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La Guardia had many ideas. I wonder if this civilian defense sprang from him. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it did. La Guardia, as the mayor of a city, charged, of course, among other things, with the duty of looking after its inhabitants and population, having responsibilities for them, would naturally think in terms of what was going to happen to New York in case we got into the war. I'm pretty sure that the civilian defense idea came from La Guardia and that when the President mentioned it to us, he was just kind of trying it out. La Guardia had already begun to come down to see the President, to see Ickes and to see other people like members of Congress, saying that no one knew when the Germans might take it into their heads to get mad at us for something or other. There might be an episode like the one in the First World War that would precipitate us into a war. New York was open to attack. New York was an open city. The Germans could do anything. They could set fires. That was going to be done? He thought the federal government itself should make appropriations to provide extra firefighting equipment. That was what he was hot on. He believed that the cities and towns could look out for themselves if they had extra fire-fighting equipment and extra fire-fighting personnel, also specialized training.