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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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want it?”

I remember talking with Early, on more than one occasion, and he would say, “Well, I wouldn't do it now.”

Then I do remember talking with him on a particular day, and saying, “Hadn't we all better resign come the first of June? Or hadn't I better?”

And he said, “Yeah, I guess so. I guess that's a good idea.”

I decided it was better at least to go through the forms.

Interviewer:

Did you anticipate going on for, say, a year?

Perkins:

No, I didn't. At the very beginning I did--I mean, the first day we met when he was sworn in and he asked us all to stay on and to do what we'd been doing and to continue, in the emotional situation, I thought, “That's what he means to do.”

Then when he spoke again at the next Cabinet meeting, he said the same thing, and I thought then, “Well, he does really want us to go on. He doesn't have to say this a second time. And this is perhaps all right, and perhaps I can do it.”

But almost immediately after that, I began to say to myself, “Well, this isn't real. This is impossible.”

It wasn't a lack of confidence, or that there was anything but perfect good will, but it just didn't seem like the right thing, and I was sure that the time was coming when he would





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