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127

Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, Sept. 16, '42

These Indian summer days are hot and sultry and unpleasant and do not help to build one up for the job that at best is rather discouraging and devilishly hard at the same time.  I took care of my small builders shipping releases today besides answer the phone two dozen times and interview  various people that float in and out in a procession of pleading buyers and builders of locomotives - pleading for locomotives and material to build them with.  And we sit here, knowing a rotten job is being done to maintain needed production and knowing further that there doesn't seem to be much we can do about it.  The wheels of the gods grind slow and in this case I question how well.

Young Birbeck is sure Kaiser have a letter from WPB last year, assuring them that, although locomotives cannot be granted priority for their job, locomotives will be available for them when the time comes and not to worry.  Barton went over to see Kipp and found his 25 locomotives largely a bunch of junk and all but 4 already on Barton's books.

[[red open bracket]] Mat Tate launched into the Porter mess today and was cursing and mumbling in his beard all the day long over this "goddamn mess" that I had handed to him.

[[red open bracket]] If I had one good stenographer down there for myself I could do twice as much work and do it twice as well.  Young Dorothy Fairbanks, a girl from a small Wyoming town tries hard but she doesn't know enough about grammar to know when she has made a mistake, is slow and overworked.  Our correspondence is days late as result - this and