Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 915

in a couple of months. It seemed to me that it was a foregone conclusion that it would be unsuccessful. I also learned from my grandmother, among other things, that you don't start a row that you know you can't win. If you know that it's utterly out of the question, you don't start it. I thought this was politically foolish.

This was the first time that I ever really questioned the President's political good sense. I think that that and the court fight are all a part of the same picture, and it was all senseless. I do not know what the reasons for this were in his own mind, or what the reasons were that he would have given to someone who asked him. He must have had a defense for it. He must have had something that he was going to say to St. Peter about it. He was the kind of a man who did think of things like that. He thought of what he'd say to St. Peter. I think I've mentioned that I always used to think of what I would say to a Moreland Act Commissioner investigating me. That kept me straight. It kept me from making too many mistakes. I would say to myself, “Now what would I say to a Moreland Act Commissioner about this? How would I explain this? How would I describe this? How would I describe the alternative?” It was a great aid in assisting one in one's judgment





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help