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Notable New     Yorkers
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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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would stand toward the back. He had that quality of cynicism too.

So Byrnes made erroneous judgments about the supporters of Roosevelt who were non-political, this group of intellectuals and socially minded people. He made errors about the people who came out of the social worker group, out of the same group that Mary Dewson did. He couldn't believe that Mary Dewson, for instance, had no personal interest in these affairs, that she stood for a cause, and that that cause was social advancement. She was for Roosevelt because she thought Roosevelt was also for social advancement. They were friends, and loyal friends, on that basis.

I think Byrnes would have miscalculated me, and probably did. I never had any reason to estimate that, but I think he would also probably have misjudged me if he had had any occasion to. I know he didn't believe me when I told him certain things that I thought he needed to know and that were true. He just thought I was doing it for a reason. He was always polite. He had that southern super-politeness to a lady. He would never say, “Now, you're just talking through you're hat and I don't believe you. You're mistaken.”





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