Newton Mfg. Company would write letters back to Pop, with most of them coming from Vice President Harold Lufkin. This particular letter reveals a couple things. First, Mr. Lufkin references a letter from Pop that I don’t have. I recently called the folks at Newton to see if they might have some of the missing letters. I eventually called John McNeer at his home. He was the author of the first letter I posted introducing this series. He is retired from Newton now, but he and some current employees of Newton still remember Pop. He still has Pop’s letters, and sent me some more material, but none of the missing letters. Oh, well. John is a writer himself, and you might want to check out his musings for the Newton Daily News. Do a search for “The Olden Days” and you will encounter memoirs of John’s written much like Pop’s.
Though I do not have the June 9 letter from Pop that Mr. Lufkin references you can guess from this response what it was about. Apparently, Newton Mfg. included in its samples that Pop would show his customers some goods made in Japan. Pop must have expressed some objections to this, as a former Navy man serving in World War II.
June 18, 1960
Mr. Leon R. Sinclair
Box 473
Norfolk, Conn.
Dear Leon:
Great minds run along the same channels. Last night, as I was sitting home feeling sorry for myself . . and the world, that same idea occurred to me.
There’s always been more or less antipathy toward Japanese goods being cheap, shoddy, inferior, etc., but now it is really going to blaze up . . and I see no reason why we shouldn’t make a little capital of it.
We have less Japanese goods than any of our competitors, and I’ve just finished dictating a little Bulletin article on that score, which you’ll be seeing in the next few days.
Actually, we might still send you another Japanese item, and I don’t think you should hold too hard and fast a rule on that because to do so might hurt yourself. We’re willing to sell what people want, and while we’re not going to promote the Japanese stuff, yet for us to have a system that would eliminate any such samples from going to you, would be so expensive that we had better send you the sample and have you throw it away if you don’t want it.
It is a difficult trick to have a special policy for individual Salesmen.
Thanks again for your letter of June 9th, which was waiting for me when I arrived home from the East.
Came back to Iowa to find everything lush and lovely. The season is somewhat behind this year because of more than normal rains. But out in this area it’s difficult to get too much moisture (within reason), and in the main it’s far better to have too much than not enough . . . even if it does put the farmers behind occasionally in their spring work.
The Red Clover now is in full bloom and the farmers are starting their haying. The corn is up where you can count the rows, and the cattle are belly deep in the heavy growth of meadow and pasture.
Iowa’s official flower . . . the Wild Rose . . . with its fragile pink blossoms, are coloring the roadsides and few waste places. (There are not many in Iowa.)
The Hollyhocks are coming into blooming bud, and the flags of mid-summer are starting to fly.
There is, as always at this season, a peace and tranquility over the countryside that belies the impossible international situation.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the affairs of man were as reasonable and beneficent as those of Nature?
Awfully sorry to hear about the death of Mrs. Lloyd. Thanks for the suggestion about Russell Carlson. We’ll write him immediately and send a copy of the letter for your information.
Cheerio,
NEWTON MFG. CO.
HA Lufkin:mk
Tags: Pop's Letters
