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Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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What the reason for these selections was I do not know. Knudsen is a very good man, but he knew no more about organizing a large, across the country program than a baby would know. I liked him every much. He was a great friend of mine. Certainly he had been very helpful to me. The President never knew him except as he got acquainted with him through the General Motors strike, and that was over the telephone. He was a likeable person, but he did not have what was known as organizing ability. He was a manufacturer of bicycles and automobiles. I've already gone into what Knudsen said to me once when a matter of policy was being debated during the strike. He went almost crazy, walked up and down and said, “I'm going to take the next train for Detroit. I can't stay here in Washington.”

I said, “oh, Mr. Knudsen, you must stat. The lawyers of General Motors are here. Mr. Sloan is here. You must stay.”

“I can't stand it,” he said. “I don't know anything about what they've talking about. Look, I can make automobiles under any labor policy. I don't care what it is. I can make automobiles. I can't make policy.”

That was a very good evaluation of himself. He was a gifted, talented, almost inspired manufacturer. He was how you could put things together, do it quick and do it right,





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