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course of my life. If he'd left, it is highly unlikely that I'd have gone with GE, in which case my whole career would have been quite different, the geography changed, almost everything altered. Well, I was interviewed by George Pfeif who, among other things, was recruiting a dozen men or so for the new Factory Management Course for which mechanical engineers were preferred. So Mr. Pfeif explained this new course to me besides outlining the regular test course for which they normally recruited hundreds every year. I told Mr. Pfeif that I'd be interested in the Factory Management Course, not wanting to tell him I really wasn't interested in anything after he'd taken his time to interview me, but I asked him that if a man started on the Factory Management Course and found he didn't care for it, could he transfer to the test course. Mr. Pfeif assured me that this could be done -- and this is exactly what I finally did and under difficulties which it took me another interview with Mr. Pfeif in Schenectady to straighten out. Mr. Pfeif and I parted and I really didn't think much more about the interview; after all, they were hiring a mere dozen men for this course, so my chances were pretty slim and I figured the chances were so slim that in all probability, I'd never hear anything more from it.

   Meanwhile, I went on with my normal activities. Along about this time, one of the huge, new Milwaukee 3,000-volt electric locomotives passed through Syracuse and was on exhibition for a day at the New York Central station. So I had a look at it and was much impressed but I can't say that I suddenly saw a career in locomotive design opening up in my imagination as a result. As a matter of fact, I'd never connected GE with the railroad equipment but the only specific item I could think of that they might produce was the headlight-generator sets -- that is, the tiny steam-turbine-driven generators for supplying headlight power on steam locomotives. Strangely enough, this is one of the few items that they did [[underline]] not [[/underline]] supply in the way of electrical equipment for locomotives and cars. Pyle-National being the main supplier. And then one day two or three weeks after George Pfeif had been in Syracuse, I received a letter from GE in the still familiar blue envelope. It was from Mr. Pfeif and he offered me a spot on the Factory Management Course with a starting pay of $30 per week which would be increased to $35 after six months. This was nearly $10 a week higher than the pay on the test course and at the time, sounded like a very good offer, something like $10,000 a year starting pay sounds now. I was in a dilemma. I was flattered to get the offer but I'd no good reason that I could see for leaving Syracuse. Mother advised me to talk to Dr. Applebee, our Unitarian minister, about it. So we had Dr. Applebee stop by the apartment and Mother left us together and I told him what the problem was and what sort of advice would he give me? I can't repeat his whole line of reasoning but the gist of