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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Part:         Session:         Page of 912

Interviewer:

Wickard had submitted his letter of resignation in expectation that this was precisely what was going to happen.

Perkins:

Yes. I don't know what would have happened if he'd said “Interior.” State? He couldn't have State. He didn't want Labor. I tried to persuade him that he wanted Labor, you see.

Yes. I said, “Now, what do you think of the Labor Department?” You'd be wonderful at that.”

He wouldn't have anything to anything to do with it. “Oh, I don't know enough about that.”

Interviewer:

Could this conceivably represent any vindictiveness?

Perkins:

On whose part?

Interviewer:

Wallace's? His thinking of Commerce?

Perkins:

Oh, no. I don't think so.

Interviewer:

That was a bitter B.E.W. battle. The bitterness is revealed both in Wallace's words and in Jones's book.

Perkins:

I'm sure that Wallace-- I think that Wallace was clear in his own mind that Jones was not faithful and not reliable, and so forth. Not a true friend of the President's. I mean, Wallace said that to me: “He's not a true friend.”

But I think he was. I think Jones was a true friend





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