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“Well, I'd like to see the bill before I give any opinion.”
I had most of all dreaded that. I didn't want to talk to Homer Cummings about it, but, of course, I had to say, “All right.”
That was the first time we broached it. I talked it over with Cummings later. He was unenthusiastic. Wyzanski took over the rough draft and talked with the Solicitor General and other lawyers around there. Some of them thought it was a pretty good draft, that we had taken advantage of this child labor decision.
I let it ride a month before I brought it up again but then I brought it up after a Cabinet meeting. I said, “Mr. President, now the Congress will be adjourning. This is election year. I think we should get this bill introduced this summer, long before adjournment, so we can do something with it.”
“Mm,” he said, “well, perhaps, but not too early, Frances, not too early.”
I was alone with him this time. I said, “What do you mean?”
“If you get it in too early, they forget about what you've done for them when they come to vote.”
I said, “Mr. President, what a thing to say!”
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