Memorandum on Closing of Philadelphia Office

I have been giving some thought to the relative value of keeping open our offices in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. This is, of course, a difficult decision to make because both are important industrial centers.

We have received disturbing reports from San Francisco and Los Angeles, indicating serious racial tensions and possibility of further trouble in the offing. We have on the Coast, as you know, the diversified minority problem involving Latin-Americans, Negroes, and Nisei. The distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles is so great that adequate coverage from either city alone is not possible.

At one time I had hoped that our curtailed budget would enable us to do a limited amount of traveling between Los Angeles and San Francisco as well as between San Francisco and the Northwest. Hence, I was of the opinion that the San Francisco office would be able to handle a sizeable part of the problems before us in all three of the areas. I felt, therefore, that the Los Angeles office might be closed. We now know that money for any reasonable amount of travel is not available. It is, therefore, imperative that the Los Angeles office be kept open.

Although the problems in Philadelphia are very serious and could best be handled by having an office in that city, geography at least is on our side. I propose that the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey be handled by New York, and Delaware be handled by Region IV. With the saving from the closing of Region III’s office, we should be able to keep Los Angeles open for the remainder of the fiscal year.¹