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the Cabinet to come to Cabinet meeting. He asked one or two to come in. By the time he had asked two there was great jealousy. Everybody who wasn't in the Cabinet, but who had been appointed to one of these very special wartime jobs thought that he was as good as Nelson, or as good as La Guardia, and that he thought to be invited. So the practise began of inviting them. Then we began to have fewer of these big standard Cabinet meetings because it was a bore. Nobody said anything. No businss whatever was done. There was obviously a great uncertainty and uneasiness about these strangers. Nobody expressed himself freely. These newcomers however often expressed themselves very freely and very lengthily about matters that were very personal to them and that were not of any general interest.

Then the practise began of McIntyre calling up and saying, “The President would like to have the members of the little Cabinet meet him this afternoon.” That would be the real Cabinet. There was never any record of that. It was always informally assembled. Of course, that was awkward.

I think the President's idea of bringing a few of these outsiders in was good, but it got out of hand, got bigger than he meant it to be and it simply couldn't be managed.

So civil defense, in its early stages, provided for a large collection of fire-fighting apparatus in different parts of the country. Of course, later on it became a much