29 Feb 1936
John Griffin to Father / Washington D.C.
I think that you still owe me a letter, yet I guess the best way to get you to write is to write to you and remind you of the fact. No doubt you have been very busy and have not had the time to write.
I am very busy these days too, with school, work and trying to do things outside a little too. Starting next week I am going to take a special review course for the D, C. bar, and next June I am going to take the bar exam, If I pass I will be a full fledged practicing attorney. Maybe you had better leave off the practicing part. Anyway if I can pass the bar I think that I can better myself down at work and then next year finishing up school-will seem easy with the bar over. Of, the last exam they failed 50% so it is a big chance and somewhat of a gamble, especially on your third year of school.
Our business association has about $600.00 capital now and we have invested most all of it in stocks. I am chairman of the stock committee and so far have done most of the work in it. We have 15 shares of Lehn & Fink ( they made and sell Lysol, Pebco tooth paste, Hinds Honey and Almond Cream etc.) We bought it at $12.50 a share and last night it closed on the market at $14.00 It has, been up to $14.87. We are holding till it gets up around 17 or l8 which I am sure it will. The first of the week we bought 29 shares of Carrier Corp. It is a company engage in tie air cooling business. We bought it at $12.00 a share. Since it has gone down to $11.12 a share. So you see we are holding the bag on that. However I am sure that it will go back up to 18 or 19 before the middle of the summer. We buy the stock outright and take the certificate out so that if the market goes down we can just hang onto it until it goes back up again. As soon as we get a little more capital we are going into other fields of business In fact they are talking of getting a boarding house right now. If we do that we will have to sell all our stock and in order to get money to do it with. There is big money in the boarding house business back here, and we should be able to make good on it if we can ever get started. The big; trouble with our group is that they're are all so busy going to school, etc that we wont get time to spend on it as we should.
I got a letter from Gordon the other day asking me to lend him $25.00 to buy a Ford. I don't know whether you knew about it or not. He said that he wanted it to help you deliver with. I am wondering whether it would be a good idea to let him have a car of his own. It would mean more gas bills, and then the danger of accident etc. I know that he has few things in this world and I would be glad to help make his life a little happier, but I don't want to take chances of increasing expenses and causing trouble too. What do you think. Then too he got a bicycle for Xmas didn't he.
How is business this year: Everyone reports that it is much better out here than last year despite the cold etc. I wonder if it is the same out home. I suppose that you have a terrible time to make ends meet. I wish that I could help in some way to tike away all that worry and struggle you have had all your life. How is the farm these days. Has Tenn finally got things straightened out? Did you ever have any real interest in the farm?. If you did I should think that you would get it straightened out and down on paper. I would like to get hold of a farm for a while I think that I could make the thing go. The big part is the managing of its and I think that in 90% of the cases failure on the farm is poor management. Labor is cheap. You can get help for almost nothing, the thing that counts is making the most of the help, and seeing that things are done and done right. Run a farm like you would a business. Have rules, and see to it that they were obeyed. I know that a farmer works long hours and hard, but usually he is very independent and loose in the running of his affairs. I guess this all sounds funny to you, but I would like a chance of running a farm, because I really think I could make it go.
The big question facing me right now is what to do after I get out of school. I might be able to get a job here in the government as an attorney, or investigator or something that would pay me $2900 a year to start with, with a top salary up to probably $6000 a year. If you could be sure that the government was going to stay and that the first change of administration would not throw you out that would not be so bad. Yet you must consider that money does not go so far back here, and that this is really no place to raise a family. $2400 here would be no better than $1800 out home. On the other hand some of the fellows talk of going out to some small town out in Oregon, or Colorado and going into partnership and sticking it out. When I think of that I wonder what I would eat for the first two years. I don't think that it would be worthwhile to come to Ogden. There are so many attorneys in Ogden already and the business is about sowed up there. Of course if I could get in some law firm there I think that would be a good idea, but to try and make ago of it alone, I think I would rather try some other state.
What is Donny going to do next year? He has finished Weber hasn't he? I surely wish that lie had passed that civil service exam. They have offered me a job already, and I passed it with a small average. It is really nothing to be ashamed of though as most of the fellows down at the office took it and some of them had degrees in accounting and engineering and as far as I know I arm, the only one that passed it. He can study up on it and try again Well I must sign off and got busy. Try and find time to drop me a line and let me :now how things are going. -- John
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