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by the press. So I said, “Come with me, Hugh. My car is right out here.” I took him down. He was still kind of dazed and I don't think he realized that I was taking him out a way that wouldn't lead him out through the big hall where the press is always assembled. I don't know that he noticed it.

We went out and got in my car. We drove all over Washington. I must have driven with him for two hours. He was about beside himself. He cursed, and, oh, how he carried on! He was wild. Then he would go into a great, deep melancholy, saying, “The President has disgraced me. I can't do anything. If he doesn't believe in me, why doesn't he get somebody else? I can't do this if he doesn't believe in me.”

I would be repeating, “He does believe in you, Hugh. He believes in you. You heard him say it. He thinks you're a genius. He thinks you've got lots of qualities. You've got the drive and leadership for this great, new enterprise that has never been done before. Public works is nothing.”

“Why did he ever do it? Why did he give it to somebody else? I need it. I want it. I've got to have it.”

He hadn't paid much attention to public works before, except that he thought he would have it and would utilize