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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Now, how McNutt's name came in, I do and I don't remember--because I was horrified when I first heard it mentioned. You see, he was already head of the Social Security business, and to that industry had been transferred the United States Employment Service. U.S.E.S. had been transferred to that--foolishly, I think--but that's what had been done with it. And that department was a relatively new department, not very long in its personnel, not very strong in its habits of work. I mean, they hadn't had years and years of experience of going through things and doing things in a systematic way. They were still experimenting a little here and there.

The fact that the United States Employment Service existed there was thought to be the reason why McNutt was the popular choice. Also, McNutt was putting on very, very heavy pressure on the President to give him War work to do--War work that would be worthy of his steel, and would be up to his level of operations, so that he would get kudos and credit out of it. To have recruited all of the manpower of the U.S.A. was sufficient, in his mind, to give me him a world-wide reputation. That was what he apparently wanted.

At any rate, that was what was decided within a day or two after the War Manpower Commission was decided upon. I remember that Harold Smith was horrified, because he hadn't





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