February 11 Wednesday – Sam’s one “watched basket” fell apart when Senator John P. Jones sent a telegram. He also wrote a letter on Senate letterhead:

I have received your note of 9th and telegraphed you today that within the time named it is impossible to accomplish anything, and that even with time, so far as my investigations have gone, the difficulties seemed almost insurmountable…I shall be glad to do anything I can to help you…there cannot be a doubt as to the future of the machine [MTNJ 3: 602n96].

Note: Jones also wrote he’d discussed the typesetter with several senators and found that Senator J. Donald Cameron and ex-Secretary of the Navy William Whitney were major investors in the Mergenthaler Linotype.

Fred Hall’s letter of the Feb. 12 puts Sam in the Webster office this day to look things over.