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Erie, Pa.,
Monday, Dec. 4, 1939.

Had a whirlwind day at the office mopping up on a lot of the stuff that I brought back and stuff that has accumulated while I was gone. I found Whitey has scheduled me for a talk to a Business Training group at Sch'dy. on Jan. 9 on "Diesel Electric Locomotives" so that will be a slight headache but a pleasure beside the AIEE paper in January at New York. At least I shan't have to write the Sch'dy. talk. I can give it from notes and it will be much better that way anyhow.

This is the day the 8" railway gun mount bids are opened at Watertown Arsenal; at 4:30PM, I phoned Roy Goggin for the dope and it was sad! Baldwin bid $50,000 against our $79,000. We were 3rd, Morgan Engineering being around $67000. H. Morgan Smith, Bethlehem and Buckeye were higher the latter being $150,000! How Baldwin can do anything but lose money at that figure I fail to see but the sad part is to lose it after the boys have worked two months on the estimating and were assured by St. L. we would get it. His optimism was superb but his let down was also equally superb and crushing. He was pretty broken up about the thing. Well, if Baldwin want it that badly, they're welcome to it.

Mother would scarcely speak to me today so I simply went about my business and I know she will relent soon; she always sees the situation correctly after a couple of days and realizes what she has done. Then things go quite smoothly for a while again.