NOTDMBKB 7, 1918. 



The Florists' Review 



11 



TRADE'S WORKERS NEED NOT WORRY 



«vl^?svlr?'»^1r7»ar7a^1r7svl^?sv]r?sv]rrs?lr?sv1r?^ 



OVEBZEAIX)nS FATBIOTS. 



Scare Florists' Employees. 



While every florist has paid proper 

 heed to the government's need of 

 utilizing the man-power of the country 

 in war work, there crops up nearly every 

 day some incident where the govern- 

 ment labor agents are going directly 

 against General Crowder's "work or 

 fight" order. Every man from any of 

 the less essential industries who is un- 

 skilled and can be spared from his pres- 

 ent employment should offer himself to 

 the government, but the country will 

 not be the gainer by taking a skilled 

 man from the florists' business and put- 

 ting him to work as a laborer in a mu- 

 nitions or other war work factory at day 

 laborer's wages. 



An attempt to do the latter in Den- 

 ver was called to the attention of Will- 

 iam F. Gude, Washington representative 

 of the S. A. F., October 26. Mr. Gude 

 already had secured a statement from 

 Provost Marshal General Crowder re- 

 garding his work or fight order. It 

 was published in The Review for Sep- 

 tember 12. Notwithstanding General 

 Crowder's statement, Mr. Gude has 

 again been called on to refute the state- 

 ment that florists must leave their pres- 

 ent employment and seek work in war 

 industries. 



Describing what has occurred, Mr. 

 Gude says: 



Mr. Guide's Explanation. 



"October 26 I received a special de- 

 livery letter enclosing a half page from 

 a daily newspaper, with the statement 

 that all persons in the florists' business 

 from 18 to 56 years of age should either 

 quit their jobs at once or be drafted into 

 military service. 



"On receipt of this I immediately 

 arranged an audience with the War 

 Industries Board, Priority Division, 

 Washington, D. C, because if there was 

 anything that I could do to help florists 

 ea^, west, north or south, I would do it. 

 Th^^i audience was Monday, October 28, 

 at 2 p. m., at which I presented the 

 letter from Denver, with the clipping 

 from the paper. 



"After a pleasant conference, I pre- 

 sented our case, stating that my mission 

 was not to obstruct war industry, but to 

 conserve the florists' industry, as well as 

 every other industry, as much as pos- 

 sible while the war was going on. They 

 told me that I should have a written 

 communication the next day. 



"Therefore, I am enclosing you the 

 official communication of the War Indus- 

 tries Boarc\, which I trust you will print 

 in full and which should reassure all 

 florists. ' ' 



The Government's Policy. 



The following is the letter Mr. Gude 

 received from A. W. Clapp, Chief of the 

 H^^" „^*^°"' of <^be Priorities Division, 

 of ^ the U. S. War Industries Board: 

 , , . ^°\ have called our attention to a 

 letter, dated October 24, addressed to 

 you from Davis & Whitney, attorneys at 

 law, Denver. 



"This letter states, among other 

 things, in substance that a United 

 States Employment Service agent in 

 Denver has stated to men who are 

 working as florists that unless they ab- 

 solutely quit their jobs before Novem- 

 ber 1 they will be inducted into the 

 military service immediately; further, 

 that this covers every man between the 

 ages of 18 and 56. 



"If an employment agent made such 

 a statement we think it was unauthor- 

 ized. The fact that a man is employed 

 in a florist's establishment would not, 

 in all probability, entitle him to consid- 

 eration for deferred classification on in- 

 dustrial grounds, but such a man, pro- 

 vided he is not a clerk in a florist 's 

 store, is not engaged in a non-productive 

 occupation within the meaning of Gen- 

 eral Crowder's present work or fight 

 order and would not lose his right to de- 

 ferred classification on dependency 

 grounds, or his order number, and be 



The Editor is pleased when 

 a Reader presents his ideas 

 on any subject treated in 



mi^ 



As experience is the best 

 teacher, so do we learn 

 fastest by an exchange of 

 experiences. Many valuable 

 points are brought out by 

 discussion. 



Good penmanship, spelling and 

 crammar. though desirable, are not 

 necessary. Write as you would talk 

 when doing your best. 



WE SHALL BE GLAD 

 TO HEAR FROM YOU 



Inducted into service because he chose 

 to remain in his employment. This is 

 in accordance with the present law and 

 regulations. 



Does Not Apply to Clerks. 



"You will understand that this does 

 not apply to a clerk in a florist's store 

 who comes within the work or fight 

 order. 



' ' You will agree with us that the flo- 

 rists ' business is among the less essen- 

 tial businesses. The need for most ef- 

 fectively utilizing the man-power of the 

 country in the present emergency de- 

 mands that so far as possible able-bodied 

 men should be either in the service or in 

 some war industry, and it is perfectly 

 proper that such men should be encour- 

 aged by the Employment Service or by 

 anyone else to get into a war industry. 

 It is not, however, as we have said, 

 proper to use as a means of compul- 

 sion a statement which is not justified." 

 A Shift Is Impracticable. 



In a great majority of cases the shift- 

 ing of labor from florists' establish- 



ments to more essential work has proved 

 impracticable for the following reason: 

 Most men still employed by florists are 

 skilled in the business; they command 

 good wages. They are not skilled in 

 other work and they become unskilled 

 workers, laborers, when they go into 

 other industries; they are asked to take 

 less pay than they now earn, to lower 

 the scale of living for their families. 

 The big wages of the war industries one 

 reads about in the newspapers have been 

 found not obtainable by the average flo- 

 rist who seeks a job in another busi- 

 ness; they seem to go only to expert 

 workers or those capable of extraordi- 

 narily severe tasks, not to novices such 

 as the florists become when they change. 



WOMEN IN MEN'S JOBS. 



The Federal Community Labor Boards 

 in the larger cities of the country have 

 issued what they term "white lists" 

 of jobs ordinarily filled by men, but 

 which can be taken satisfactorily by 

 women so as to release the men for war 

 work. Listed among the "clerks" are 

 those employees of flower stores who are 

 unskilled in any labor except that of 

 waiting on customers. 



An appeal has been made to the em- 

 ployers of this class of labor to release 

 the men and fill their places with women. 

 At the same time, the labor boards have 

 called upon the women of the cities to 

 otter themselves for such employment 

 during the emergency. 



While an analysis of the labor that 

 is employed in florists' establishments 

 reveals that there are few, extremely 

 few, men who are employed in occu- 

 pations that come under those listed 

 in General Crowder's work or fight or- 

 der, there are undoubtedly some who 

 should be working in the war indus- 

 tries. The government needs such men 

 and patriotism demands that they be 

 released and their places filled with 

 women. But, on the other hand, the 

 government does not desire to cripple 

 the less essential industries by taking 

 their skilled employees. 



The test undoubtedly is that any work 

 that can be done satisfactorily by an 

 unskilled woman is not essential to the 

 maintenance of that florist's business 

 and the man should be urged to seek 

 other employment. 



CUBE FOB ASTEB BLIGHT. 



We would like to know what spray to 

 use for aster blight. We have tried 

 lime, but it did no good. 



M. A. T.— N. Y. 



You will find Bordeaux mixture the 

 best fungicide for all blights or other 

 such diseases. Stone lime and sulphate 

 of copper are used to make Bordeaux 

 mixture. C. W. 



Wichita, Kan.— Charles P. Mueller 

 sent six messages to eastern florists for 

 stock recently and received answers to 

 four of them saying that the firms ad- 

 dressed would have no flowers to spare 

 during the epidemic of influenza. 



