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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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a man had had in this country at the same time that he had no preparation for it whatever. He had come up as a social worker, engaged in doing a thing that was merely a large social work job. That's the extraordinary duality of Hopkins's nature, which few people understood and which was a terrific surprise. I don't think anybody could have picked him. His qualifications don't fit the job description, as we say in civil service. Nobody would have thought of picking him. He only did it because he was there. The President needed a boost on this and a help on that and he turned to Hopkins because he was there. The fact that he was living in the White House, as an active charity on Mrs. Roosevelt's part to take care of Diana, made him available for consultations at odd hours when the President's mind was whirling with the detail and confusion of the problems. In response to that challenge Hopkins developed these talents which I don't think he thought he had, or knew he had.

Then he developed this terrific capacity to remember, to think, to relate all sorts of unrelated things to a practical, central focal point, and to go ahead and carry out a project. I don't suppose the ships would have been built without him. Arthur Salter,





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