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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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competently and he wasn't able in his own mind to decide what was right, wrong or best for the country, or best for the political situation. He didn't know whether he was principally serving the politicians or principally serving the state. He didn't have any cement there at all to make him firm enough to deal with. When I tried to deal with him, or anybody on the Commission, we couldn't deal with him at all. It was shocking.

The result was that if the Governor wanted something done, he would talk to me about it. I would try to get it done. It was during that period that I became responsible for the development of the budget of the Labor Department, although it was strictly the executive's work. The Governor couldn't learn anything about the budget from the Commissioner, nor would the Commissioner permit himself to see the Governor. He would send a clerk up to present the budget to the Governor and the Budget Director, because he didn't know enough about it himself. So the Governor would telephone me and I would come up, doing the best I could. After that first year when we found that he couldn't and wouldn't deliver I always was the one who prepared the budget in conference with the Budget Clerk of the Department, taking the heads of various divisions into conference to find out what was needed. I was the one who had to appear before the Budget Director and finally





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