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No one who didn't live through it can really understand the total disillusionment that my generation suffered at that time, so the Second World War didn't begin to shock me. Although it was more horrible in some of its details, it didn't begin to shock me and disturb my moral, intellectual and political basis of thought as much as the First World War did, which I had supposed couldn't happen, and most of my generation so supposed. So from the moment I heard of the outbreak, down there in Maine sitting on the running board of the automobile listening to the radio from London, I had a deep conviction that before too long we would be drawn into it, that it couldn't be avoided.

I tried never to say that to my subordinates in the Department of Labor, but I did say that we would have to plan for the worst contingencies. What's the sense of planning if you don't think of the worst possible contingencies and then, of course, prepare for all the lesser contingencies that we devoutly hope will be the only contingencies we have to meet. So we began very elaborate planning in the Department of Labor in every bureau.

For instance, there was the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We began to plan in '39 for the kind of information that the Labor Department could furnish in its statistical