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MARY FREDERICKSON:

Did you sort of grow in the same direction that Lippmann did as far as being critical of the New Deal, or were you always a supporter of the New Deal and of Roosevelt?

MARY PRICE ADAMSON:

I was not at all active in politics. I don't really remember during those years I worked for Lippmann where I went to vote. I wasn't a member of any political club.

MARY FREDERICKSON:

So the opinions you had about the New Deal were just sort of on issues as they came up or on individual

MARY PRICE ADAMSON:

That's right. I was getting along in years. I had my thirtieth birthday during that time, and it was high time that I became aware of what was going on. In the course of development from the Depression-affairs in New York, my activity in the Trade Union movement, and my working for Lippmann-I was automatically a member of the newspaper guild because the newspaper guild had a closed shop with the Herald Tribune. But I did not go to, oh, more than a few guild meetings in Washington. I was not active in the guild. For one thing, the members of it were in a different scene since I worked at Lippmann's house. We syndicated the . . . the articles went out through the Washington Post, and I was much in touch with the people there. They sent somebody every morning to pick up the articles from him on the days of the week that he wrote. He wrote three days a week. There's very much close connection there. I made reference to Virginia Payne, whom I'd known in New York City. When I was going to go to Washington, I wrote her to ask her what she could suggest about a place to live. She wrote back to say that she was living in a walk-up apartment on Columbia Avenue, I think it was, and it wasn't a fine apartment with fancy plumbing and so forth. It was better than outdoors, she said, and it was inexpensive. There were two rooms to it, which meant a degree of privacy, and I could come and share her apartment with her. She had been working for the government for some time, and so she knew people. I had sort of a built-in opportunity to meet people.

MARY FREDERICKSON:

Where was she working at that time?

MARY PRICE ADAMSON:

I have just plain forgotten what department with the government.

MARY FREDERICKSON:

With one of the agencies?

MARY PRICE ADAMSON:

Yes, she worked with one of the agencies of the government, and I've just forgotten about which one it was. I could find out. I didn't send any Christmas cards this year, but if I'd been sending one, I would have sent her her's.

MARY FREDERICKSON:

You said that you didn't have any evolving opinion really about the New Deal or about Roosevelt. What about World War II and our entry into World War II? Did you take a position on World War II?

MARY PRICE ADAMSON:

Oh, very, very definitely. I was in favor of that. I worked in the civilian defense, and I did whatever I could as one did at that time. One did whatever one could. I developed a very strong feeling about fascism.