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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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his energies and talents, and anybody is happy and content when fully functioning. Even when the problems are very great, full functioning is such a rare experience that it's quite pleasing.

You say that there is talk that the three men he might be grooming were Hopkins, Wallace and Byrnes. However, I am just as sure as possible that he was never grooming Jimmy Byrnes. I'm almost positive of that. He did get very much into Byrnes's circle, and Byrnes may have been grooming himself all the time. That I don't know. The President obviously liked Byrnes very much. Byrnes is a very likable, capable person - capable politically and very likable. He's a “broth of a boy” to go out to dinner with. He's the life of the party. The President liked a life of the party man. He enjoyed fun. Byrnes had an Irish wit that turned itself into modern form and was delightful. He could tell wonderful stories and he sang good songs. He was a very, very delightful person.

On the other hand, he also had very great political experience of a cynical kind. He was very cynical about his “charges”, as the President used to call them sometimes, when he was in the Senate. He knew how to handle them, knew how to work them, knew how to let a thing lie,





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