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in 1952-'3, that that isn't the way it's always done. At any rate, on that occasion, of course the Democrats had a sizable majority and they were all very well-disposed to each other. At that moment, there wasn't an ill-disposed Democrat in Washington. They all thought that everybody was lovely. So it was quickly done.

We were sworn in that night. I was that last one to be sworn in because of the order of the Cabinet. The order is state, Treasury, War, Attorney General, Postmaster General, Navy, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor, I think. Anyhow, we were standing in order or our rank. Commerce was next to me. They take their rank, both administratively and socially, from the date of the establishment of the Department over which they preside. I was always at the end. I was always the last.

That brought about a pretty question of precedence, since I was a lady. It was very complicated. It was never complicated for me, because I knew exactly what I was going to do. I wasn't going to allow any rows of the Dolly Gann- Alice Roosevelt Longworth type of dispute to arise. I had thought about that. Having known about that row or social precedence, I had made up my mind that, as a lady, I wasn't going to claim any special precedence.

I would not claim that I was of higher ranked standing