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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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You could almost understand why that was. Some people are so complete in their statement that they bore you terribly. Their voices get monotonous, You've got a dozen other things on your mind that are more important, or seem to you more important than the particular thing he's presenting.

Both those people - the people who made a glowing presentation of one side of the case and got his assent because he presumed that they were giving him a full report, and the people who bored him so that he didn't really take in what they were recommending - went away feeling they'd won. They never stopped to reflect as to what his mental situation or involvement had been. He was not a good cross-examiner, though the people who heard him cross-examine Jimmy Walker say that he was a good cross-examiner. He really wasn't, though, with regard to the people who worked for him. I never heard him cross-examine someone who was under him.

For instance, I heard a conversation between him and James Forrestal when Forrestal had made a proposal that I knew the president was doubtful of. I just thought I'd scream. I was not supposed to be there. I was seated down at the other end of the table and wasn't in the conference at all. I was just sitting





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