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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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were large companies of people where you could always hope you'd find some independent voters, who would be won to the Smith program on account of the social policies and programs.

I remember speeones in Boston very particularly. I also remember Springfield, Mass. I remember Boston because it was Felix Frankfurter who came up and made this exaggerated statement. That sticks in my memory and it started me thinking. I was just making my regular speech until he pointed out that it had political strength in it and that it was to him a new discovery about the way people think before they vote. From that time on I laid it on a little thicker. I suppose I emphasized it a little more. I tried to talk less like Pat Harrison and more like myself. It went well. I got the reputation at headquarters of being a good speaker. They got good reports.

I went to Pittsburgh. I went to Chicago. I spoke in Buffalo, which was always doubtful, even though it was a New York State community. We began to realize that the religious issue would have some trouble upstate, even though they had voted for him for Governor. I went to Detroit.

Then they wired or telephoned me to please go to St. Louis, Kansas City, and some other places. They said, “Try to do the same thing you did in the South. Senator





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