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Remember that Al Smith had converted all of New York to this kind of legislation. Jim is a very devout Roman Catholic and, after all, these bits of legislation were completely in line with the two great Papal encyclicals, the Rerum novarum, and the Quadragesimo anno. So in church circles this legislation was being explained as being good Christian, Catholic doctrine.
Now, I said that Jim was rather naive. When I said that, I meant that he was guileless, that he didn't plan any wrong or self-serving project, that he was not a man of the world. He was not a sophisticated person who had, out of his culture, or his personal association or experiences, a cynical attitude which couldn't be surprised. He didn't have that cynical attitude. A man of the world would have been cynical, but Jim expected people to go along with him. He hadn't had a very broad worldly experience. He was a boy from Rockland County, New York, which is a country county up around Nyack. He was a Irish boy in what was predominately an old American area. He has a great deal of the old Irish virtues and charm. Yet he was a town boy. He is a man of great fairness. I suppose that he would cherish the word “fair” as a description of his temperament more than any other. He longed to be fair to people. What he
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