706 



HORTICULTUBE 



May 10, 1913 



AFFILIATION 



Address by Adolph Farenwald before the Florists' Club of Philadelphia. 



Affiliation is the proper word for the 

 subject on which I am going to talk 

 to you tonight. I start right off by 

 giving you the kernel of the nut. Our 

 National Society, the S. A. F. and 

 O. H. should adopt all florists' club 

 members as her legitimate children, 

 with $1.50 as dues, thereby getting a 

 membership from ten to fifteen thou- 

 sand on short order. Why should we 

 do this? Because the S. A. F. has not 

 enough members and funds to do its 

 great mission justice. It is a National 

 Society without power, and it is up to 

 us to give it that, so it can help all of 

 us. Now, what can it do for us? 



First, it should have a press bu- 

 reau; this, to look after our interests 

 which are jeopardized by false state- 

 ments in newspapers; to send out edu- 

 cation articles, such as we have had 

 lately in Philadelphia papers; and ad- 

 vertise nation-wide. Second, it should 

 have means to pay men to look after 

 our interests regarding tariff, or other 

 legislation. It should be able to get 

 into line, either by itself or with other 

 merchant societies, to fight excessive 

 freight or express rates. Such mat- 

 ters as these should be taken care of 

 by the S. A. F. for the benefit of its 

 members. The S. A. F. through lack 

 of funds, is not able at the present 

 time to give us the necessary assist- 

 ance in these mattei-s. 



For a single business man to at- 

 tack a corporation is simply useless — 

 a waste of time and money. For in- 

 stance, there are the coal-carrying 

 roads through the East. They are 

 charging tor the hauling of the coal 

 as much as the coal itself costs. Other 

 business corporations have taken this 

 matter up to fight it, but our National 

 Society is not able to stand in the fir- 

 ing line. 'We growers, as an aggre- 

 gate, are large coal consumers, and to 

 have our expenses for freight reduced 

 is only proper economy. The same 

 way with the express companies. We 

 are continuously overcharged on those 

 lines. The redress carried through by 

 the S. A. F. for us some years ago 

 against the express companies was a 

 short-lived victory, as the express 

 companies, inside of a year were, in 

 most places, back to their old rates 

 or nearly so, the S. A. F. not having 

 the necessary means to follow up our 

 success against them. 



The daily press goes on unchal- 

 lenged when it comes out and tells the 

 flower-buying public that prices for 



afford them. Such nonsense! There 

 is where a press bureau should take 

 hold. Or, the agitation against flow- 

 Easter or other holidays, on roses and 

 other flowers, are going to be very 



ADVERFISINQ TALKS 



BV 



Ralph M. Ward 

 No. 9 



The beginner in advertising al- 

 ways has the bulge on the trailers 

 and always gets the best of the 

 business if his methods and goods 

 are right. Therefore the florist 

 who has no advertising competitor 

 had better get busy immediately. 

 It takes years sometimes to build 

 up a good trade through advertis- 

 ing, but when it is once built up 

 that way, it is an asset no one can 

 take away from you. You have 

 heard of "good will" and the enor- 

 mous price it often brings — well, 

 good will is nothing but the result 

 of advertising. There can be no 

 good will without advertising and 

 to make the will good the ad- 

 vertising must be good. The 

 florist who spends $1,000 Judi- 

 ciously advertising his business, 

 immediately adds that amount 

 to the value of his business. The 

 returns may not have come in, but 

 the benefit is there and will even- 

 tually bear fruit with compound in- 

 terest. The public is very much 

 like the soil — if you neglect it you 

 get poor crops; but if you give it 

 the necessary attention, if you fer- 

 tilize it with courtesy and fair play, 

 it will yield very valuable returns. 

 As you must treat the soil scientifi- 

 cally, so must you treat advertis- 

 ing. A mere jumble of words is 

 not enough — you must inject hu- 

 man interest irto your adv. — talk to 

 the public as if it were yourfriend. 

 Never neglect, however, to impress 

 upon your readers one thing — al- 

 ways that one thing — a brand; your 

 name, provided it is agreeable, 

 easily spelled and remembered; 

 your store, or something pertain- 

 ing to your business that will stand 

 out distinct. Don't assume that the 

 public knows anything about you, 

 for ten to one it don't — you must 

 educate it in your business, take 

 it into your confidence, talk plain, 

 and it will then understand you and 

 respond. If you can't write advs. 

 yourself, your local newspaper staff 

 can do it and will be willing. Just 

 try it a year. 



high and that only millionaires can 

 ers at funerals. You all know that 

 our business is hurt by such wrong 

 statements, and our central press bu- 

 reau would be the best and the only 



place to flght against it. The educa- 

 tion when ani how to use flowers is a 

 problem for this bureau. Skillfully 

 written articles, such as have been 

 appearing in some of the Philadelphia 

 papers, will educate the public and 

 make them ashamed to wear artlti- 

 cially-made flowers. 



There is the tariff which should be 

 taken care of by our National Society. 

 Just a few days ago, I received a com- 

 munication telling in what shape the 

 tariff on plants is at the present time. 

 In many respects it was simply ridi- 

 culous the way it was worded. This 

 should have been taken care of by 

 uur Society. Sometimes it has taken 

 care of it through some of its most 

 interested members, who spent their 

 time and money to work for the in- 

 terests of our profession. But, we 

 cannot always ask these men to do 

 so without the proper recompense. 

 This time, it seems it has passed over 

 — nobody has paid any attention to it, 

 and this ridiculous tariff will go on 

 for another period. (No, it has been 

 corrected. — Ed.) 



Gentlemen, there are so many im- 

 portant jobs for the S. A. F. that I 

 cannot go into them all. I just will 

 give some of the most important lines 

 along which it should use its power. 

 But, fellow members, such a great 

 task cannot be performed by a few. 

 Wallace Pierson. a few weeks ago, 

 told us here one evening that we are 

 all in the same boat, and he is right. 

 Or, in other words, we have all the 

 same interest — floriculture is our boat. 

 It doesn't matter if a cut flower or a 

 plant grower, retailer or commission 

 man, our aim is to advance this boat 

 with as little friction or damage as 

 possible, as by this time it has grown 

 to very large proportions; in fact, so 

 large are its proportions that it is 

 often rubbing its sides or running into 

 the mud. We are today in the same 

 fix with our boat, floriculture, as the 

 first great steamboat — the Great East- 

 ern — was. years ago. I think it was 

 about eight hundred feet long, but it 

 lacked powerful engines and steering 

 gear to make it a success. 



Twenty-seven years ago. when this 

 boat of floriculture was a youngster, 

 some of our best captains then put a 

 new and most up-to-date set of engines 

 and steering gear into it, called the 

 S. A. F. It then, and for several years 

 after, did its work well. But as this 

 boat of floriculture has grown so large, 

 and steering gear and engines have 

 not increased in the same propot^ion. 

 its rudder of twenty-seven years ago is 

 not able to keep us straight, and we. 

 get bruised and run into the mud. We 

 need larger machinery and steering 

 gearT which means membership and 

 money. Without larger membership 

 and increased funds, our National So- 

 ciety cannot do us much good along 

 those lines I have mentioned, and 

 others. In fact, wh.Tt little the S. A. 



