I'm really ashamed that I haven't written you for so long a time; but you may be sure that all my thoughts of you — and there have been many — were affectionate and grateful ones. This has been rather a distracting sort of winter for me, as for most people, altho' I have no complaints to make. On the contrary, I am deeply grateful for so very much.
I'm afraid the St. Louis agency did not realize conditions — both of mind and purse — among people generally. Around defense centers, there is a false sense of prosperity that misleads. If we had gone ahead with our smaller ideas, there might have been more or less of a Nebraska trip, though I don't feel sure. As it is, I may go to several places, and I may not. It doesn't really matter in the least. My feeling for you two does matter, and it is much auged.
I've just returned from another visit (my third) at Kemper Military School.
I do hope things are going reasonably well for you. Are you, Elmer, likely to get into some good defense job? I've been trying through Lowell Mellet since a year ago last December. Mellet is one of the "upstairs cabinet", you know. He seems to want to use me; but there must be a ludicrous state of confusion in Washington.
Golly! What a world they've made of it!
Anyway, there are values that matter.
John N.
