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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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got to have some power, but if they had realized all that it led to, they might never have gotten on that track. Roosevelt was really lazy. I'm sure he would not have embarked on any program just for the fun of getting the power of it. I think he didn't particularly like power. He hated the decisions that he had to make in the areas where he either had, or had acquired, power. He just hated them and he postponed them. He temporized with them. He gave evidences of conflict with himself, showing that when he had the power he couldn't put on the screws.

Homer Cummings appointment, as I've said, was just an interim appointment after Senator Walsh died. He was appointed because he was in Washington and on his way to the Philippines. Roosevelt was afraid of these lawyers in the Treasury who were all Republicans. He wasn't sure whether they were giving him a bona fide steer or not. He very perspicaciously asked Homer Cummings to help him on that occasion because he knew that Homer was politically suspicious. That was what he wanted. He wanted good advice about the financing end of things, but he was afraid that Arthur Ballantine and some other lawyer over in Treasury were just being Republicans and giving him a bum steer. He felt that particularly when he found out that there were certain





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