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[[left margin in red]] [[underlined]] Brooksie [[/underlined]] escapade [[/left margin in red]]
[[left margin]] All morning [[underlined in red]] discussing [[/underlined in red]] wills, [[underlined in red]] and trusts with George Baekeland [[/underlined in red]] [[/left margin]] 
George tells me [[underlined in red]] his boy did not [[/underlined in red]] realise [[underlined in red]] he was doing anything wrong [[/underlined in red]] by his escapade. He told his father that [[underlined in red]] he had read so many biographies of great men who started by running away from home etc. [[/underlined in red]] George takes it good humoredly The boy does not realise what anxieties he has caused us. He left bareheaded, [[strikethrough]] with [[/strikethrough]] in this cold weather. Had [[underlined in red]] 3 suits of clothes one over another [[/underlined in red]] to insure him against the cold and had wrapped around his neck his [[underlined in red]] overalls, [[/underlined in red]] which [[underlined in red]] served as an echarpe. [[/underlined in red]] - They seem to have enjoyed their escapade. It might have been a better lesson for them if they had endured the results a little longer to shake them out their dreams for [[underlined in red]] adventure. [[/underlined in red]] This is the way many a boy gets on the wrong road without realising it until it is too late.
[[underlined]] Nov 10 [[/underlined]] At office all day ^[[Tomorrow evg.]] George has to leave for St Louis for several days.
[[underlined]] Saturday 11 November. (Armistice day) At Yonkers all day. Evening went to Century Club to participate at annual reunion of surviving members of U.S. Naval Consulting board. And group is thinning fast in number. The following were present at supper. Thomas Robbins secy Julian Frank Sprague, Dr. Whitney, Coffin, Addicks, Emmet, Addicks, Hutchinson (former secretary of Thos A. Edison) Capt. Scott [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] assistant to our board Dr. Wheeler, head physicist of the Naval Research Laboratory. Lots of bad news. The laboratory is being disorganised and is practically closed now. Stupidity of management of
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[[right margin in red]] Walter Gifford [[/right margin in red]] 
[[left margin in red]] Howard [[underlined]] Coffin Naval Consulting Board [[/underlined]] [[/left margin in red]]
[[underlined in red]] Naval authorities [[/underlined in red]] and present Secretary of the Navy., does not seem to realise that it is useless to make large appropriations for the Navy equipment if we do not keep up with the latest technical developments One cannot succeed without the other Nor are naval officers in condition to realise the need of this.
[[underlined in red]] Howard Coffin [[/underlined in red]] is just [[underlined in red]] back from Washington [[/underlined in red]] when he was consulted at to present many problems [[underlined in red]] Roosevelt [[/underlined in red]] and his advisers are facing. Howard [[underlined in red]] Coffin [[/underlined in red]] as a [[underlined in red]] member of our Naval Consulting board [[/underlined in red]] was the man [[underlined in red]] who in 1916 [[strikethrough]] pointed out [[/strikethrough]] after the Lusitania had been destroyed [[/underlined in red]] by the Germans [[underlined in red]] that it was necessary without [[/underlined in red]] delay to organise our industries, and take a census of them and what they could produce. This was done independently and without asking for funds which we supplied ourselves. [[underlined in red]] Walter Gifford then one of the employees of the Bell [[/underlined in red]] Telephone Co was lent to us by that orgtanisation and in shouldering the details of this work acquited a well deserved reputation which was for him the beginning of his brillant career. Coffin later on organised the National Defense Council after in April 1917 we had [[strikethrough]] entered the su [[/strikethrough]] declared war to Germany and he with his colleagues did excellent war. He told us how the law that established the National Defense Council "was made to serve not only for war but for any important emergency in times of peace just as well. Its original name was "Council of National Security". but some one proposed the change to [[strikethrough]] Coun [[/strikethrough]] "Defense Council". [[underlined in red]] Unfortunately the present Government as well as its predecessor seems to have forgotten