Office of the First Lady of the United States Staff, White House Social Secretary, Press Secretary, White House Chief Floral Designer, and White House Executive Chef. Though the persona, activities, and initiatives of the First Lady have always been significant to the history of the United States, the first First Lady to hire federally funded staff was Edith Roosevelt, who hired Belle Hagner as the first White House Social Secretary on October 2, 1901. Eleanor Roosevelt became the first First Lady to expand the office beyond social and administrative secretaries by hiring Malvina Thompson as her personal secretary and Jackie Kennedy was the first to employ a Press Secretary.
History of the United States (1918–1945) the strikes failed. The unions held on to their gains among machinists, textile workers, and seamen, and in such industries as food and clothing, but overall membership fell back to 3.5 million, where it stagnated until the New Deal passed the Wagner Act in 1935. Real earnings (after taking inflation, unemployment, and short hours into account) of all employees doubled over 1918–45. Setting 1918 as 100, the index went to 112 in 1923, 122 in 1929, 81 in 1933 (the low point of the depression), 116 in 1940, and 198 in 1945. The bubble of the late 1920s was reflected