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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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pioneer work on it.

Joe Hammitt, Harold Stokes, Bob Binkerd and Paul Kennedy were all interested in the same legislation. They knew the New York State Legislature when I was just first looking at it. They were already acquainted. Between them they introduced me to ever so many people - favorably. Otherwise I would have been just any girl walking around, but these men were exceptionally nice to me, introduced me to members of the Legislature. I wouldn't be surprised if Kennedy introduced me to Bob Wagner.

Paul Kennedy gave me some notes on Bob Wagner during Wagner's early years in the Senate. Paul went to see him. He was sophisticated enough about legislative work and lobbying that he went to see Wagner who lived in the Yorkville section of New York. He didn't know Wagner when he went to call on him, so he'd either been recently elected to something or recently elevated. He'd been in politics, but I don't think he'd been in the Senate. Perhaps he had been in the lower levels somewhere, possibly in the Assembly.

Anyhow, Paul Kennedy went to see Wagner. He came back and I remember seeing him soon after that. He said, “I'm very, very much impressed with Wagner. Wagner's a very promising person. He's a great advance over the usual Tammany candidates and Tammany representatives. He's a





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