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“Oh, I will have no trouble, Madam Secretary. I know how to handle those birds.”
We talked about it a while, and he finally said yes, he would be very glad to have Tracy. So I said, all right, and I promptly called our publicity man, FitzGerald. He kept in touch with the ticker, and he had already heard the news of the President's appointment of this advisory commission. I said, “I want you to get right out on the heels of that, so that's in the paper tomorrow morning too, the statement that I have already assigned the Assistant Secretary of Labor to be a general assistant and general helper.” So he did.
We got over the first day without rumpus, largely because Dan Tracy had been working with these AF of L leaders practically all night. They were pretty upset, and he calmed them. He actually did a wonderful job at calming them.
Then Hillman came to Washington, and they began to operate. We turned ourselves out to help him. I must admit this, and I daresay that everybody else who was willing through those times had the same conflict within himself that I did. I just didn't want it done that way. It's only natural that you shouldn't want it done that way. I don't think I was dreaming of power either. At least, it seemed to me that up to that moment, and for the next six months, what the Department of Labor had already in hand, had in plan, and
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