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Erie, Pa.
Monday, Aug.14,1939.
The office seemed rather lifeless. Two 23 ton diesels have been sold and that is all. They have hopes of landing some electrification business on the [[Soro cabana?]] in Brazil. "Whitey" is on his vacation. "Cash" and Henry are running the place. I got a check for about $25 for profit sharing, which was both welcome and unexpected.

The only news came from Rudy. It was the story he had told Perk about my recommendation to Alco by H.L.A. only latest edition of it. Rudy says I am at the top of the list and he thinks I'll shortly get an offer. He says he told them not to start at less than $4500-5000. My minimum requirement for accepting the job would be more the $6000. There are many angles to consideration of such an offer but before giving the thing a real consideration, I'm going to wait until the letter comes because I've seen these things never materialize. At the moment I feel I would be very loath to leave Erie and the GE especially in view of my hopes here based in the Eddie Gunn story. Rudy says Andy wrote this letter to Alco maybe 6 weeks ago and apparently he did it without anyone in Erie knowing about it. That opens the possibility that when Whitey heard about it, he had Eddie Gunn flag me in case I got the offer and was inclined to snap it up without consulting the new regime. It's just a supposition but it would seem to fit into all that happened very neatly. Alco would have to offer me a very substantial inducement to get me to leave a company like G.E., give up 15 years seniority and pension rights, assume N.Y. living expenses, etc. We shall see what happens.