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I hadn't been back in my room for long when Ab Butler called me from the station. He said he had considered his problem carefully and had decided not to apply for the job. He understood the Company had left the choice in his hands and this was it, after weighing all the factors very carefully. He had spent some time with Charlie Creasser this afternoon telling him of his decision and Charlie had not tried to dissuade him but had unburdened his soul on his feeling that the big corporations are taking the wrong attitude toward the Dollar-a-Year Man - how can the thing be done without them? And I think he has something there myself.

Washington, D.C.
Monday, Dec. 7, 1942.

Stevenson called me into his office this afternoon and really began to apply the heat. He said he had been thinking over our recent conversation regarding my leaving and that he had made a mistake to pass it off so lightly. He then began to get really serious about the job of Deputy Director - what I would do helping him run the Division, using my engineering experience, getting in on all phases of the Division's estimates, what "fun" he and I could have working together, and winding up by saying he was going to see if he could offer me $8000 a year to accept the job - he thought he could! I told him that looking at it purely from a financial standpoint, I would lose money on anything less as I am now getting up toward $7000 from GE and the difference in living costs between here and Erie would make up the difference.