Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 731

to cry and said, “People have been so mean, but you've always been loyal,” by which she meant that nothing had been reported to her that I had said about her that wasn't kind and well-disposed. Apparently somebody had told her about the speech that either Irene or I made about her and how nice she was. She was dreadfully hurt by the campaign and Al was too.

Al looked hurt that night and he said to me, “I never could believe it. I never could believe it. You saw them crowds in St. Louis, didn't you?”

He remembered that I was there. I said, “Yes.”

He said, “It was just the same everywhere. I never could believe it. I never could believe this would happen. How could you believe it after those people turned out? After the way they felt how could you believe they wouldn't vote that way?” He was bewildered. He hadn't come to grips with it.

I remember that he finally had to make a speech. He said, “I'm not going to concede yet. It isn't the time to concede, but I'll be doing it in the course of the next half hour. But I want you to know how much I thank you,” and so forth.

However, he wasn't himself. Almost everybody who was there that night will tell you that Al didn't seem





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help