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situation. The mine owners said that we would have to find other work for the miners as they couldn't live in these valleys with no work. So the matter was turned over to us. Somebody called Mr. Ickes and myself from the White House to say that the President was turning this matter over to us, that we must prepare to meet with them not later than tomorrow morning at ten o'clock.

Ickes and I, who hardly knew each other then, telephoned back and forth. We found a room somewhere. I think it was a kind of a small assembly room in the old Department of the Interior, but I'm not positive that was there it was. Now, as I think about it, I don't think it was in the old Department of the Interior, because it was a building on Pennsylvania Avenue. Anyhow, we found a room big enough to hold a hearing in. It was a small auditorium, in which the platform was quite high. That we felt was a disadvantage as we were not low enough. That afternoon we had a lower platform brought in and set up, just a little dais half way down, nearer the people.

Anyhow, Harold and I arrived there the next morning, not knowing what the whole thing was about, not having been able to extract from one of the President's secretaries anything but the most cursory comments, such as, “Well, we don't know what they want. They want some thing. They don't know what