A PERSONAL LETTER,—to you 
Dear Floral Friends: 
This fall catalog goes to several thousand new customers to whom I need 
to explain that for about 25 years it has been my custom to preface our catalogs, 
twice a year, with a rather personal letter. 
These letters are addressed as to a group but my desire is that each of you 
accept them as an individual and personal letter. 
In the busy season we may get over 300 letters in a day. Many of them are 
friendly and even personal. Every one deserves a personal reply. But it is im- 
possible for one person to answer all. 
I find it much better to write two letters a year and publish them in 
our spring and fall catalogs. I try to include information of value in these letters 
and to discuss garden problems and a good many other problems that we meet 
every day. I am likely to discuss almost anything except sectarian religion or 
party politics. 
We get many favorable comments from our customers about our arrange- 
ment according to plant families in the catalog; the fall culture information 
and discussions of garden problems; our personal letters, etc. But on one occasion 
the comment was unfavorable. I will relate the incident. During World War I, 
I tried to volunteer for service and was rebuffed. They said I was too old! But 
I got even and did not even offer to volunteer in World War II. But I hurled 
more bombs at Hitler and some of his pals than many a bombing plane. My 
bombs were verbal and were published in these letters. At a result I received a 
couple of letters, anonymous, advising me to “tend your posies’’. 
That was very good advice too because a garden is a very good place in 
which to think. Since no one has ever been able to put a patent on thinking or 
to copyright it, and we do have free speech in America, I was able to increase 
my verbal bombing tempo. ‘ 
I regret that quite a few have misunderstood the “buyer’s strike” which 
has now prevailed for several months and of which I believe we have all approv- 
ed and had a part in. The effect was so universally applied that even my own 
_ “butcher boy” advised me, “don’t buy meat that is too high’. A recession had 
to come and the buyers strike did force prices down. Naturally, it meant re- 
duction in sales and a readjustment. But such conditions are normal after the 
inflation of prices that always result from war. 
Personally, I think we are getting off easy. I do not anticipate a depression. 
If no large element of our people anticipate it, it will not come. One of the en- 
couraging symptoms of the present is that more money was invested in govern- 
ment bonds or savings accounts in 1948 than either of the two previous years 
since the war ended. That means that working people and small business people 
are able to weather a reasonable recession. 
What makes depressions anyway? There is just as much money in exis- 
tance, just as great an abundance of the necessities of life. Workers are willing 
to work and produce. Capital seeks investments. 
In my opinion, the only way to explain depressions is to believe they are 
psychological. Wrong thinking and fear on the part of many, perhaps the 
majority may be the cause. Since Herbert Hoover was blamed by a good many 
for the last one he must have been doing a lot of thinking. However our present 
administration thought enough of his wisdom to place him at the head of the 
commission to study and recommend ways for improving governmental agencies 
in efficiency and to reduce waste of time and expense. 
One of the important efforts of the present time is the world wide search 
for “Security”. England is trying the experiment of Socialism. Industry is in the 
hands of the government. They have even gone so far as to socialize medicine, 
recently. How can we fail to attribute part of the blame for England’s present 
depressed economy and consequent low living standard upon this experiment 
with socialism. . 
Russian Sovietism was undertaken as an experiment to ameliorate the con- 
dition of the poorer classes, the masses. It has endured around 30 years. Whether 
men have found security and happiness in communism, I will leave to your 
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