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the Department of Agriculture, as a man who had a very good political background and insight and who understood politics and the operation of politics. I thought of him as a man whose heart was in the right place, so to speak - that is, who had aspirations for the highest good of mankind and of his own country, who was completely and honorably loyal to the President, and completely and honorably loyal to whatever program he had undertaken to support, as well as totally trustworthy. Therefore he was not to be feared as some of the occasional members of the Cabinet were, in that they would run out, or would serve their own purposes, were covering something they didn't want the President to know, were not totally loyal to the President. Some of them I doubted if their hearts were really devoted to the public welfare.
I never had these doubts about Wickard. He seemed to me not so much a man of great ability, although I never stopped to analyze that, as he seemed a man suitable to serve in a period like that. He was extremely accomodating. That I saw. He was not going to make a rough light over prestige, or precedence, or anything of that sort. He did not seem to be competitive or combative, at least not to me. He seemed accomodating and as though he desired to be accomodating.
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