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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Knox was obviously willing to allow this to go on. He never resented the President's taking a hand in the Navy Department. Knox liked him personally. I fell very sure that they became personal friends, that they were congenial. They were congenial rather than merely sympathetic. Knox also, curiously, you might say was no New Dealer, but he has a humanitarian streak that ran all through him. I know that because of the problems that we used to have when there were strikes in the shipbuilding yards where the Navy had orders. Having been a newspaper man, he was a broad-minded citizen. You can't be a newspaper man and he a narrow-minded fellow if you're a really good one. He knew all about printers' organizations, press men, and so forth. He was accustomed to dealing with them. He didn't just hit the ceiling when somebody said, “There's a strike,” or “There's going to be a strike.” His blood pressure didn't rise. He just took it natural and said, “What's the matter? What do they want? Who's leading it? Who's dealing with it?” He would talk with me about it and if I could find out that the man had a reasonable complaint, he would see that that was reasonable, and he would accept it as reasonable.





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