October 5. 1918 



HORTICULTURE 



33r 



SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS 



FOURTH LIBERTY LOAN. 



Fellow Florists: Have You Contrib- 

 uted to Our Fourth Liberty Loan? 

 If Not, Why Not? 



Give thanks to your Creator — 

 That you are living in such wonderful 



times. 

 That you have the privilege of con- 

 tributing to such a marvelous emanci- 

 pation of humanity. 

 That you are permitted to back up our 



glorious army at the front — the boys 



who stop at nothing — and Ai.w.ws 



Gkt Wh.\t They Go After! 



Never mind where we came from, 

 its what we ake, that counts. Now is 

 our chance to show the world that we 

 are 100 per cent. A.merkaxs and 120 

 per cent P.\tri()tu' — ready with the 

 last dollar we have to stand by the 

 Flag. 



What does it matter if our coal has 

 to be curtailed if the Government has 

 to use ii. for some other purpose more 

 vitally necessary for the moment? 

 What matters it if many of our best 

 employees have had to leave us for 

 service "Over There," and we have 

 nothing left but girls and the men over 

 draft age to do our work. Look at the 

 wonderful age we are living in! 



We always knew -what Amerua was 

 and, what it stood for. Now the whole 

 world knows and looks on in delighted 

 wonder. The name "America," will be 

 one to conjure with in years to come, 

 standing for nothing but "Equal 

 Rights for ALL," and fighting for 

 nothing but a "Glorious Principle. ' 



Some of us, with our noses to the 

 grindstone, cannot look out on God's 

 glorious sunshine and use the broader 

 aspects of life and read the epoch- 

 making era, through which we are 

 passing. 



Our l/usiness will not suffer in the 

 long run. The rebound from death 

 and desolation will be quick and last- 

 ing and we shall make more money in 

 the future in the business of Plants 

 and Flowers than we ever dreamed of 

 before. Faith and Vision, are all we 

 need. Let the Weakling drop out if 

 he wants to; The Florists are not 

 whiners. They are real men and the 

 way they are working for Our Fourth 

 Liberty Loan, will prove it. 



Let us do our utmost to help ad- 

 minister the "final punch" to Militar- 

 ism, so we can once more settle down 

 to our normal vocations. 



In conclusion, the following from 

 the Literary Digest, covers the situa- 



tion far more than any feeble words of 

 mine can do. 



"Americans!" Here is your God- 

 given land of liberty, far from the 

 fyrious battles and the countless hospi- 

 tal-beds of France, what flame leaps to 

 your eyes when you say "My Country, 

 Tis of Thee?" Have the words filled 

 your soul with a passion of love and 

 holy zeal which makes service of coun- 

 try the greatest thing of life, the only 

 thing worth while, these days? Are 

 you ready and eager to enroll in the 

 army of twenty-five million men and 

 women now summoned to carry the 

 Fourth Liberty Loan to Victory? 



Yours for success! 



Charles H. Totty, Pres. 



NATIONAL PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN. 



One of our Cincinnati friends sent 

 us a clipping from a newspaper in 

 that city covering the following item: 



"We don't need flowers to win the 

 war," said officials of local draft board 

 No. 3, in refusing to grant exemption 

 to Richard G. Kootz, manager of a 

 floral business. "We can't fire flowers 

 at the Germans and win the war, al- 

 though may be they would prefer 

 flowers to bullets," said Chairman 

 Zimmerman. "We can leave the floral 

 business to our crippled heroes when 

 they return and to women." 



In contrast is the following, clipped 

 from the report of an address by .Miss 

 Mande Wetmore, national chairman of 

 the National League for Woman's 

 Service, at an enthusiastic camiiaign 

 meeting held at the Hotel Biltmore, 

 New York, on September 18: 



"We have had a wonderful opportu- 

 nity lately. It was -given us by the 

 florists of the country, 30,000 strong. 

 They gave us the opportunity to be 

 their spokesmen at the bedsides of 

 the sick soldiers. They asked us to 

 give to them the message which they 

 were sending, and they asked our 

 women to be the ones to transmit 

 that word of sympathy which is so 

 wonderfully expressed and represent- 

 ed by a flower. All over the country 

 today, the florists of this country are 

 giving free of expense thousands or 

 flowers to the sick soldiers as they 

 are returning home. To me it is a 

 very wonderful and very beautiful 

 thought, and I am sure that it is one 

 of interest to all of you today." 



And this, by Lt. Col. E. G. North- 

 ington, commandant of the reconstruc- 

 tion hospital. Fort Douglas. Utah, re- 



ferring to a generous donation of 

 flowers made to the post hospital by 

 the .Miller Floral Co., of Farmington: 



"There is nothing so cheerful, so 

 brightening in their influence upon 

 sick people, as flowers, and the offer 

 0" the Farmington growers, to supply 

 flowers for the soldiers who may be 

 confined to beds and wards of the 

 po.st hospital, is deeply appreciated 

 by Colonel Northington and all mem- 

 bers of his staffs of doctors and 

 nurses, as well as by every patient." 



Pew among our florists have any 

 idea of the many stupid and ill-con- 

 sidered statements our Promotion Bu- 

 reau is called to challenge and upset, 

 or the thought of what might be were 

 we obliged to do without our organ- 

 ized publicity service in these times 

 would be more general. The public 

 is ready to admit that there is a bet- 

 ter use for our flowers right here at 

 home than to fire them at the enemy 

 — and the more the public sees of our 

 slogan "Say it With Flowers," and 

 reads of the work the florists are do- 

 ing, the less willing will it be to be- 

 lieve that flowers can be really con- 

 sidered as non-essential. 



Let not anyone think that our pub- 

 licity work begins and ends with our 

 magazine advertising. Our bureau is 

 called upon to organize and make 

 effective much outside assistance 

 which can only be obtained through 

 ourselves being organized. 



Are you. Mr. Reader, yet a part of 

 our organization? Have you sub- 

 scribed to our Publicity Campaign 

 Fund? If you have not, why not? Is 

 there any part of our work which has 

 not been explained to your satisfac- 

 tion? The object of our weekly arti- 

 cles so kindly published for us, and 

 for you, by our trade papers is to let 

 you know what we are doing, and we 

 are urgently requesting every florist 

 who has not already subscribed to 

 come forward with his "bit," now, the 

 time when we most surely need it, if 

 we are to carry out the plans and ex- 

 tend our usefulness. We are still 

 short of the required amount of 

 money to complete our 1918 program,, 

 but with just a little effort on the 

 part of those our work is to benefit 

 we can go ahead under full sail. 

 Don't be half-hearted, don't be 

 thought a non-essential. 



John Young, Secy. 

 1170 Broadway, New York, Sept. 27, 

 1918. 



