One of the more interesting things about this project has been the intersection of the recognition that something extraordinary has happened, the bureaucratic dealings of a wartime government, and the utter mundane. So they talk about unprecedented things at the same time they fill out forms to get reimbursed for a 35 cent purchase.  Here are three documents that demonstrate this, all from Monday, January 17, 1944.

That morning, John Pehle, who lived in Bethesda, MD, needed to get the draft copy of the Executive Order establishing the War Refugee Board, a draft order to the head of the Bureau of the Budget granting them funds, and a draft message to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, to Samuel Rosenman at the White House before Rosenman met with FDR.  The Treasury Department had a small fleet of cars and drivers, and Morgenthau made arrangements for a car to come for Pehle so he wouldn’t be dependent on public transport and risk being late. With the rationing of gasoline and rubber, this was a luxury.  That is, as long as the car showed up.  This is a transcript of the phone conversation between Morgenthau and one of his secretaries after Pehle told the Secretary that the car didn’t arrive (he made in time).

 

In the summer of 1943, Oscar Cox, the administrator of Lend-Lease, wrote the first proposal to establish an agency for relief and rescue. He called it the “War Refugee Rescue Committee.” The Treasury Dept staff worked with Cox in preparing to meet with FDR, and he used his initial proposals as the basis of the draft of the executive order.  The day after FDR approved the plan, Cox wrote this note to Morgenthau.

 

He got his new agency AND the Treasury Department got a new cafeteria?!?! It was a good Monday for Henry Morgenthau.

All of these documents are from the Morgenthau diaries, volume 694. The “diaries” aren’t diaries the way most people use the term. They contain meeting transcripts, phone conversation transcripts, Morgenthau’s correspondence, and memos forwarded to him. About 300 pages a day for the 12 years he was Secretary of the Treasury–it’s a phenomenal resource for historians.