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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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walk, wanting to exercise himself, so that he could use that curious stimulus of the mind to cure himself.

Smith went to see him many times and talked things over with him. Whether that was done out of sheer personal kindliness, or political astuteness, I don't know. It might be either, or both. He certainly went to see him out of personal friendliness. The man had been sick, down and out, nominated for Vice President and so forth. He certainly would go see him.

Langdon Marvin was a great help to him. There was also the fellow who worked in housing with him, who was a help to him. They worked on a housing proposition that some insurance company that they were both interested in was trying to develop interest in. They had a great many dealings with labor unions at that time, because there was an effort to get cheap housing built, with the cooperation of the labor unions to agree on fixed costs for carpentry, plumbing and so forth, seeing if you could get the price down to a normal level. Even then new housing was expensive, too expensive for the rates that the people for whom it was intended could pay.

I knew that Newton Baker went to see him during that period. Norman Davis went to see him all the time. That would be two things - personal friendliness and political





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