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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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an able and growing person, that the resentment against the little pigs seemed to have died down, that he certainly had a great following among those who understood agricultural economics, that he had a great following also among the intellectual and right-thinking people, that he had developed considerable skill, it seemed to me, in understanding politics, and had he, the President, thought at all about the possibility of Wallace for Vice President?

This was early. Certainly by April or May 1940 I was convinced, without ever having been told so by the President, that a third term was all settled in his own mind. I just took it for granted. Whenever I said anything to him, I said, “Don't brush me off on this. This is what we'll do next year. You know who'll be President, and so do I.” He stopped denying it. He'd smile and wouldn't deny it.

So it was sometime in the spring that I mentioned Wallace and the President said, “Yes, I've thought of that. I think he's a very good man.” We talked about it on one occasion alone, after I had had a conversation about some other thing, for as much as ten or fifteen minutes. We reviewed Wallace's personal characteristics, intellectual characteristics, his capacity to get on





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