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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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on something else. If he'd just sat down at his desk or at any corner five minutes alone and said to himself, “What is this dinner?”, He could have thought of something that was significant to say.

He ought to have had somebody in his entourage, in all that group working for him over there, who would have thought of doing that for him. I event thought of things like that for Roosevelt. I would think, “He has to offer a toast to the king of Greece tonight. He must be careful of this, and this, and this.” I would dash off a few things on a card, take them over to Missy Le Hand, and say, “He mustn't speak about this or this, because in Greece this is bad. But congratulate the king of Greece on some progress they've made in providing maternity hospitals, which they have done. Bring out the proper things.” You don't have to think much, but just a little bit.

I don't know if Truman has ever been adept at doing this sort of thing or not. He speaks very easily, however, and this was a chance missed. I felt badly about it, because he just said nothing really, except how pleasant it was to see us.

Then there was another terrific slip. I'd supposed that he was going to speak about Mr. Stevenson. I took it for granted when I saw the sitting-down dinner that we'd have a few toasts, that the people to make them had been selected





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