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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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came to Washington in 1933 wishing to give their coal properties to the government. The pressure was on him, not on Ickes and me, but it was pressure that he couldn't take and time that he couldn't give. So he appointed Ickes and me a committee to deal with it. I suppose he would have been astonished if we had made any profound report. He probably expected us to make about the report which we did, which was to let it ride for a while, pacify them, waiting to see what turned up and how it came out.

There was also this advisory committee on the Civilian Conservation Corps, which was done to bring into the operation of the CCC a great many elements in society that would be helpful to it, remove some of the criticism and be really helpful in developing support for it, but at the same time keeping it under the control of Cabinet people. He knew that business— never appointed a committee of outsiders and give them their head. I'm sure he was sound about this, and, at least, he knew I was. I always wrote into any appointment of committees that I had anything to do with that they were to advise certain Cabinet officers with regard to the matters submitted to them, never to advise in general. One of the most foolish and dangerous things we have in this lovely Democratic society of ours is ad hoc committees of private citizens, who have





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