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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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hand that must have been the draft of the bill. His discussion wasn't complete and wasn't clear. I thought it was evasive. I didn't get the main points of the bill. The situation seemed to me to be confused as Homer closed, and I thought deliberately confused. I sat there and listened in a field that wasn't my business at all, except my business was always to protect the President naturally, and I found myself saying to myself, “This is what the President has been trying to get Homer to tell us about in Cabinet meeting for months now. I wondered what he was doing, what he had up his sleeves, what this plan was that the President would keep asking about and he never told. This is it. This is really quite radical. I don't see exactly what it is, but it is certainly something that has never been heard of before. It's very, very basic.”

As we listened, the President had that funny look that I've spoken of over and over again. He pulled his upper lip down over his long teeth and would say, “Oh yes, yes.” He did that when he didn't understand. He did it when he was surprised. He did it when he was putting something over. He did it always to cover a lack of understanding. I saw that look on his face then and I deduced as I sat there that day, “I don't think





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