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going to run out on it if she did it as firmly as she proposed to do at that time, that I wasn't going to say to the first newspaper man who asked me, “Oh no, nothing of the sort. I won't do it,” nor was I going to say it to the President or anybody else. She wanted to make sure I wasn't going to express any doubts about it.

I have forgotten whether that letter which I wrote to Roosevelt was before or after this trial balloon, but I think it must have been before. That's why she was checking up on me. In that letter I recommended Roosevelt not to appoint me, but I didn't say outright that I wouldn't accept it. I think I got a reply from Roosevelt to that letter. I think it was a hand-written squib. I probably still have it among my little mementoes. I think it said something to the effect that he had other ideas, or “have considered your advice and don't agree.” That wasn't the actual appointment. It hadn't been offered and it hadn't been declined. I was his adviser of labor matters all the time he was Governor. I therefore presumed upon that to offer him some advice about labor matters, which he would undertake as President. The first of them would be the appointment of a Secretary of Labor. I, therefore, presumed to offer him a little advice on the subject. It was only based upon what I had read in the newspapers might be in the wind.