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His story wasn't consistent. He must have known I got as much or more than Charlie Macdonald. I feel he didn't want Charlie under any circumstances. We finally agreed what he ought to do was to pick a good testman and then train him in the engineering dept. for the job. He said he would pay say $230 a month to start. When he told me Whitey said he could have me, I was somewhat disturbed, until I gathered later that Whitey had not actually told  him that. I think Whitey made some sort of a gesture about me which he had no intention of being an offer to let me go.

Erie, Pa.,
Wednesday, May 8, 1940.

We went to see Gus Munster this morning and told him why we didn't want to bid on Hercules - no background, possible critical, etc. And the first thing Gus said was "I'm surprised they want to even consider that Hercules engine." This guy Munster is a smart duck - 3rd in his class at M.I.T. - now 60ish V.P. in charge of purchases and stores. I like him. We left Gus' office feeling he already felt exactly as we did about Hercules. Then we saw Dave Reid and told him our story, and he seemed to understand how we felt. He asked us to write up the story so they could then "complete the file on Hercules." After these two talks we felt the B&M wants to pay $35,000 for Caterpillar but want to have ammunition to justify paying the extra $5000 for it over Hercules and are asking us to help them accomplish just that. I hope we are right. This is a most interesting job - an education for me.