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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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it. I remember it plainly.

Of course, this was the time when everything was going to Jimmy Byrnes. Everything that could be thrown into his basket was being thrown into it, to get it out of the public controversy and because Byrnes had an easy way with him. I mean, he didn't tell the President everything that was happening, and presumed to sort of handle it and settle it himself.

Interviewer:

Was Byrnes a man who ever came between you and the President? Were you ever directed to deal with Byrnes?

Perkins:

No, I wasn't. But one was awfully conscious of the fact that the President was overburdened with problems and with work at this time, and that he had appointed Byrnes in this peculiar position of being his assistant and alter-ego. One was conscious of the fact that one ought, as a matter of duty, to deal with Byrnes as far as possible, on all kinds of minor matters that otherwise would have to go to the President.

As a matter of fact, most Cabinet officers don't have too many things that have to go to the President. A lot of the problems that they take up with the President, they can settle themselves, they can handle themselves, without Presidential confirmation or permission. But there is a certain line, a ticklish situation, where you like to have the





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