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19

While the railroad locomotive storm was swirling around the Branch and particularly the Motive Power Section and bringing rapidly to its close the bureaucratic career of Carroll Hanly, Frank Headley and I, with the help of Coultas, Van Zandt and Sagstetter, were slowly [[red pencilled underline]]chipping away[[/red pencilled underline]] at our project and making discernible progress. However, it was [[red pencilled underline]]slow going[[/red pencilled underline]] at best. It was [[red pencilled underline]]fundamental[[/red pencilled underline]] to our project that we operate out of WPB. It was the source of the knowledge of the federal bureaucracy upon which we leaned for guidance in searching out the right sponsors. Our helpers were headquartered there. When operating out of there, we seemed to soak up a certain [[red pencilled underline]]prestige[[/red pencilled underline]] which lent some unofficial authenticity to what we were doing. If you left your phone number with a secretary with a request someone call you, a WPB number was more likely to elicit a response than the number of the GE Washington office. [[red pencilled underline]]When we began the project[[/red pencilled underline]], we'd simply park our briefcases on a vacant table and use that for headquarters. It wasn't long before we were [[red pencilled underline]]dictating letters[[/red pencilled underline]] to the WPB secretaries for typing on WPB stationery for Charlie Creasser's signature, confirming understandings we'd had in conferences and so on. We began to feel quite [[red pencilled underline]]at home[[/red pencilled underline]] at Tempo E and like members of the gang. A favorite eating spot for luncheons was the [[red pencilled underline]]Dodge Hotel[[/red pencilled underline]], which was only a few blocks away, and we dined there frequently at noontime with WPB associates. [[red pencilled bracket-open]] I believe it was a hotel which took only female guests for its rooms although men were welcome in the restaurants and public rooms.[[/red pencilled bracket]] It was very quiet and [[red pencilled underline]]genteel[[/red pencilled underline]] and high class and the food was excellent but it lacked a certain touch existing in the [[red pencilled underline]]Carlton grill room[[/red pencilled underline]] which also had an appeal. And so cherry-blossom time came and went in the capital and we sailed out into the lovely month of May working hard on our project of making GE's locomotive business legal and honest and above reproach.
Frank and I liked the way things had worked out in WPB. We felt [[red pencilled underline]]at home there[[/red pencilled underline]] and seemed to be making some progress. I think I have always been a bit more sensitive than most and occasionally I'd be conscious of a fleeting feeling of uneasiness that strictly speaking we were sometimes allowing ourselves to fly under false colors in letting a person here and there think that we were WPB men. We didn't try to give this impression but sometimes when it happened accidentally, we'd fail to correct the impression. Also I was conscious of the fact that [[red pencilled underline]]Andrew Stevenson[[/red pencilled underline]] had never yet recognized us; as far as he was concerned, no one would have known that we existed. However, Charlie Creasser and the rest of the gang were cordial and completely cooperative. And after all, if Charlie was satisfied with the arrangement, why should we be disturbed by it? So we worked along, feeling more and more like bureaucrats and really enjoying the experience because we were getting around the government offices and getting a wide-angle, inside view of what was making things go, and not go in some cases. Finally Charlie Creasser said to us in his