Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 915

William Leiserson, a rather well-known person who had written a good deal on labor relations and had practiced in the field was appointed to the Board on June 1, 1939 to succeed Donald Wakefield Smith whose term expired. He was a very experienced mediator. He, too, like so many of the people who practice in the field of mediation tends to have a sort of a theoretical position, a policy that can be reduced to words, but it's interesting and at least he's a very clearheaded person.

He had observed from the outside what was going on in the Labor Relations Board and had come to the conclusion also that Nat Witt was the “bad actor” in the whole thing. But also he came to the conclusion, which I had come to, that whatever Witt was - extreme left, or Communist - he had brought Edwin Smith into his camp politically. At first I was just inclined to believe that Smith was weak and had just taken Witt's dictation on cases and regulations. But I came to the conclusion that Witt had also converted him to his attitude toward life and politics Witt had.

Leiserson also came to that same conclusion. I knew this from conversations with Leiserson about the problem. Leiserson was rather unwilling to take this





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help