The ad in the Lynden (Wash.) Tribune was brief and to the point: "Owing to general conditions, Fred H. DeVore Farm & Home Store is retiring from business." But residents of nearby Ferndale (pop. 717), who knew DeVore as one of the town's leading businessmen, suspected there must have been something more than "general conditions" to make old Fred shut up shop. There was.
DeVore, who runs his little hardware store with the help of his wife and three clerks, had just taken a long look at the Office of Price Stabilization's order controlling hardware store prices. OPS wants every hardware...