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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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were supposed to be managing things. But Harry Hopkins had hired a very small suite on the second floor of the Blackstone Hotel. I think he only had two rooms - a room which he used and another room where there were a couple of people helping him and holding off the crowds. Harry's position at the convention was not clear. It was not made clear by the official organization as to what Harry was doing. He was there to see that the President was kept informed, kept in touch with things, to see that whatever the President's wishes were that had been previously expressed were expressed to the right people at the right time and in the right way, and that sufficient support was built up for them so that they would get by and get accepted. There was, of course, a considerable beating of the path to his door for news. There was a great deal of news emphasis laid upon the appearance of anybody at Hopkins's headquarters. If anybody turned up there, that was news and in the papers, whereas the regular officers of the convention, even Walker and Flynn, didn't have as many newspapermen watching their door as watched Hopkins's door.

At the very beginning, to my way of thinking, one of the most important things we were going to do was the platform. I had drafted up earlier, along with other





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