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I said, “We have to do that for the President. I don't know who advised him to do it this way, but this is what he has decided to do.” By this time I was pretty sure that this was Harry's advise, and it was later on that Harry told me that Hillman was his advice. I took that up with Harry within a couple of weeks, saying, “Harry, we've just got to correct this. We cannot leave Hillman there alone on it. The AF of L rumbles so now that they're likely to break out any minute. It'll be dreadful to have the principal labor organization of the country opposing the President in this defense effort.”
I'm not sure that the President didn't know that this commission was not going to be a big thing and was just going to be a political move. In that case I would have said, “Make your political move big enough so that it brings in everybody that you want to have pleased.” I'm sure that at that point it was Harry Hopkins who was limiting that. Harry had found the labor men a bore. They are tiresome to deal with. They've very difficult at times, or at least they were in those days, because they follow their own line so much, and they don't think in big terns. Harry had begun to think in very large terms, not only national, but world terms. He had that kind of a mind. He could think way aheadoof himself
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