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answers, that I could give a clear and clean account of myself and of this case, what we had done and why we had done it, how it developed, all that we knew about Bridges. I could lay it on the table and make a good defense of myself that I had acted properly for a public officer. There was nothing to conceal. There was no reason for sloshing around about it, and sort of muddling it up and not coming out clearly with it. If a Congressman thought what had happened was wrong, all right, then the public had a right to know what I had done, why I had done it, and the exact sequence of events. I knew what we had done would hold up in any court, and any judicious minded persons would say that it was the right way to do it. So I was anxious to be heard.

Sumners was inviting me to postpone it. Then he came to the point of advising me that it wasn't really necessary for me to appear. “Ah don't think, Miss Frances, that'll be necessary. Ah don't think it'll be necessary for you to appear at all. Ah think you can be spared that very unpleasant mattah. Ah don't think it'll be necessary. Ah'm sure we'll be able to handle this all right inside the Committee.”

In the meantime I just grew more and more tense and nervous. It seemed terrible to me to keep postponing