WCP2931

[1]¹

Inverquharity

28/3/09

My dear D^r. Wallace

You will think me strangely careless about your wishes in regard to seeds & bulbs, but ^I have been seeking help in all quarters. This is a grassy part of the country & flowers are not so plentiful & seeds of native plants, such as you want not easy to get. I sent you one lot that I got. I have just got another which goes herewith. I am afraid they are not very precious. I also enclose some bulbs in cotton wool. The only way I could get them was to dig them up in the [2] Bush when they were in flower with a good sod & plant them in my garden. where they soon died down. I have just dug them up, but they have all sprouted so I fear they will be no good. However, I send them on the chance. They are poor specimens anyhow. I could not secure the handsome ones. I cannot give you the names, but you will perhaps be able to classify them yourself if they are worth classifying.

I was pleased to hear that you had been "honoured"² with a decoration; though I never could see the use of a [3] decoration to a man who has made his mark in the world, is known already far & wide & rather honours the decoration than is honoured by it. I do see great use though in the decoration to a man who has done some noteworthy deed but not of a world famous character — an engineer who has saved a train at great personal risk &c. yet remains unknown & humble. I want [to] see more decorations of this kind — for humble people — who can wear it on their breasts & which will entitle them to [illeg.], a little pension, a free pass [4] on the railways, or something of that sort. — a kind of Legion of Honour. It is strange that Land Nationalization takes no hold on these Democratic Committees, as a declared end, though tax on the [illeg.] value & compulsory purchase are widely advocated & bound to pass almost [illeg.] I think — They are partly passed already; but the principle is not thoroughly understood & they buy the wrong estates — Chiefly big pastures & out of the way estates. What I am chiefly urging in the Labour & the Lib Democratic parties is direct assault on that [5] Capitalism which is the chief [illeg.] accomplice & support of Land Monopoly by these two measures —

(1) Increasing differentiation between the Earned & the Un.-earned Income — (Income from personal exertion v. income from property.) till it is all concentrated on the Unearned incomes — the difference is about 1/- on the one & only /8 on the other — and

(2) Duties v. inheritance, starting from £5000³ (or some such sum free , & thence rapidly increasing & complete absorption at say 100.000

[6] These 2 measures, with Land Tax & Compulsory purchase by Bonds would settle both Land [illeg.] & [illeg.] quickly — Even millionaire Carnegie⁴ is for allowing the millionaire his millions for life only, to be surrendered at his death.

But the Labour party will waste its effort on a "living wage" — "minimum wage" "Eight hours" & such like which not only do not go to the root of the mischief but can’t be enforced. The employer either drives a coach & four through the Act somehow or [7] the men who get this [illeg.] low pay & work the long hours won’t "tell". — But the one great political issue we have which is overpowering all of this — is between "Socialism" & Anti Socialism" as they express it — though that is not a correct description — It is really between the workers on one hand & the [illeg.] & [illeg.] on the other. Labour is getting stranger every year & the leaders clearly recognise that the Land Question is the bottom question though I cant get them to concentrate [8] their efforts mainly on that still all are beginning to recognise that with us as in England it is the Upper State Upper Houses that block its way. The Federal Upper House — the Senate — does not. It does not represent property at all. — With warm regards I remain

Yours always sincerely | A J Ogilvy⁵ [signature]

The orchids grew in a poor rather sandy soil & a dry climate.