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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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really will size up. A lot of speechmaking goes on in purely women's groups at the convention, at breakfast meetings, luncheon meetings. Candidates can say a lot of things there and put many things over.

So my purpose in going to the convention was to be generally useful. By this time I well understood that Roosevelt would be candidate. I think the high command was perfectly settled in its mind that Roosevelt would be the candidate. At least, I had no doubts that it had all been settled. They were, of course, not braying it, because you go through the motions that the convention does the nominating. However, I knew which delegations were in the pocket, and so on.

Frank Walker and Eddie Flynn I think were running the Roosevelt candidacy most actively. Walker, to my way of thinking, was doing this more effectively, more generally, than Flynn. He was a very practical man. He had made it his business to know everybody. There were other people operating too, but it was all being done very close-up. I remember it was Walker who said, “There's no question about the Illinois delegation. It's absolutely fixed for Roosevelt.” Other delegations were also for him. It was well known which delegations were in the pocket, and so forth. A little trading was





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