When on Monday morning, October 5, 1942, Donald Russell, my assistant, and Miss Connor accompanied me to the nearly completed wing of the White House, they said the offices had been correctly described by the President as �very small.�
I was already familiar with the size and appearance of the rooms we were to occupy, but the faces of Russell and Miss Connor clearly indicated surprise. . . . .
Russell, one of my small staff of five, had closed his law office at the beginning of the war and had come to Washington to engage in war work. Knowing that Under Secretary of War Patterson needed capable lawyers with a knowledge of business practices whom he could use in the renegotiation of war contracts, I had sent Russell to see him ad in a few days he was at work at the War Department. Now, like
Bob Patterson, I found myself needing the services of a man with Russell�s qualifications, and had drafted him to serve as my assistant. We had been in our offices only a few days when the President, without notice, came over to call. . . .
( pages 161-2 )
The order establishing the Office of War Mobilization and appointing me Director, couched deliberately in general terms, conferred on me greater authority that a President had ever previously delegated, and a new range of duties. Essentially, it gave me, under the President, power to originate policies and lay out programs that would co-ordinate the work of all the war agencies and federal departments in any way connected with the production, procurement, transportation and distribution of both civilian and military supplies ; moreover, it gave me the power to see that these decisions were carried out.
As I began, from the same desk and office, to tackle the tasks of this mobilization program, I was convinced that it was even more important than before that my decisions should carry full presidential support, and be final. To this end, I instructed my staff not to go to other offices for consultation, telling them that problems from operating agencies must be brought to us. Nor did I enlarge my staff. This now consisted of Ben Cohen, our legal adviser; Fred Searls, whose qualifications I have previously described; Donald Russell, assistant to eh Director; Walter Brown, who handled research and press relations; and Sam Lubell, research Assistant. Miss Cassie Connor, administrative assistant and confidential secretary, completed our permanent team; all other assistants were procured for special tasks on a part-time bass. The modes size of our staff and quarters effectively demonstrated our resolve not to compete with other agencies.
One of the goals of the War Mobilizer in his efforts to �develop unified programs� was to �eliminate interdepartmental friction.� Here
the devise of an advisory committee, provided for in the Presidents� order, had its uses. Consisting at the outset of Secretaries Stimson and Knox , Fred Vinson of OES, Donald nelson of WPB, and Harry Board (later Marvin Joes, the Food Administrator, was to join us), it was a clearing house for controversial issues and a forum for ideas. President Roosevelt presided over several of our meetings, which at first were fairly frequent but after a while were discontinued.
My first act of a long-range nature was to call on all agencies engaged in the war effort to review their procurement programs realistically and objectively. I first asked Secretary Stimson to set up a review board in the War Department at General Staff level, and persuaded Colonel Frederick Pope of the American Cyanamid Company to act as my personal representative on it. Within a day or so similar request went out to the navy, to the War Shipping Commission, and to other leading agencies, including Lend Lease.
( pages 186-7 )