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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Donald Smith had made himself useful to these ladies and had taken them out. He had accompanied them to concerts and to large official receptions. He had squired them here and there and was doing it all the time. They called upon him as they would have called upon a nephew, only he wasn't a nephew. They had their own automobile so he didn't have to provide equippage, but he did all the things that an elderly woman likes to have done when she's going out. It's nuisance to go without escort. So he was their escort. They tried to promote him and interests in return.

This was why Joe Guffey was insisting upon Donald Smith being appointed. I didn't learn all this until later - quite a bit later.

The President was going up to Harvard to the tricentennial. He was to make a speech in the Saunders Theatre. That tri-centennial was the greatest academic celebration that has ever been held in this country. I believe Columbia intends to have something almost as good this autumn (1953). I understand that they're scurrying around Europe now to see if they can do as well as Harvard did in '36. At any rate, the rector of the University of Paris, the head of All Souls College





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