have felt it before Mr. Baruch did. Mr. Baruch never seems to have questioned anything that he did. Why should he? He “had more power than any other man in the war” and he had the most powerful and autocratic backing that a man ever had. But the others, the non-Jewish members, were thinking of the law.
So Mr. Baruch solved it very nicely. He took the committees, comprising the same men, and had them named as committees of the United States Chamber of Commerce for their various industries, and although the process was not changed in the least, the legal aspect of it was changed. It was rather clever. It was more, it was typical.
And after that, Mr. Baruch who had previously insisted that he himself had picked those men and that the industries had not, thus clearly encouraging the inference that these men did not represent the industries’ side, but the government side of the matter, he now insists that they represented the industry.
- Mr. Graham—“* * * you changed and took these advisory committes and had the National Chamber of Commerce reappoint them, so that they then were direct representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and not of the officials of the United States or connected with any governmental machinery?”
- Mr. Baruch—“I never considered them officials of the government, Mr. Graham.”
- Mr. Graham—“They were as much officials of the government as the rest of you, were they not?”
- Mr. Baruch—“I do not think so * * * (after several questions) * * * I asked them to serve so that when the government wanted anything they could go to one small, compact body, rather than to send out to I do not know how many people. You see?”
- Mr. Graham—“Let us see about that. They were serving under you, were they not? You were the head?”
- Mr. Baruch—“I appointed them and asked them to do this so that I could have a compact body to deal with.”
- Mr. Graham—“You did not think for a minute that they were representing the government, but did you not think you were?”
- Mr. Baruch—“I was doing the best I knew how.”
