October 19, 1918 



11 u KTi cri/Tu I? li 



WHAT CAN GARDENERS AND FLORISTS DO 

 TO HELP WIN THE WAR 



ad by W. N. Craig before the Gardeners' and Florists' Club of Boston. 



What can gardeners and florists do 

 to help win the war? Very little, the 

 pessimistic will say, but a great deal, 

 1 contend. We are actively waging as 

 one of the participants the greatest 

 war this world has ever seen, and the 

 loss of life, destruction of property. 

 disruption of business and strain on 

 finances are well nigh incalculable. 

 Not for generations after the war's 

 close can its aftermath disappear and 

 our grandchildren will help to carry 

 some share of its burdens. We all be- 

 lieved until this war blazed out that 

 the world had become civilized and 

 that we had seen the end of all great 

 armed contests and we could hardly 

 credit the fact that a so-called 

 civilized nation would have committed 

 such infamous crimes as the rape of 

 heroic neutral Belgium, the sinking of 

 the unarmed Lusitania, the murder of 

 Edith Cavell, the wanton bombard- 

 ment and destruction of Rheims and 

 other cathedrals, the bombing of open 

 towns and Red Cross Hospitals, the 

 torpedoing of hospital ships, the bar- 

 barous and fiendish treatment of hun- 

 dreds of thousands of French and Bel- 

 gians, and other crimes too numerous 

 to mention which history will chron- 

 icle and which slow moving time can 

 never obliterate. 



The dangerous menace to civiliza- 

 tion, to democracy and decency is now 

 on the wane, thanks to the assistance 

 our brave boys are giving to the war- 

 scarred allies of France, Britain, Italy 

 and Belgium, and ere long the war will 

 have been carried into the enemy's 

 country and we will be in measurable 

 sight of the beginning of the end. No 

 matter how much longer this war has 

 to be waged, we of the United States 

 are pledged to the full limit of our 

 man power to support the foes of 

 rapine, autocracy, militarism and 

 Kaiserism. There may rise amongst 

 us from time to time those who are 

 pacificists, socialists and pro-Germans 

 who will cry that we have gone far 

 enough, but the Bolsheviki element 

 here are of small account and this war 

 will be fought to a finish until the 

 Teuton powers are hopelessly de- 

 feated, and they are made to re- 

 habilitate and indemnify France and 

 Belgium, disgorge the stolen Russian 

 provinces and so limit their military 

 and naval armaments that never again 



will the world face such an uncalled 

 for, selfish and cowardly contest. 



The call on our war power has not 

 been great as yet. Consider that one 

 in seven in England and Scotland are 

 with the colors, that Canada and 

 Australia have each furnished 500,000 

 men, Scotland 620,000. Wales, 280,000, 

 England. 4,500,000, Ireland 170,000 

 and that practically every able-bodied 

 man in France, Belgium and Italy are 

 with the colors, and consider the fact 

 that when we have 3,000,000 with the 

 colors, we have but called one in 

 thirty-five of our population, which 

 means we must have an army of 

 15.000,000 to equal what Britain alone 

 has done already. We hear much of 

 labor shortages and it must become 

 far more acute as time proceeds. 



Agriculture is the most necessary 

 of 'all callings in time of war. Troops 

 must have good food and in abund- 

 ance. The tillers of the soil were 

 never more appreciated than they are 

 today. The great war has advanced 

 agriculturists from a position of some- 

 thing of little consequence in the 

 minds of the many to one of supreme 

 importance. Never did so many mil- 

 lions realize the great fact that prac- 

 tically all we have in this world comes 

 either from below the soil or direct 

 from Mother Earth itself; never have 

 so many come in contact with the 

 earth as cultivators both here and 

 abroad. We here are all tillers of the 

 soil, either under glass or outdoors. 

 We can all be of great value to our 

 Government in increasing food sup- 

 plies and food will eventually win the 

 world war. 



You may say, but what about our 

 greenhouses and private greenhouses 

 and ornamental grounds, what about 

 our flower stores and wholesale mar- 

 kets? Just turn for a moment, you 

 pessimists, you faint of heart, and 

 view what our allies have done. In 

 Canada, with a population of 8,000.000, 

 one in fifteen have joined the colors, 

 cut flower trade is far better than it 

 was two years ago, comparatively few 

 greenhouses are closed, more women 

 and girls are employed than in pre- 

 war time, more food has been raised 

 on the farms than ever, and our Sister 

 of the Snows is optimistic, even 

 though her debt has already increased 

 One Billion Dollars! 



Look at Prance, heroic France! 

 Think of her holding a Grand exhibi- 

 tion and conference at the Garden of 

 the Bagatelles in late June within 

 sound of the guns of the foes with 

 50,000 enthusiastic spectators! Think 

 of the steady sales of flowers on the 

 streets and in the stores of Paris it- 

 self! Think of the populace garland- 

 ing our armies as they arrive to attest 

 their joy, decorating the last resting 

 places of our fallen heroes, tilling 

 their farms, gardens and orchards 

 close to the firing line with millions 

 of their best manhood dead, maimed 

 or prisoners! Such is the spirit of 

 France, such a spirit will never go 

 down in defeat! 



Look at Britain, wonderful Britain! 

 She and her colonies have raised 

 8,500,000 men, control the oceans of 

 the world with all the highways of 

 commerce, control the air on the war 

 front, and armies on seven fronts, with 

 a million dead alone, are they dis- 

 couraged? A thousand times, no! 

 Think of what they. have done at 

 home. Three years ago they raise ten 

 weeks' Cereal supplies; this year they 

 have over forty weeks' supplies. They 

 have made almost striking advances 

 in animal food production, yet they 

 have 250,000 less now on the farms 

 than in 1917. How have they done it? 

 Tractors have helped, but first credit 

 must be given to the women, hundreds 

 of thousands of whom are on the farms 

 and large numbers in gardens, nurser- 

 ies and greenhouses, both private and 

 commercial. An army of 5,000,000 

 women there, who never worked be- 

 fore, are toiling unceasingly to help 

 win the war. Hundreds of women of 

 culture and refinement have been 

 willing to sacrifice their beauty to 

 make T. N. T. and other deadly ex- 

 plosives, and yet there are some men 

 among us still so hardened and stub- 

 born that they would deny women the 

 right to vote! The war has made suf- 

 frage for women certain ; it has helped 

 to hasten the demise of the accursed 

 liquor traffic which will die unmourned, 

 and it has enormously raised agricul- 

 ture in the estimation of those who 

 never even considered its importance 

 or its potentiality before. 



But you will say, how about the 

 greenhouse business, the flower busi- 

 ness and allied interests in Britain? 



