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

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 731

like himself that night. That rising-up quality that he had and that ability to face anything seemed to have gone out of him, at least temporarily. He and Mrs. Smith both were crushed and hurt.

People were crying everywhere. Everybody was crushed and hurt. It was shortly after that that he conceded. I can't remember whether he came over to the Roosevelt headquarters after he conceded. I rather think he did. He was there once during the evening, but it may have been before he conceded. It was his assumption, and everybody's assumption, that Roosevelt had gone down too.

After this business in the office building I went back to the Roosevelt headquarters where I had been previously in the evening. To my astonishment the crowd had begun to thin out already. The attendance had begun to thin out although Al hadn't yet conceded. Reports were coming that things were very bad. Very shortly thereafter Al conceded. Everybody said, “Well, it's all over.” The reports on Roosevelt were running about the same in the state. The state reports were not good. The number of people present became really quite small.

The people who worked around were still there. Jim Farley was there. He was holding down the wires. He was in the little room where all the wires came in. I remember





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