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

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 915

Cabinet

Now the campaign. We had some Cabinet changes during the campaign. Jesse Jones, Frank Walker and Claude Wickard all came to the Cabinet then. Of course, with Henry Wallace running for Vice President, there had to be a new Secretary of Agriculture. Jim Farley resigned. I think it was a sort of general agreement by him and everyone else that his successor should be Frank Walker. There seemed to be no question of that. Frank Walker had been in and out of Cabinet consultations. He had never been to a Cabinet meeting, I think, but when two or three Cabinet officers were gathered together, Frank Walker would often be there. This had been happening for several months beforehand.

There was also a new Secretary of the Navy because Swanson died. Jesse Jones came into the Cabinet, because Harry Hopkins, who had been Secretary of Commerce, was sick and resigned. Dan Roper had resigned before to let Hopkins come in. Roper was such a good sport. He resigned obviously because the President wanted him to. It just showed how good a sport and politician he was. He had a political philosophy which indicated that he was one of the President's helpers and had no inborn right to be Secretary of Commerce if the President wanted





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