Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 912

it was not described in detail, it was sufficiently sketched in by the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox. One of my memories is that the President interrupted him and that I smiled to myself, saying, “Frank Knox is a little too open to suit the President.” The President interrupted him with a perfectly innocent remark or comment, which took the lead of the conversation away from Knox and back to the President. I deduced from the general tone of the situation that he thought Knox was perhaps telling too much, or in too much detail, or too freely, not that the Cabinet wasn't trusted, but they hadn't been prepared for this and the information might spread a little further that was intended in entire innocence. Somebody might mention something or other to one of his assistants. That man would mention it to somebody else. Somebody else would get some information and then a little trickle of information would spread. I remember the episode of the President interrupting the conversation to take the thread up himself only because I had this amused reaction that he was doing what he often did - talking about the thing to bring the thing back to himself.

Since this is brought up, I might as well go into this angle of security. It has been told all over Washington for years that wives of high officers in the government talked at some fashionable hairdressers - Emile and Elizabeth Arden are the two most frequented by such people in Washington





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help