364 



H B T I C U L T TI R E 



October 12, 1918 



FLORISTS^ TELEGRAPH DELIVERY ASSOCIATION 



At its meeting at Hotel Hollenden 

 in Cleveland, Ohio. Secretary Pochelon 

 made the following report: 



Report of Secretary A. Pochelon. 



Mr. President, Ladies, F. T. D. Mem- 

 bers, Retail Florists and Friends: 

 Our worthy President, Wm. F. Gude, 

 has instructed me not to read a long 

 tiresome paper but read you a few 

 lines from The Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

 I have never had the pleasure of watch- 

 ing our Cleveland boys at the card 

 table do any "plain dealing," but I can 

 thoroughly assure you that they can 

 trim other florists good and plain in 

 bowling. I hope that when I get 

 through you will all walk up the saw- 

 dust trail in true Billy Sunday style 

 to the pulpit and solemnly swear alleg- 

 iance to our organization and that you 

 will faithfully promise to go home 

 from this Cleveland meeting to work, 

 co-operate and preach the gospel of the 

 F. T. D. to your fellow-florists. 



The text of my sermon today will be 

 "The F. T. D. Canal Boat." The Canal 

 Boat F. T. D. was sailed by that able 

 captain, J. A. Valentime, but it was a 

 cumbersome affair. The crew he had 

 to work this boat with was absolutely 

 too small, and he had to carry too 

 large a number of passengers who even 

 in the roughest kind of weather would 

 not give a helping. His annual allow- 

 ance was only about $205.00 and no 

 one can blame him for becoming down- 

 hearted and tired of his job. He ap- 

 pointed Irwin Bertermann as captain 

 who looked for a new crew to sail this 

 boat. 



Captain Bertermann and crew took 

 it into their own hands to sell this old 

 boat over the heads of the directors 

 and bought a great lake steamer, which 

 many of our members thought was just 

 a pleasure steamer, and more and 

 more passengers were crowded on board 

 of the ship with very little increase in 

 the crew. 



This F. T. D. ship was sailed around 

 the great lakes and prospered and 

 finally stopped at Chicago and Captain 

 Gude was appointed at that most en- 

 thusiastic meeting in the hot month of 

 August on the hottest day of the year 

 during S. A. F. Convention at Houston, 

 Texas. 



He soon felt that we ought to have 

 a good sized ocean-going boat to carry 

 our passengers which by that time 

 numbered five hundred and the crew 

 about 50. Things were going along 

 fairly well with the exception of here 

 and there a sneaky submarine or the 

 noise of an under mine explosion, and 

 after sailing for about one year he 

 could find his bearings almost blind- 

 folded. He called a meeting in Detroit 

 for all the directors and stock holders 

 of the F. T. D. ship and this meeting 

 was so enthusiastic that he accepted 

 the captaincy for another year. After 

 consulting with Purser Will L. Rock 

 he said the time would soon be here 

 when we would buy a boat of a still 

 better type, and behold last week 

 orders came from Washington that our 

 F. T. D. ship from the Cleveland meet- 



ings on, shall, as it ought to, measure 

 up to the spirit of our great country. 



Can you find a better or more courag- 

 ous captain than Capt. Bill Gude? 

 And while we are at war would we 

 make such a sad mistake as to change 

 our President in this country? No. 

 Would you think it wise to change 

 presidents in our F. T. D. work. No. 

 Rather than make a shange become a 

 volunteer in his crew. Become a work- 

 er like his first mate, Philip Breit- 

 meyer. 



Our membership has not increased 

 the way it ought to, comparing the 

 great amount of new business we have 

 developed not alone for our own mem- 

 bers but for all retail florists around 

 the country and it is strange to say 

 that we all, on many occasions, have to 

 send or to fill orders for retailers who 

 are not members. Why, Oh! Why 

 does it take so long for some of them 

 to join us? 



I have almost come to the conclusion 

 that even with the great Publicity 

 Campaign of the S. A. F. many retail 

 florist do not as yet see what great 

 benefit they are deriving from this 

 work and money that is being spent 

 by others. I think they ought to al- 

 most feel ashamed in not doing their 

 bit to help carry the burden. 



' The Slogan "Say it with Flowers" 

 has become a valuable asset to every 

 man and woman who grows or sells 

 fiowers and no better advertisement 

 could be gotten up for publicity from 

 florist to the people. But a different 

 publicity we must adopt from florist to 

 florist and the only proper and feas- 

 ible slogan that comes to my mind is 

 "To say it with a club." 



There are several ways of carrying 

 on such publicity. The most direct 

 and best of all is one that only costs 

 our members a little co-operation and 

 very little work. How many times 

 are you compelled to send an order to 

 a retailer in a town where we have no 

 member and how many times do you 

 receive orders from retailers who are 

 not members? Just there and then is 

 the time for you to strike: Write 

 him a note and ask him why he does 

 not join work with us. At the same 

 time put his address on a postal card 

 and notify your secretary. 



The second way of reaching the 

 retail florist is by publicity through 

 the trade papers, and every time one 

 of our members states that his busi- 

 ness from out-of-town sources has 

 grown to a larger amount than last 

 year you are setting some retailer to 

 thinking. 



The third is by keeping him sup- 

 plied with our membership list and 

 literature from The F. T. D. office. 

 Some have taken three, four and five 

 years before they finally joined, hut 

 a number of good retailers have prom- 

 ised to join us six and seven years ago 

 and still they are not with us. 



We have lost members. Some are 

 overseas today and doing their best to 

 help our Country. Some have been 

 forced out of business. Some have 

 just given out through loss of help. 

 The answers to our questionnaires can 



tell volumns about the help situation. 

 Our help is "over there" fighting the 

 battle for us and it is our foremost 

 duty to "keep the home fires burning" 

 and keep things agoing so that when 

 they come back they will find their 

 places open for them again. 



A few days ago we lost our F. T. D. 

 member at Edwardsville, 111., Mr. Am- 

 mann who is our president-elect of the 

 S. A. F. ; he closed his shop for patri- 

 otic reasons. Ladies and gentlemen, if 

 our F. T. D. president would do anj'- 

 thing like that I would almost be 

 tempted to call him a slacker. The 

 example set by Mr. Ammann is to be 

 regretted. No matter how much our 

 profession has to suffer through war, 

 let's still "keep the home fires burn- 

 ing," and never let your courage fail 

 you. 



At all times be lenient with your 

 fellow-florist it he is the kind who de- 

 serves leniency; at the same time be on 

 your guard and watch the charges on 

 your books. We all have to be a little 

 more conservative in order to be fully 

 prepared for the immense amount of 

 trade which we will undoubtedly get, 

 after the boys come back. 



Can any of us write a letter of ap- 

 preciation better than to "Say it with 

 Fowers?" Every kind of celebration 

 will "Say it with Flowers." To every 

 convalescent sailor or soldier boy we 

 will "Say it with Flowers." 



Our Membership represents in the 

 neighborhood of 400 towns. Has any- 

 one of you an idea of how many towns 

 we have in this great Country? There 

 are: 2996 towns of 1000 to 3000; 711 

 towns of 3000 to 5000; 599 towns of 

 5000 to 10,000; 351 towns of 25,000; 182 

 towns of 25,000 to 100,000; 42 towns of 

 100,000 to 500,000; 9 towns of 500,000 

 and over. 



I have correct and more detailed 

 figures for the various States, etc., and 

 will give you these later. Can you tell 

 me that there are any towns in the 

 United States and Canada today that 

 have not one florist? I doubt it. Now 

 let's all get together and see whether 

 we can not enlist some of them. You 

 will perhaps teU me that there are so 

 many little florists who in your opin- 

 ion do not amount to much, yet do not 

 forget that any or all of them can and 

 will sooner or later send out-of-town 

 orders for you and me to fill. Many 

 times we need them for orders that 

 would not have time enough to ship 

 from some larger florist. It is time 

 that instead of finding fault with 

 smaller florists' concerns we help and 

 educate them to see things our way. I 

 know that some of these so-called 

 smaller towns florists are on a better 

 and more up-to-date footing than 

 some of our well known and old 

 established firms are. The F. T. D. 

 will not stop until we have enlisted 

 every good reliable retailer in all 

 towns small or large. 



The F. T. D. will not wait tor the 

 local members' indorsement of a new 

 prospective member in any town as 

 there is too much small petty jeal- 

 ousy, and many a good member on our 

 list today would not be an F. T. D. 



