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1940 came it was found that so many of the apparently perfectly loyal, very useful, very active local Democratic chairman were really Jim Farley's men. Their connection was personal. His successor couldn't evoke their loyalty just naturally. Jim's leadership of these had been based upon personal intercourse and intermingling of their interests and of their conversations during the pre-Roosevelt campaign.

A little nearer before convention time the phrase “For Roosevelt Before Chicago” began - FRBC. The FRBCs became active then. A lot of people didn't get into it and wished they had. Jim kept them all lined up and remembered them all. He remembered everybody who had been for Roosevelt before Chicago. I remember his asking me once in '31 or so, “How would you think about the Governor running for President?”

I remember saying almost immediately, “Fine. I think it would be a very good idea.” I had been completely convinced that Al Smith never could be run for President again. I had seen so much of the meaning of the vote in '28 that I knew you would just have a dreadful time and would split the Democratic party wide open if you tried to run him again. I saw that it couldn't be. It would be unsuccessful. It would be ruinous to Al. I therefore had written that off as an impossibility. That had been tried and it couldn't be done. I had seen enough of Roosevelt to think that he was