Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 915

who aren't members of that particular set don't have any-thing to say about what goes on and that saps their strength.”

“I agree with you absolutely on that,” he said. “I think we've got to do something to stop it, otherwise there'll be a drift to a third term. Did the boss ever say anything to you about it?” He asked me that directly.

I said, “Yes he had. I never asked him a direct question, but whenever I have asked him any kind of an indirect question, or made a suggestion that would look toward his being President after 1940, he's always come back with an absolute negative, saying, ‘You know I'm not going to run.’” I told Jim then about his talk with Maurice Tobin and me. If I didn't tell Jim that at the first interview, I told him at the second or third. Certainly I handed that information on to Jim as soon as I had it. Roosevelt had been very explicit, with a series of reasons why he didn't want a third term.

“Well,” Jim said, “has he ever told you who he does want to run?”

I said, “No, he never has, and I haven't asked him.”

Jim was obviously pumping me, thinking that he might have let something drop to me in a casual, informal conversation. Jim said, “Well, you know, there's quite a movement for a third term. There are a lot of people





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help