Cary T. Grayson to Charles P. Light
Title
Cary T. Grayson to Charles P. Light
Creator
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938
Identifier
WWP16981
Date
1920 January 1
Description
Cary T. Grayson send a letter of apology to Charles P. Light for his missing an Alfalfa Club meeting
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
Sir:
Whenever an ordinary mortal is unable to be present on some occasion of ceremony he begins his written apology with the words: “I regret that an important engeagement, etc.”
I waive my title as an ordinary mortal to employ this time honored phrase because the occasion that I am missing is more epoch-making than the usual reunions of the Alfalfa Club and it is too trivial an expression to describe my inward commotion. I am speechless with grief. I am desolated, I am dissolved. For on this occasion, which members of the noble order of hayseeds more fortunate than I am are permited through the smiling favor of the Olympians to attend, the new Secretary of Agriculture is to be present and thus acquire a more comprehensive conception of his functions, a fuller and deeper realization of his duties, as you, my brethen, indoctrinate him with the knowledge that “all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.” St. Peter, at the time he penned these words to the strangers of Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia was guilty of slight error--the error inherent in all generalizations. Public speakers and writers make these errors constantly. We must hnot be hard on Peter in view of the fallability of mortal man. It is a vague indiscriminating generality to assert that “all the glory of man is as the flower of grass.” There are a select few whole glory is the flower of alfalfa, the king of grasses. To belong to this band of nature’s noblemen and to be absent from their assembling today is to be punhiished by blight and dry rot and to feel my spirit withering within me. May the purple cloverlike flower and the trifoliate leaves of the fabacious plant which you pin on his breast today be perennial in beauty. May its drought-resisting qualities, its capacity to draw nourishment from the most alkaline and unfertile soil inspire him at the threshold of his enlarged opportunities and bring him unqualified success in the Herculean task of satifying the farmer, the difficile farmer from whom sun and rain as God sends them are never right and social and economic conditions as established by the other members of the cabinert are always unstaatisfactory. Fortunately, the Honorable Secretary Wallace comes from Iowa, the state which has almost a monopoly in breeding the largest and best secretary’s of agriculture which our country produces.
I read a day or two ago in the Culpeper Exponent that the state of Iowa has decided to change the motto of its coat of arms to read“I owe a Secretary of Agriculture to the country.”
My absence today is due to the fact that I am going to Culpeper to verify if possible the truth of this item. I trust the Alfalfa Club will see its way clear to defraying the expenses of the trip.
Mr. Light, please illuminate the Honorable Secretary about seeds. Free seed for the farmer is the most important question confronting this distracted nation today. I fully intended to touch lightly on seeds had not Culpepper called. I have to listen to Culpepper but Culpepper has to listen to me. We are going to get together on a few live topics. Nothing alive but has a seed. No seed, no life. The farmers of the country are disturbed, they are alarmed, they threaten to rise--early in the morning. Some hostile propaganda ia abroad making the farmer believe that he is to be separated from his free seed. We cannot afford to disappoint the farmer. We must have him with us. We must cater to him, dconciliate him, concede to him if necessary, secede and free seed. When I have attended to the Iowa coat of arms buisness, I shall address the farmers of Culpepper Court House on seeds. I shall tell them that the Alfalfa Club is back of them, that Mr. Wallace he seed the Light at the Alfalfa Club and that everything ’ll be all right. Now boys back me up.
Yours faithfully,
Cary T. Grayson.
Whenever an ordinary mortal is unable to be present on some occasion of ceremony he begins his written apology with the words: “I regret that an important engeagement, etc.”
I waive my title as an ordinary mortal to employ this time honored phrase because the occasion that I am missing is more epoch-making than the usual reunions of the Alfalfa Club and it is too trivial an expression to describe my inward commotion. I am speechless with grief. I am desolated, I am dissolved. For on this occasion, which members of the noble order of hayseeds more fortunate than I am are permited through the smiling favor of the Olympians to attend, the new Secretary of Agriculture is to be present and thus acquire a more comprehensive conception of his functions, a fuller and deeper realization of his duties, as you, my brethen, indoctrinate him with the knowledge that “all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.” St. Peter, at the time he penned these words to the strangers of Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia was guilty of slight error--the error inherent in all generalizations. Public speakers and writers make these errors constantly. We must hnot be hard on Peter in view of the fallability of mortal man. It is a vague indiscriminating generality to assert that “all the glory of man is as the flower of grass.” There are a select few whole glory is the flower of alfalfa, the king of grasses. To belong to this band of nature’s noblemen and to be absent from their assembling today is to be punhiished by blight and dry rot and to feel my spirit withering within me. May the purple cloverlike flower and the trifoliate leaves of the fabacious plant which you pin on his breast today be perennial in beauty. May its drought-resisting qualities, its capacity to draw nourishment from the most alkaline and unfertile soil inspire him at the threshold of his enlarged opportunities and bring him unqualified success in the Herculean task of satifying the farmer, the difficile farmer from whom sun and rain as God sends them are never right and social and economic conditions as established by the other members of the cabinert are always unstaatisfactory. Fortunately, the Honorable Secretary Wallace comes from Iowa, the state which has almost a monopoly in breeding the largest and best secretary’s of agriculture which our country produces.
I read a day or two ago in the Culpeper Exponent that the state of Iowa has decided to change the motto of its coat of arms to read“I owe a Secretary of Agriculture to the country.”
My absence today is due to the fact that I am going to Culpeper to verify if possible the truth of this item. I trust the Alfalfa Club will see its way clear to defraying the expenses of the trip.
Mr. Light, please illuminate the Honorable Secretary about seeds. Free seed for the farmer is the most important question confronting this distracted nation today. I fully intended to touch lightly on seeds had not Culpepper called. I have to listen to Culpepper but Culpepper has to listen to me. We are going to get together on a few live topics. Nothing alive but has a seed. No seed, no life. The farmers of the country are disturbed, they are alarmed, they threaten to rise--early in the morning. Some hostile propaganda ia abroad making the farmer believe that he is to be separated from his free seed. We cannot afford to disappoint the farmer. We must have him with us. We must cater to him, dconciliate him, concede to him if necessary, secede and free seed. When I have attended to the Iowa coat of arms buisness, I shall address the farmers of Culpepper Court House on seeds. I shall tell them that the Alfalfa Club is back of them, that Mr. Wallace he seed the Light at the Alfalfa Club and that everything ’ll be all right. Now boys back me up.
Yours faithfully,
Cary T. Grayson.
Original Format
Letter
To
Light, Charles P.
Files
Collection
Citation
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938, “Cary T. Grayson to Charles P. Light,” 1920 January 1, WWP16981, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.