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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Interviewer:

Wickard said that when you'd bring up something that was a good idea but had to be shoved aside at the moment because of the War, he'd call it his “Put that up on the book-shelf”--?

Perkins:

Yes, “put that up on the reserve shelf.” “We'll put that up on the reserve shelf.” That was something you couldn't do now, but that was a good idea. Yes, he did that occasionally. I don't think his mind was preoccupied with this. It had been, you see, when he set up these committees. Certainly one of the things that had been uppermost in his mind was how to plan for the transition, but he believed the transition would take place just about as it did, with huge purchasing power--huge purchasing power. Build it up.

Interviewer:

Did his attention ever move in a decided fashion from the War to the peace and postwar period?

Perkins:

I think it moved frequently to the Peace and the postwar period--although his active attention was undoubtedly on the War.

Interviewer:

There were a lot of people in Washington focussed entirely on postwar things, like Wallace. Heck, by the landings in Normandie mid-'44, to most people's minds the War was pretty well over.





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