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can't take the time to talk with Jones.”

I said, “Now, don't say that. Jones is a member of the Cabinet. Certainly he can take time to talk with him. He doesn't have to have a long talk with him. On the telephone is better than nothing at all.”

“Well, I'll see to that.”

Then Harry, you see, did this thing which I think was brutal. He telephoned Jones himself and said, “The President wants your resignation.”

Interviewer:

In Cabinet of January 19, it didn't seem to Wallace that Jones knew what was coming. That was the day before.

Perkins:

Well, he didn't--right up to the very end, he didn't know what was coming.

Harry Hopkins just told him, blank. And Jones hit the ceiling, and sat down and wrote that letter, by hand. It was on a Sunday, wasn't it? Well, I guess it wasn't, but at any rate, he wrote this terrible letter. I haven't read Jones's book, and I don't think he had it in. I think he missed it.

Interviewer:

January 21, apparently is when the letter came out--the day after Inauguration.

Perkins:

Yes. Wait a minute--I've thought of something before that. Now wait a minute.

I called Harry, again, before I knew that he'd telephoned to Jones, to see if Jones had been notified, or if this was





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