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Erie, Pa.,
Friday, July 26, 1940.

McIntyre wired St.L. (!) today we were low bidder on 72 more 75mm pack howitzers- this will make nearly $1,000,000 worth of these weve gotten all together and I can check off another of my immediate objectives. I went in to tell "Whitey" and he asked if I had told St. L. yet- I said, "No; he told me. McIntyre wired him. These fellows apparently must be educated individually." "So you came in to confess?" he inquired. I told him no, only to give him some information. I suspect he already knew about it from St.L and was seeing if I would try to avoid telling him about McIntyre being out of the groove. I've noticed Whitey likes to let you tell a story he already has heard just to check up on you (or the other guy).

St.L and I spent a lot of time discussing the 5"/38 job and I phoned Clark from St.L's office to give him comments. St.L. sat off in a spare chair like a good boy while I sat at his desk. I wanted to call from up there so if St.L had anything particular he wanted to say to Cliff he could do so after I finished or if Cliff wanted to speak to him, he could - just to show them both I was willing to play ball and be reasonable. But neither one seemed to want to speak to the other so I guess I covered the situation all right. I hope I have St.L tamed down now and can keep him that way until we close this job up.

The B & M is coming to life- Bloss and Buckpitt want to come to Erie to see our first 44 tonner- maybe next week. "Connie" tells me he may have some good news for me before I leave for vacation - but I take that with several grains of salt.