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Babbie cried tonight as if her heart would break after she slammed the screen door accidentally on my finger when trying to keep Dusky from escaping. It hurt terribly but apparently no serious damage done.

Erie, Penna.
Thursday, Oct. 31, 1940.
St.L. in Washington today trying to pry machine tools out of the Priority Board for turbines and gun mounts. Got a wire from him this morning asking if we could take on 50 sets of separators after the Goss order. Later I wired him yes – if we get it, it means $125,000 more of these things!

For Fred Buckpitt's benefit, I had Maynard Allen drive me to the depot in the new Packard to meet the 9:23 AM from Boston. Fred, Neil, Hank Hoffman, Robert Chapman and Henry Disco all rolled off the train and reported a very large evening together in the train last night – I can well imagine it. As Fred said, "the last thing Roy said to me before we left was, 'Make Neil stop after eight'." Fred was very friendly, called me "Forie," and I liked him better than ever before. Hank Hoffman told me they "left the complaint in Boston" – i.e. in the Boston Office concessions account. Perhaps that will teach them not to be so Santa Clausy to Gus Munster hereafter. He and French are couple of tough, shrewd Yankee traders. At the time the 44 tons were going to be placed, French told Tom Knight, "If you fellows don't pay this very fair and legitimate bill, we won't do business with you!" That was when Whitey told Roy we'd pay it – "we" now becomes the Boston Office! I think in the long run however, it will have a beneficial effect on our B&M business from a financial standpoint.