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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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and read all the memoranda, read all the bills that have been previously introduced on the same subject, read all the court decisions that bear on the subject. Byrnes had that trick of quick acquisition of the necessary information.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean a good critical faculty. He made very serious mistakes in judgment of what people would do and of their motives, but not among politicians. He was very quick about these elected politicians. He would get on to what they would be likely to do and could predict vary competently what a given elected man would do under certain circumstances. That is, he knew the political forces back of him, the political forces opposing him. He knew the temptations that each of them would be liable to. He knew where they were vulnerable. He know where they could be flattered. He knew what they in their deep hearts hoped for, what would satisfy them. He was very quick at that.

But when it came to people outside the straight political sphere, he wasn't a good judge at all, although I think he always thought he was. I think he thought that what he knew about politicians was the same as what he knew about people. He had been in Congress a long time and had seem a lot of people come and go. He thought that what he knew about members





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