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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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were there. I know from the record they were there, but I don't happen to recall seeing them or speaking with them, and I think it was because it was pretty personal.

I don't remember when the first Cabinet meeting was. It may have been the very next day.

Interviewer:

No. April 16 was when you all went to the House of Representatives to hear Truman's first address to Congress. You had not had a Cabinet meeting before. April 20 was the first general Cabinet meeting.

Perkins:

I don't recall anything. I'm sure I wasn't asked to contribute anything to that speech, and I think it was pretty general, if I'm not mistaken.

Interviewer:

Do you remember the false start, when Harry Truman stepped immediately up to the microphone and started to talk, and Speaker Rayburn motioned him back and sad, “Wait a minute, Harry, let me introduce you first.”

Perkins:

No, I don't remember that. It was one of the things I wouldn't notice because it was so obviously trifling. You know, when you're under a tension--

Did I describe to you about Madame Chiang Kai Shek's address to the House--to the joint bodies? That's one of the things I all of a sudden remembered. That was the most effective address I ever heard in the House of Representatives.





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