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Edward KocheEdward Koche
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Session:         Page of 617

they say they're leaving and they go.

Now my last story about the Labor Caucus: I have a constituent hour which meets... in the past it's met on Friday morning from 9 to 10 o'clock in the morning, and it meets in churches and synagogues and community houses and the YMCA, where people know because we send out about 10,000 cards that I will be there for one hour from 9 until 10 o'clock in the morning. I do that immediately after the 8 to 9 hour when I hand out literature at the subways. This year I started to do that on a Saturday morning because Congress meets so often on Fridays that I'm not able to be there and people are disappointed if all that are there are members of my staff and not me. So I have converted the hour. I don't really like to spend my Saturday morning that way, but I do it.

In any event, not very long ago at the YMCA we had a meeting on Friday morning... I say a meeting: people come in and line up. It can be anywhere from two to 35 people. I've never had less than two, and I've never had more than 35 that would come during that hour -- with personal problems. That's what the card they get in their mail box says, “If you have a problem”-- and I list the kinds of problems where I can be helpful -- “come and I'll try to help.” And I'm able to help in a number of cases.

So this particular hour was very filled with people and I was expecting a meeting to occur with the U.S. Labor party people because they had called the day before saying they wanted to see me and where would be the next public appearance





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