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according to regulations; I wished some of the boys had been there to see this cane incident because I never would have heard the end of it. We went into the cocktail room where we had a very refreshing bottle of Pabst's Blue Ribbon before breaking up for the evening. It was another of those charming experiences of good fellowship with people whom you feel one of. I must reciprocate and soon and effectively - I like these people, not for their money but for their taste.

Washington, D.C.
Thursday, Oct. 29, 1942.

G.E. has no more copper yet for the fourth quarter and there is none in sight at the moment - Whitey is red haired. The engine companies want AA1's to even put an order on the books. Roller bearings take a AA1 to get. And we are trying to build locomotives with AA3 and mostly AA4. One sometimes becomes so thoroughly fed up with all this mishandling and confusion, the candle hardly seems worth the flame and one is inclined to say, "The hell with it. Let's build tanks or something that is very obviously for defense. But I know locomotives are necessary and all the builders' facilities are needed for them in spite of the blindness of certain people. So we battle on! Monday at the latest I launch into this engine situation and Charlie has assigned Middleton, one of the new youngsters to help me, to break in on engines. He's said to be a diesel engine "expert" of some sort - has been a Navy inspector, has an engine shop of his own in Baltimore. We shall see what he has on the ball.
Worked out today very carefully for the Requirements Committee Report for 1943 locomotives, the break-up of the small builders by locomotive sizes from Army etc. requirements. Last July we estimated in five minutes, the average size of mechanical and diesel-electric locomotives for a similar purpose and used 15 and 56 tons