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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Governor, would do so and so. Even that could be done on the telephone. He would do it. He was a wonderful person to work with. He trusted you. He didn't hit the ceiling when somebody came to tell him something else. He trusted you. He'd call you up and ask you, but there were no doubts in his mind. He didn't try to run the Department. He was a perfect executive in that way. He didn't have big ideas about organization and administration of departments which he put somebody in charge of.

Dr. Herman Biggs, the head of the Health Department, would have said the same thing. Biggs kept him fully informed, as I kept him fully informed, but we didn't bore him with details of administration. He trusted you to go ahead and do the beat you could. He was very easy to work with that way. People would come in and give him a big song and dance and he would say, “Hmm,” and that was all. You never heard from it.

I had some doubts as to how we would operate with Roosevelt. I thought it would be more difficult, and indeed it was. People were always going to him with something or other. He would always get all hot and bothered and you'd have immediate reactions to it. He'd telephone you that he thought you'd better do this or that. You knew that it was





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