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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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It should never have been established. But if it had to be established, if there was some political demand for it that made it seem necessary, then it should have been put in the hands of a very calm, practical operator who didn't see it as a method of getting his name on innumerable pieces of paper tacked up in innumerable public places - mills, mines, factories, workshops, stores, as well as innumerable offices. That is what Brother McNutt did. He was running for the Presidency. Mr. McNutt couldn't take his mind off that.

However, I don't blame McNutt for a lot of things - really, I don't - that happened in the War Manpower Comission. I was a member of it and so I know where its confusions arose. I did all that a mortal could do to keep it from being hatched. The idea for it came from Mr. Harold Smith, the Director of the Budget, who was an efficiency expert. Harold Smith was a great friend of mine. I really thought a lot of him. In spite of the fact that I liked him, thought well of him, knew him to be an honest, good, decent man, I soon became aware of this strange doctrinain quality in him. He thought a thing all out on paper, with charts and diagrams if possible, with the best logic at his command. It was pretty good logic, except, the premises on which he proceeded were not always those that are applicable to human beings.

I remember saying to him once, “But folks don't behave





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