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President's O.K., because it gives you greater confidence in what you do, and yet you would never permit yourself to say it had the President's O.K. Because, if there's a mistake made, if the reaction isn't good, you've got to take it yourself. Yet you may have privately sought his advise on the subject, saying what you propose to do, but you must never reveal it.
In situations like that, I think we probably did not go to Byrnes, because I certainly never had any inclination to take up anything with him confidentially, and I doubt if many of the others did. The one thing that I took up with him confidentially was this coal strike, this coal situation.
Which one? I don't remember which one, but I think it was the one in '43. He'd already taken it over, and I attempted to explain to him what the coal situation was, what the history of the coal negotiations had been, and what the results had been, and why John L. Lewis was strong with the miners and strong with the operators, both. I tried to point out to him how the operators railed about John L. Lewis, but in the end, they came nearer agreeing with him than they did agreeing with the President or the Secretary of Labor or the Assistant Secretary.
Miss Perkins, I don't think you have ever described John L. Lewis.
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