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that Homer was willing to serve in this emergency and to fill the place, and that we were greatly indebted to him for being willing to drop everything and to come to us in the emergency. Even if it were only temporary, he would at least help us in the analyzing of these difficult technical and legal problems.

Cummings had, I seem to remember, very little to say. He had been conferring with Arthur Ballantine, as had Woodin. Ballantine was the best of the old Treasury officials. When I say “best,” I mean that he was the best-disposed and most easy to confer with. He had the biggest amount of information, practical ideas, and good will towards helping anybody solve the problems. He held back nothing. I mean, everything he knew, every connection he knew, every individual he knew, every organization he knew that had had any contact with the banking situation was at our disposal - Woodin's and Cummings' disposal.

I know all this of my own knowledge. I knew Ballantine, of course. I saw Ballantine in Washington within the first day or two. He was in and out. I knew him in New York and I knew his family and wife there. I didn't know them intimately, but they were social friends. I had never made the slightest evaluation of him or his work. It was what Woodin said and what Homer Cummings said that gave me this