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that he had given this money, and had been asked to give it. At any rate, Jim had made return of part of it. It had only been a few weeks, you see--it was still a short time after the campaign. Jim said, “That's all going to be returned; in fact some of it has been.”
He assured me of that, and so I told this to the President. The President said, “Ham... I see, I see.”
I think it probably registered at that moment: it's kind of dangerous to have that kind of a gentlemen's agreement with a trade union, any trade union, and certainly with Lewis. He didn't say to me, “Jim ought to be more careful,” but that was the kind of reaction I got. It had been a sort of an unsophisticated act on Jim's part. And I think it was a little unsophisticated. Jim didn't realize the extent to which a labor union might take advantage of that, and I think the President would have instinctively recognized it, you see. You've got to get your money from other sources, get your cash from other sources.
At any rate, Jim hustled around, and it was repaid to Lewis within a very short time--I mean, within, we'll say, a month. Roosevelt sent for Lewis and had a pleasant enough talk with him about trivial matters. As I said, Lewis didn't have any great ideas to offer him. He didn't have any program for the United States. His imagination doesn't run that way. I mean, his imagination runs to bargaining with
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