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it.
I said, “It occurred to me that it would be appropriate for the Secretary of the Interior to administrate this.”
“Don't you mean the Secretary of Labor?”
I said, “No, I do not. That would be most inappropriate. It occurred to me that it would be appropriate for the Secretary of the Interior to be selected as the agent of the Government to operate the mines during this legal seizure. Now, I haven't spoken to the President. Perhaps he doesn't want you. I don't know anything about it. All I want to know is, would you consider it? Would you even think of it? Can you tolerate the idea? Do you think well of this pattern?”
“Well,” he said, “this is a great surprise. I'm very much astonished. What am I going to do with John L. Lewis?” said he--jumping right to the conclusion, you see, that I was after.
“Well,” I said, “I don't know what you're going to do with John L. Lewis. You first decide whether you would do it or not.”
“Well, I wouldn't think of doing it,” he said, “unless I had a talk with John L. Lewis.”
I knew he was going to say that. I wanted him, you know, to issue the invitation, although I knew that Lewis also wanted to talk with him.
Then his imagination began to work, and he began to talk
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