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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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used to remind the President of how in the fall and winter of 1939 we had talked about how the war would be carried on, what the government would do in case of war, before there was war. We had all agreed at that time that the regular agencies of government were the steadying influences that could get the work done. They would have to be expanded and they would have to be given more money. Over and over again we had said that the regular agencies of government needed to be expanded, needed to be extended. We needed to develop certainly some kind of coordination. We weren't much in each other's hair, but occasionally we found that we had been operating in the same field. “All you need is a coordinator or somebody directly under you,” I said, “Who keeps circulating to see that we don't poach on each other's preserves. But let everything stay in the location where it is now.”

I thought it could be done that way. I used to say, “what will the War Manpower Commission do? All that it can do can be done by the Department of Labor through the Employment Service and by some wage regulation that may have to be taken up later on. It can be done by the Department of Commerce in the control of raw materials, supplies, orders and so forth, so that you get a distribution of the work over the country in such a way that you can reach the centers of population where there is a labor supply. The army can do a





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