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gone over there. It was more comfortable. They had a nice big auditorium, a large conference room, and it was cooler. I knew that it would have been better in every way, but I knew that it would merely mean that the Department of Labor had moved itself to the AF of L building and that wouldn't look good. The one thing that the country was afraid of was that Roosevelt was going to be the AF to L in the saddle. It would look very bad that way.

I remember saying, “No, that won't be practical.” I didn't put it to a vote. I didn't let anybody discuss it. I took the ball at once and said that it wouldn't be practical at all because the people who were there from the Department of Labor had to stay right in the building. They were subject to receiving telephone calls at any moment. As a matter of fact, I said, I was expecting a telephone call from the President and would have to be here. Anyhow, I said, this was a Department of Labor conference. I was sorry about the room not being comfortable. I knew it wasn't comfortable. We would try, before we had any further meetings, to get access to a room in some other department, but this was their department and here we would hold the meeting.

I thought a ruction was going to break out. John Lewis came to my rescue. He rose and in his unctuous