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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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acute. She felt that his background had been one of living with a group of rich people in the Chicago area and that essentially he was quite conservative and, in one sense, almost petulant in his manner about things that were not really worth being petulant about. And he does have these characteristics, but he also has others that don't fit well with them. He's a most eloquent speaker and is able to write about world problems in a most eloquent and really elegant way.

Q:

That's really his true interest, isn't it? World affairs.

Lasker:

Yes, and he's well informed and incredibly energetic, physically energetic, and has tremendous nervous energy. He has many characteristics and you just can summarize them with a small series of words; he's very diverse and complex.

Well, we were interested in him because we felt that he'd probably be the candidate in '56 and that if he were a candidate and successful that we would again have a promise from him and his administration about the advancement of medical research and health legislation, especially health insurance, so we were anxious to know him.

In November of '55 the American Public Health Association had a meeting in Kansas City at which we gave Lasker awards, and Mrs Truman made the awards speech that night. On my way back from Kansas City I stopped in Chicago for a Democratic rally and dinner. Now, by the middle of October, as I recall it,





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