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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Donald Smith proved a non-entity on the NLRB. He couldn't think clearly and he usually voted consistently as Edwin Smith did. After a brief time, even Madden began to say to me privately that Donald Smith was just excess baggage and didn't pull any weight. At the end of his term he was quietly dropped. Years later during the war period, Donald Wakefield Smith went to prison, sentenced for some kind of shady deal on supplies.

William Leiserson, with whom I had been consulting frequently about the problems of the NLRB, was appointed in his place promptly. He soon put his finger on certain sore spots and started a kind of reorganization.

The President was increasingly sensitive to the many criticism of NLRB which were then current, and inclined to think that Chairman Madden could alter the situation there if he wanted to. But this time, Nat Witt was the executive secretary of the NLRB and was arranging for the development and preparation of cases as well as for legal interpretations and rulings, and by this time had won the steadfast support of Edwin Smith and the frequent concurence of Madden because of his competance and industry he had great influence.





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