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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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a little bit about people, didn't he, before he sent them somewhere? At least more than Truman?

Perkins:

I don't know. I always told him who they were, and described their background to him, and told him why I thought this fellow would be good, and so forth. I don't know whether Schwellenbach ever discussed it with Truman. Schwellenbach didn't know anything about them, you see. I mean, he just swallowed them and went along, and then Tobin swallowed them and went along. That was the way it went. They fell into the habit also of having the labor unions name their own men. The Secretary of Labor lost control of the delegation, to tell you the truth.

Well, we had these employers, Charlie Shore who'd been a publicity man, I think with Duponts or U.S. Steel, one of the other. He was a very suave, bland, pleasant man who wanted above everything to keep the peace. He didn't want a clawing match to break out. He was trying to keep things smooth and even. He didn't like this man from Ohio much because he was a crude roughneck, but still he had to deal with him. They were all very Chamber of Comerce-y.

That was the great change and the great defect I found in '52, because before that, in other years, when I'd been there before, the whole delegation had met as a delegation. Not every morning but every two or three mornings, we all met





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