April 9/09
Mr. William A. Dyer, Gen. Mgr.,
The Smith Premier Typewriter Co.,
Syracuse, N.Y.
My dear Mr. Dyer:
Let me acknowledge receipt of your letter of recent date. I at once called upon Mr. Steward and gave him a letter of introduction to Mr. Fuller, the Comptroller of Albany, whom I knew very well. He said with that letter he knew he could close the deal.
I now find that Mr. Gleason who is the Clerk of the Senate and also Secretary of the State Committee, about whose experiences I told John, purchased ten machines, of which half were Smith Premiers and half were Remingtons. Of these, he returned four Smith Premiers and four Remingtons, all because they worked too hard and several of them were by men. I got Mr. Steward to meet me at Mr. Gleason's Office yesterday afternoon at three o'clock, but, unfortunately, that was just the time when the argument on the Direct Primaries Bill was at its height and I could not leave the Assembly Chamber; but I am going to Albany next week and will take the matter up again, and am quite sure I will straighten it out in a satisfactory manner. Mr. Gleason said the objection to the new Remington was more manifest than to the Smith Premier. This is the first I have heard of the Remington being unsatisfactory. All with whom I have talked have said that that machine was all that could be desired and that ours was not right so far as the touch was concerned. I told John about this Albany matter in order that he might tell Mr. Barr about it. He did so and wrote me that Mr. Barr said he could have the touch entirely changed in a very short time. How are they getting on with the change in the touch? The last time I was in Syracuse, Mr. Brown and Mr. Briggs were hard at work on the proposition.
I hope everything is gettingly along well with you.
Yours very sincerely,