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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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very good lawyer he was, and has turned out to be - who thought it wasn't over. He tried to protest that there was the makings of a salvage in the decision. We could salvage something. We shouldn't lose our heads, but should just sit down and see what we could do. If the court said we couldn't do this with a dead chicken, what else could we do? What could we do under slightly different conditions?

Wyzanski, of course, had said that the case was badly selected. That was the same thing that Blacky Smith was saying to them - the case should never have been taken up. Why did we allow a case like that to go up? That case should not have been taken up.

Cummings and the others said, “Well, it was the first case that came up. It was in the regular order.” The lawyers in NRA said, “We didn't know what case was coming up. We push them through the mill.” That's nonsense, and it should be. The government should pick its cases. They can and they should. That case should never have gone up. I also hold Don Richberg somewhat responsible for that, because Don Richberg could have stopped it. He was their principal counsel. I once asked Richberg, “Why in the world did you let the Schechter case go up?”





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