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Nobody had a panacea, but there were some things that could be done. He was always unwilling to do anything but just sit and wait on the theory that it would blow over if you didn't touch a thing. I think Baruch was irritated at that.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the railroad report, which Smith signed and Baruch signed, had been made public in early '32. Certainly there was worked into the President's speeches, and I think this emanated from Baruch, some of this report. Johnson worked on these speeches, but as Baruch's man. Johnson pushed the pen on the paper and was Baruch's man. Being Baruch's man meant, to Baruch at least, that he owned him, controlled his policies, told him what he thought and told him what to do. I think Baruch felt that Johnson was completely dependent on him. That was my impression of Johnson originally, but when he got to be NRA Director, he proved not to be. Yet, he was not capable of being his own man consistently or for long.

I don't know whether that was true of Peek too. I don't know Peek well enough. My contact with Peek was very incidental. It was a second-class contact. Peek was much more concerned with agriculture and that wasn't in my field. Although we sometimes talked economics and he was a friend of Johnson's and a friend of Baruch's, I didn't really get to know him.