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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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for Florida is now going to Montana. That always creates a great storm around Sears, Roebuck, but it always can be untangled. There are always certain things you can do. You can get it moving again. In Sears, Roebuck we always plan and allow for a margin of error, and I hope we are doing the same in this war effort. I hope we have ordered and provided for more than we absolutely have to have, so that if there's a breakdown here and there this whole flow of goods to the war front isn't going to be stopped.”

That was, of course, exactly what had happened. Of course, you can't laugh off any delay or any stoppage of work, but fortunately the planning had been done on an ample enough scale so that youcould absorb those errors. You allow for a certain tolerance in architecture, for instance. You plan your arch or your stairway to bear a greater load than it will ever have to bear. That's what we had to do here. So it is in the planning of a war and the logistics of a war. Your plan is not a hand-to-mouth buying affair. You've got to have your materials in more than ample provision.

I really know very little about Nelson, except that he was an extremely easy man to work with. He was very clear headed. He would come to a meeting always without any notes, usually without any assistant. Sometimes he had an assistant, but he was nearly always alone. He knew his stuff. Not all





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