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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Roosevelt did talk about that a good deal. I think it had a great deal to do with his reliance upon Knudsen, who was always willing to say, “Yes, we can make more automobiles.” Knudsen would always say, “Yes, we can.” A good many other manufacturers would say, “We couldn't do it, Mr. President. We're doing all we can now.” Knudsen was very much a know-how-to-do-it man, and that gave great comfort to the President.

The Lend Lease Bill was under consideration in December of 1940. The President didn't say too much to the Cabinet about the Lend Lease Bill. He had not discussed it with the Cabinet before it was introduced, I think. It had been discussed with some small group of the Cabinet, because I remember discussing is with Lubin sometime in the autumn, asking Lubin's opinion about how this could be done, how that could be done, how the other could be done.

Also, Sir Arthur Salter was here for the British. He was doing something about their shipping. He's a personal friend of mine, and so I used to hear from him the problems of the British shipping. The British were making big purchases here then, and he was especially in charge of the shipping. I heard from him about the terrific losses and also about the hazard of their credit, how much they could buy on the terms





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