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parties and dress-up affairs.

So we decided that the only way it could be done without offending Johnson would be for the President to express his extreme interest in the NRA and his extreme devotion to the NRA and his belief in the NRA by appointing a committee of his Cabinet to be in touch with the NRA and to give “every possible aid and assistance.” I remember that I put that phrase in myself - “give every possible aid and assistance to General Johnson and the NRA” - because I knew it would be palatable to General Johnson, whereas any conception that they were supervising him would not be palatable. But the idea that the President was telling the world that he wanted his Cabinet officers to work for NRA and Johnson would be palatable to Hugh.

Anyhow the President did appoint quite early - I suppose within the first two months - this committee of his Cabinet. It consisted of the Secretary of Commerce, for one. Of course the industrialists' involvement in the NRA was vital and was the number one step in the whole thing. That was Roper. Then he appointed the Attorney General, because after all there were matters of law, law enforcement, constitutional processes, procedures being in harmony with the Constitution and the accepted customs of a representative republic. That was Cummings. He appointed the Secretary