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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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I'd say, “Frankly, Jim, I don't think he's got any endorsement. I'm pretty sure he voted for Roosevelt himself, but I don't know whether his family are Republicans, or what they are. I don't like to press him too hard. I wouldn't appoint him if he hadn't voted for Roosevelt. If he was on the other side, we don't want him. But I think he's all right. What do you think I had better do?”

He'd say, “Well, I'll see what I can do.”

He would be the one who would run around among the Senators or Representatives and speak a good word about this man, saying, “I hear So-and-So in your district is a very fine man.” The Senator would nearly always say, “Yes.” It was Jim who put me onto the fact that the Senator from Illinois would rather have you appoint a man from Illinois, who is perhaps a college professor and a highbrow, than to appoint a regular machine Democrat that comes from other State. They like the prestige. And so the Senator from Illinois, who in those days was Senator Ham Lewis and a good sort, very pompous, would agree. He had had a red beard at one time, but it had grown gray and they used to call him, “pink whiskers.” He was very pompous and very vain, but not without ability. His vanity more or less clouded his perceptions in some directions. He was a wonderful





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