A PERSONAL LETTER, TO YOU 
I would like to write to each one of you separately, a personal letter. But to do that 
I would need to give my full time, at least 8 hours per day, for nearly one year. The cost 
of postage would be $900.00. The average labor cost of writing a letter is about 50c. I 
would have to sell the Rancho de las Flores to pay the bill. I would be out of business 
because I would have no time to take care of it during this time. 
This reductio ad absurdum will doubtless prove why I apparently write few letters. I 
do try to answer letters which expect a reply. Long hours, even into the night are spent 
thus but still I answer only about 10% of them. This distresses me because I want to 
give information when required. I want to express my friendship and appreciation to all. 
Therefore, I tell you in our catalog about the 
bulbs and how to grow them. In each catalog I 
write you a personal letter. 
This letter is that of one friend to another. I 
want to thank you for the many orders. I appreciate 
also your many reports about your bulbs and your 
friendly comments. Your expressions of sympathy 
for me in the grief I had were helpful. 
This letter is my only reply to most of you. 
When we write letters we all like to comment on 
things of mutual interest. We are all interested in 
flowers. We were all interested in the war which 
we entered only because we hoped to gain a last- 
ing Peace for the world and the freedom of all 
countries and people and to stop aggression. We 
are all interested in the Peace. 
The denouement appears to prove that Amer- 
ica is the greatest of the Nations in wealth and 
development of resources. We do not have the 
greatest area, the most inhabitants nor are we great- 
est in undeveloped resources. It is evident that our 
safety requires that we hold the good will of other 
great nations. It is also evident that our unselfish 
help to others has not been enough to hold that. 
We must remain great and strong. We must even 
become stronger. It often appears that strength 
gains a greater respect than right. We must have 
THE HERBERT MEDAL coe eee 2 
Every one of us is an important unit in that 
force which will create a better and stronger Amer- 
ica. We can, individually, become better and stronger for our first effort. Resources 
and its people measure the strength of a nation. Each of us has a personal responsibility 
to make America greater by becoming better Americans. That does not mean shooting 
a fire cracker on the Fourth of July. It means for all, more and better educational ad- 
vantages; a higher morality; less crime; more and better health facilities and health educa- 
tion; larger families in the middle (better) classes and the more intelligent; better care of 
children in all classes. 

Many more things could be mentioned but definitely it does not mean that America 
can become greater by means of more and better cocktail bars where a perfect lady can 
enter and have her drink or even become intoxicated, nor that more cigarettes, cola drinks 
or narcotics will make us stronger. 
Education is very prominently in the public mind. We are not entirely satisfied with 
proven results of modern education. The quantity is greater than that of 50 years ago, 
2 
