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the city under various circumstances, how the administration of different departments was carried on, what the relationships were between the Mayor and the Board of Alderman and the various departments, the whole technique of building up a budget. That was new and entirely strange to most of them.

So some of the people on the Board of the Woman's City Club conceived the idea that someone who did know ought to head up and be director of that part of the City Club's work. The members of the City Club, having lots of time, should become expert in the affairs of city government and be able to say how things should be done, what was wrong and what was right in what was proposed in the city government. They could be a kind of a watchdog, a supporter of good ideas, an opposer of bad ideas, a critic of bad administration or bad political action - all that kind of thing.

It was a fine idea and I undertook to be the director of that, to lead it, to build up groups of people interested in special things. It went pretty well, but honest and truly when it came right down to the doing of it, the ladies didn't like to get down to the Board of Estimate meetings, sit and listen to the dreary debates, follow the budget in great detail and become competent on it. They thought it would be fine for me to do that and tell them what they thought. The whole idea had been that they should each one of them become expert