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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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by me on not making that appointment, but Senator Guffey, learning of the vacancy in NLRB, made a new demand for Smith's appointment. Actually I had not been able to find anyone of my own choice to take the post and I was therefore in a weak position. Guffey said Smith was a wonderful fellow. He knew him well and would vouch for him. Guffey went to the President and to Jim Farley and Jim kept putting me under a kind of polite pressure, calling up to say, “When are you going to appoint this Donald Wakefield Smith? He's had lots of experience, knows about these things...” etc.

Joe Guffey was Senator from Pennsylvania and a very considerable political power. He was a man who didn't hesitate to put on the pressure, who had very definite political convictions that one ought to make political appointments. That's what you got elected for. You were elected to run the government and certainly you should pick and choose people who were politically acceptable to you and who could be counted on to be politically helpful. He never let up on Donald Smith. He mentioned him to the President. He went to Jim Farley about him. He talked to me almost daily. I remember saying, “Well get me a vita curricula on him. Let me know what he'd done and who he is.





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