Mabcb 0, 1919 



The Florists^ Review 



17 



vision to supply the American trade. 

 This, however, is not the only aspect 

 of the matter. The same prohibition also 

 applies to France, Holland, Belgium and 

 Germany, countries which ship tens of 

 thousands of pounds' worth of nursery 

 stock to the States annually. The grow- 

 ers are not going to destroy their stock 

 if they can get rid of it elsewhere at 

 some price. Are we going to allow them 

 to send it here? The nursery trade of 

 this country has been seriously handi- 

 capped by foreign duMping for years. 

 Is that to be increased tenfold? It is 

 clearly incumbent on the government to 

 take immediate action with a view to 



getting these new prohibitive regula- 

 tions rescinded, and to prevent the 

 dumping of foreign stock in this coun- 

 try." 



Qovemments Are Busy. 



A special committee appointed by the 

 British Chamber of Horticulture has had 

 under consideration the U. S. Quarantine 

 No. 37, which is ordered to be effective 

 June 1, 1919, says the Horticultural Ad- 

 vertiser. Acting under the instructions 

 of this committee, the government and 

 the foreign consulates have been com- 

 municated with and interviewed. The 

 result is thlit steps are now being taken 

 to secure a revision of the quarantine 



regulations. All British exporters of 

 nursery stock and bulbs covered by the 

 order, who have not already done so, are 

 urged to send to the secretary of the 

 Chamber of Horticulture, Norfolk 

 House, Norfolk street. Strand, W. C. 2, 

 in confidence, figures giving (a) the to- 

 tal annual turnover of their American 

 export trade; and (b) the value of 

 stocks which have to be kept on hand in 

 order to meet American requirements. 



"The nurserymen in Belgium, France 

 and Holland are also up in arms," says 

 the Horticultural Trade Journal, "and 

 the united pressure, it is expected, will 

 make its influence felt." 



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SECRETARY YOUNG'S PAGES 



OFFICE, 1170 BROADWAY, NEW YORK 



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NATIONAL PUBUCITY CAMPAIGN. 



Joint Committee Meeting. 



When the publicity and the finance 

 publicity committees met in joint ses- 

 sion at the end of January the finan- 

 cial aspect of the campaign was thor- 

 oughly discussed, expenditures were 

 minutely examined and everything was 

 found in first-class shape. All accounts 

 had been audited by a firm of- certified 

 accountants and were approved by the 

 committees. The committees did not ap- 

 point an audit committee from their own 

 body, it being decided that, as the cam- 

 paign was conducted under the auspices 

 and direction of the S. A. F., the official 

 audit should be made by a committee to 

 be appointed by the society's executive 

 board, which was to meet next day at 

 Detroit^ The secretary was directed to 

 prepare and send to every subscriber, as 

 soon as possible, a summarized report 

 covering receipts and expenditures. 



At the meeting an appropriation of 

 $20,000 was made to cover the maga- 

 gine advertising for the spring season, 

 a schedule of which has already been 

 published in the trade papers, and the 

 P. F. O'Keefe Advertising Agency, of 

 Boston, was given a contract for the 

 preparation and placing of the campaign 

 advertising for 1919. The meeting was 

 characterized by a feeling of great op- 

 timism as to the outlook for the year, 

 as was demonstrated in the decision of 

 the committees to set $100,000 as the 

 amount of the fund to be raised for this 

 year. 



Gathei: at Detroit. 



The enthusiasm of the publicity com- 

 mittees was echoed at the meeting of 

 the executive board of the S. A. F. next 

 <lay at Deti-oit, when the subject matter 

 of the publicity campaign came up for 

 discussion. Never in the history of the 

 l^oard was such interest shown in a par- 

 ticular phase of the society's work. So 

 enthusiastic were the members of the 

 l)oard that, although liberal subscribers 

 unnually to the publicity fimd, they 

 added in the aggregate $2,065 to their 

 1919 subscriptions after the reports of 

 the committees and secretary had been 

 lead and discussed. The accounts in the 

 secretary's report, in accordance with 

 the recommendation of the publicity 

 committees, were presented to the board 

 with the request that the board appoint 

 a committee of its members to audit the 



same. Such a committee being ap- 

 pointed, the report was made that the 

 accounts were correct in every way and 

 commendation was due for the accuracy 

 and neatness with which they were pre- 

 sented. 



The report of the publicity committee 

 was presented by Chairman Henry Penn 

 and was as follows: 



"The first twelve months of the na- 

 tional publicity campaign of the So- 

 ciety of American Florists have 

 passed and if any doubt existed before 

 we entered upon it, I feel that I voice 

 the sentiments of not only the members 

 of the publicity and finance committees, 

 but those of every progressive, up-to- 

 date man in the country who is engaged 

 in the growing and selling of flowers, 

 when I make the statement that it has 

 greatly exceeded our expectations. 



"Despite the obstacles with which 

 every business had to contend during the 

 last year and particularly thoso encoun- 

 tered by the florists, we should feel 

 greatly pleased that we launched the 

 campaign when we did. 



Many Obstacles Overcome. 



"I have talked with many florists lo- 

 cated in different parts of the country 

 and the almost universal opinion has 

 been that their business was better than 

 ever before. Granting that this is so, 

 let us consider the local curtailment 

 which was faced, other contingencies 

 due to the war and the fact that flowers 

 were in the so-called luxury class, and 

 then if the publicity campaign did noth- 

 ing more than to keep business normal 

 during the trying year just passed the so- 

 ciety has taken a great step in advance. 



"We had planned to expend $50,000 

 during 1918 and this amount was to 

 cover every expense. Adverse condi- 

 tions, however, prevented raising the 

 full amount, but, taking everything into 

 consideration, we believe that the sum 

 raised was satisfactory. 



"Mr. Young, our secretary, will give 

 in his report the exact sum raised and 

 expended and you will see by this that 

 during the year we used for advertising 

 in the national mediums less than 

 $30,000, the balance of the expenditures 

 being used for the work of the promo- 

 tion bureau in New York, printed mat- 

 ter and other incidentals; and right here 

 I want to pay tribute to the wonderful 

 work accomplished by the promotion 

 bureau under the direction of John 



Young. Headquarters have been estab- 

 lished in New York, where the florists 

 of the country who visit New York can 

 transact business, obtain information 

 and keep in touch with business gener- 

 ally. Hundreds of columns of reading 

 matter have been obtained in the news- 

 papers and magazines of this country 

 absolutely free, and every cooperation 

 extended to help build up our business. 



Mr. Young's Trip Benefit. 



"The trip of Mr. Young from coast 

 to coast not only increased subscriptions 

 to the publicity fund, but tended to keep 

 the florists of the country in closer 

 touch with one another and with their 

 business. I believe that on his trips 

 he also obtained new memberships for 

 the society to the number of several 

 hundred, which, in itself, is quite an 

 achievement. His work in enlisting the 

 cooperation of the Red Cross was a great 

 gain for our trade and, taking it all in 

 all, I feel that the close cooperation of 

 the promotion bureau with the publicity 

 campaign has been the means of placing 

 our business on a higher plane than ever 

 before. 



"Now that conditions in business are 

 approaching normal, it seems to me that 

 not only should we have a publicity 

 fund of $50,000 per year, but that it 

 should be closer to $100,000. If the 

 florists of this country will only realize 

 the possibilities for more business, as I 

 feel sure they will, I believe that sub- 

 scriptions will increase as time goes on. 



* ' As some members may possibly 

 think that this national advertising is 

 expensive, I call your attention to one 

 item as showing how little it does cost 

 in comparison with the results accom- 

 plished. 



Slogan to Be Advertised. 



' ' For instance, we expended about 

 $20,000 during the spring season of 1918 

 and about $10,000 during the fall sea- 

 son. Let me dwell for the moment upon 

 the fall expenditure of $10,000 and per- 

 mit me to tell you that for that $10,000 

 we appealed to over 10,000,000 readers 

 of the national magazines at a cost of 

 less than one-tenth of a cent per person. 

 Just compare this with any form of 

 direct contact that you can think of and 

 realize how much more inexpensive are 

 the results obtained through the medium 

 of the national campaign. 



