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mines, because many years later when the government took over the coal mines at the time of a strike, he did operate them. I wangled the scheme by which Ickes was made the operator of them. I did that myself and even got John L. Lewis to agree to it. That was done privately, not publicly. I also persuaded the President to appoint Ickes as the operator of the mines and not the military, which had been the original plan. When I called him up to say that he was to operate the mines, I said, “Can you do it?”

He said, “Well, Frances, I've been thinking about it ever since that day we held that crazy hearing in the first month of the New Deal. Sure we can do it. I know how to do it now.”

I'm sure he got that idea right at the time of this meeting. He saw that it could be done if necessary in an emergency.

Anyway, they went to the Department of Commerce restaurant for their lunch. I guess it was the Department of Commerce building we were holding the meeting in. I remember telling them how to get to the restaurant. I decided that I would go around and visit with them during the lunch hour. So I went down and went from table to table. They got through with lunch quickly and we sat around in a corridor, or a reception room in back of this auditorium. I