istants to the manager came in, they fell silent.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I think I'd better get right to the point
today. The Construction Program in the Valley has now used up two bond
issues. The voters aren't going to approve a third one."

He paused for effect then continued briskly:

"I see by the morning's _Times_ that the mayor is appointing a
watch-dog commission. I guess you all saw it, too. The Department of
Water and Power of the City of Los Angeles is going to be badly--and I
mean badly--in the red at the end of the fiscal year.

"We're in hot water.

"We do not seem to be getting through to the operating departments
regarding the necessity for cost reduction. I have here last month's
breakdown on the Bunker Hill substation 115 KV installation. Most of
you have seen it already, I think. I had it sent around. Now--"

The analysis continued for some ten minutes to conclude with an
explosion:

"We've got to impose a ten per cent across the board cut on operating
expenses."

One of the listeners, more alert than the rest, asked, "That go for
salaries?"

"For personnel making more than eight hundred dollars a month it
does."

There was a moment of shocked silence.

"You can't make that stick," one of the supervisors said. "Half my
best men will be out tomorrow looking for better offers--and finding
them, too."

"I'm just passing on what I was told."

The men in the room shuffled and muttered under their breaths.

"O.K., that's the way they want it," one of the supervisors said.

"I've brought along the notices for the affected personnel. Please see
they're distributed when you leave."

After the meeting, Forester walked with Eddie back to his desk.

"You be in tomorrow, Eddie?"

"I guess I will, Les. I really don't know, yet."

"I'd hate to lose you."

"It's going to make it pretty rough. A man's fixed expenses don't come
down."

"I'll see what I can do for you, maybe upgrade the classification--"

"Thanks, Les."

Back at his desk, Eddie looked at his watch. Nearly time for the
Safety Meeting. Lost-time injuries had been climbing for the last four
months.

While waiting, he signed a sixty-three page preliminary report
recommending a program for the orderly replacement of all transmission
and distribution cable installed prior to 1946. It was estimated that
the savings, in the long run, would total some quarter of a billion
dollars. The initial expense, however, was astronomical.