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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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it was, I thought, very difficult, very unpleasant. He said the same. I don't remember talking much to anybody else.

I tried to broach the subject to Ickes once. He was in one of his clam-up days. He said, “I don't have any trouble,” and shut up. I remember thinking to myself, “Harold's stolen a march on somebody somewhere. He's got it all working to suit him.” I don't remember talking to anybody else about it.

Now, one person I did talk with about it a great deal was Harold Smith, the Director of the Budget. He was supposed to be the great coordinator. He was a specialist on government organization and method. That was what he was supposed to be vastly interested in. His whole idea of reducing the cost of government was to reduce the awkward-nesses, the duplication, the overlapping and all that kind of thing. I also liked him very much. So I talked with him about it a good deal.

I had an immediate reason for talking with him about it, because what we were or were not going to do reflected itself in our budget application. You asked for so many millions of dollars to do the following things. Well, if you, the Secretary of Labor, weren't going to do it, if the Advisory Commission to the Council for National Defense was





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