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Then Lewis sent these impassioned telegrams to every little rural district--you know, there are thousands of these districts--way up the creek they are, in many cases. He sent the telegram to the appointed person in those districts. Some of them didn't get them until the next day, but at any rate, the thing began to operate.

I tell that as an illustration of the way Lewis could keep his counsel, keep his mouth shut, never betray you, never speak to the Press ahead of time, never leak--and the way he would understand and catch on to the idea quickly, and not have to have a whole barrier of defenses based on traditional trade union patterns and all that kind of thing. I mean, he saw the point quick. He got it quickly, and he would give his word, and you could trust him.

I remember Ickes saying to me, “Now, can I trust this fellow's word?”

And I said, “Yes. If you ask him yourself, and if you make the proposition plain, what you want, and he says yes, you can absolutely trust him to the death. I'm sure you can. I've never had him fail me. He will go through with what he says he'll do, sometimes even quarreling with his own miners, if he has promised he will.”

Now, that I always found that he would do. He went through this whole operation with the Government very well indeed.