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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Perkins:

Well, not exactly. I don't know what type Louis Brownlow is.

Interviewer:

Oh, you know exactly what type he is.

Perkins:

Well, he's kind of a fussy-budget, is what I mean.

Interviewer:

I don't mean personally, I mean in his approach to public administration--harnessing of this manpower as though it's something that was harnessable.

Perkins:

Well, Smith, yes, turned out to be just that kind. He wanted to harness it. He saw no way to live through the War if we didn't harness it, and harness it in the most efficient way. He got very intense about this manpower business--he was very intense.

I think the President was pretty well convinced that it wasn't necessary to do. Then we got to talking about people--who would you get to do it, who would do this and who would do that? I can remember saying, “We can do everything that you need to do, by a manpower commission, every thing that ought to be done. Most of this stuff ought never to be done at all. But everything that ought to be done can be done by a large appropriation for the public employment service. Give the public employment service some little more authority than it has now-- the United States Employment Service, U.S.E.S.--





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