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possible number of people would prosper, be happy, and be able to develop. He was that kind of a person by conviction.
He was, of course, the principal assistant of Cummings and was a very able man to rely on. He was not very well known at that time, but, of course, later became very well known and very much thought of by everyone.
I remember saying to Susanna before the day was over, “This is a longer and harder pull than I even thought in New York. This is not changing from one job to another. This is a very serious change of attitude and change of emphasis in the whole of American life.” That was, of course, an emotional expression. I hadn't come to a conviction on the basis of observed facts, which I could cite.
I thought of this as being a non-partisan effort also. Certainly in the minds of people like Wallace, Ickes, Dern, Woodin, and of Hull there was no extreme sense of partisanship. I think perhaps the others all felt, “well, we Democrats are back.” That included Swanson, Roper, Farley. I recognized that there were Republican elements in the backgrounds of Wallace and Ickes. It seemed to me that there was not much partisan feeling. It was very slight. It wasn't a feeling of “We're going to show 'em!” it was too serious a job that we had undertaken. You didn't dare say,
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