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ever invited them in for a conference right away and early in the administration. They could always come in and see the Secretary of Labor whenever they wanted to, but they had not been asked for conferences before. But these were different times, the situation was dangerous, and so forth. Anyhow, there was plenty of good will. There were plenty of the President's supporters in the outfit, who wanted to support the President in anything he did.

In my invitation I had said that we wanted to agree on some simple first steps, looking towards advice to the President as to what would be a suitable labor program. We wanted to talk about, first, steps that could be taken - immediate steps - and second, something that we should work toward, a standard toward which we could work in the coming year. I said that we would attempt to put something together after this conference and put it to the President. That, of course, I knew was lure. I implied that perhaps the President would see them, though I didn't say that in so many words.

Anyhow, they almost all accepted and they came. A huge crowd came. As I've said before, the Labor Department, in the old apartment house that it occupied, did not have a room really suitable for such a meeting. I knew that. Only too well did I realize that. I discussed with several