hosted its second annual garden party on Saturday, as visitors from near and far gathered to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act.
Frances Perkins, who made her summer home in Newcastle, was the first woman cabinet member in U.S. history, and served as Secretary of Labor under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Perkins, the longest serving Secretary of Labor in U.S. history, is credited with the passage of the Social Security Act, which she cited as her most significant accomplishment.
The Perkins Center, founded in 2009 by Perkins’ grandson, Newcastle’s Tomlin Coggeshall, has recently been designated as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and is hard at work on its “Social Security Stories Project,” which will culminate in the publication of a book about the history and impact of social security.
Saturday’s guests, many of whom donned bow ties and garden hats for the occasion, milled about the gardens, posed for photos with a life-size cardboard cutout of Perkins, and even watched a short film about Perkin’s recent recognition as a local saint by St. Andrew’s Church in Newcastle.
After dining on hors d’oeuvres provided by several local restaurants, the guests cheered as a large cake (designed to look like a giant social security card) was cut by Coggeshall and June Hopkins. Hopkins, a history professor from Georgia, is the grandchild of another New Deal leader, Harry Hopkins.
Coggeshall opened the formal part of the gathering by suggesting that his grandmother, in her new role as local saint, may have been pulling strings to secure such good weather for the event, and received a hearty laugh when, after mentioning Perkins’ 1934 appointment as chair of the Committee on Economic Security said, “she may have suggested that” to Roosevelt.
He then shared the story of a December evening when Perkins called together her committee, placed a bottle of scotch on the table, locked the door, and said, “We’re not leaving until this bill is done.”
Several other speakers also took the floor, including Anne Goodridge, Social Security Case Manager for U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine, District 1).
Goodridge talked about the importance of social security, not just for seniors but for children and those with disabilities. She then read from a speech Pingree made from the House floor earlier this year. Pingree said over 300,000 people are receiving social security benefits in Maine, and that these benefits help them “retain their independence and their dignity.”
Perkins herself, in a speech in Roosevelt’s presence, described social security as “this rock of security under all our people.”
Saturday’s guests included Maine Commissioner of Labor Laura Fortman and several authors, historians, and candidates for public office, including local Democratic candidates for the Maine House, Lee Roberts and Maine Senate, Chris Johnson.
The center honored three women on Saturday, including Nancy Altman, author of “The Battle for Social Security.” Altman, a former teacher with Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Law School, as well as a former assistant to the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan (1987-2006), was presented with The Frances Perkins Center’s Steadfast Award.
Altman said she believed Perkins was smiling down on the party and would be “very pleased” with what she saw.
“We need more leaders in Washington like [Perkins],” she said. “She stood up for what was right.”
Altman said before the signing of the Social Security Act, there was a poorhouse in every state but New Mexico. “Before social security,” she said, “if you didn’t have children to take care of you, you literally went to the poorhouse.”
The center also honored Megan Williams, executive director of Hardy Girls, Healthy Women, with its Open Door Award. Williams spoke about the importance of valuing girls, and quoted Perkins, who said, after accepting her appointment as Secretary of Labor, ‘The door might not be opened to a woman again for a long, long time, and I had a kind of duty to other women to walk in and sit down on the chair that was offered, and so establish the right of others long hence and far distant…to sit in the high seats.’
Williams said she hoped that someday, all the firsts will have been done, and women will have taken the high seats. “When you trust girls,” she said, “amazing things happen.”
Finally, the center honored Brooksley Born with its Intelligence and Courage Award.
Born, former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, warned about the collapse of the financial system before it happened, and specifically about the dangers of unregulated derivatives trading.
Her warnings went unheeded, and she was chastised for speaking out. Now vindicated, Born was featured in the PBS Frontline documentary “The Warning,” and last year, received a Profile in Courage Award from the Kennedy Library.
Born said, “[Perkins] has long been one of my heroes. She was a true woman trailblazer in public service.” Born said her own father had known Perkins personally, and “revered her as a brilliant and innovative leader.”
Born described social security as “a revolutionary concept at a time when unemployment, poverty and homelessness were rampant.” Social security, she said, “continues to play a crucial role in mitigating the ravages of poverty.”
She closed by saying, “Frances Perkins did what she knew was right, and that is the highest calling of a government servant.”
For more information about the Frances Perkins center, visit www.francesperkinscenter.org.
