24 



The Florists^ Review 



NOVEMBKB 21. 1918. 



(I 



EatabllBhed, 1897. by G. L. aRANT. 



PabllBhed e^ery Thursday by 

 The Florists' Publishing Co., 



620-660 Oaxtoa Building, 



006 South Dearborn St., Ohlcaco. 



Tele.. Wabash 8196. 



Registered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897. at the pcet-offlce at Ohl> 

 cago, lU., under the Act of March 

 3 1879. 



Subscription price. $1.60 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.60; to Europe. $3.00. 

 » Advertising rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad> 

 vertlslng accepted. 



n 



NOTICE. 



It is impossible to guarantee the in- 

 sertion, discontinuance or alteration of 

 any advertisement unless instructions 

 are received 



BY 4 P. M. TUESDAY. 



SOCIETY OF AHEBICAN FLORISTS. 



Incorporated by Act of Congress, March 4, 1901. 



Officers for 1918: President, Charles H. 

 Tott.r, Madison, N. J. ; vice-president, Jules 

 Bourdet, St. Louis, Mo. ; secretary, John Young, 

 1170 Broadway, New York city; treasurer, J. J. 

 Hess, Omaha, Neb. 



Officers for 1919: President, J. F. Ammann, 

 Edwardsville, 111.; vice-president, B. A. Fetters, 

 Detroit; secretary and treasurer as before. 



Thirty-fifth annual convention, Detroit, Mich., 

 August 19 to 21, 1919. 



,1 Results bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



One may no longer shrug his shoulders 

 and excuse himself with, "C'est la 

 guerre." La guerre est finie. 



The trade in the south never has en- 

 joyed as high a state of prosperity as 

 has been its good fortune this season. 



The florist who has no system of look- 

 ing after collections always will have 

 money on the books, but none in the bank. 



Next season probably will establish a 

 record for the number of novelties put 

 on the market. There were a lot of new 

 things awaiting the return of peace. 



Two classes of florists are retiring from 

 the business under present conditions: 

 Those who never have been able to make 

 it pay and those who have made it pay so 

 well they can afford to retire. There are 

 numbers of each. 



The experience of the last few months 

 has served to show many florists that 

 they previously employed considerably 

 more help than really was needed, both in 

 stores and greenhouses. While a little 

 more than the present number of work- 

 ers are needed in most places, many never 

 will put back all of the old crew. 



There are few florists who have not 

 cut off one or another of the costly little 

 services rendered in the good old days 

 that will be slow returning — the good old 

 days will be slow, we mean; most flo- 

 rists like so well to spend their money 

 they will be quick to put the frills on 

 again when they can, even if they do not 

 now sicm to be missed. 



THE DEMAND FOB PLANTS. 



While the supply of plants is short 

 this season there is no shortage in de- 

 mand for them. No grower who has sur- 

 plus stock to dispose of is having trou- 

 ble in finding buyers; in fact, there are 

 more customers than there are plants, 

 providing, of course, the proper means 

 are used to let the trade know what 

 is for sale. The Classified section of The 

 Review is bringing wonderful results to 

 those who have plants for sale. The 

 orders received as a result of these lit- 

 tle ads are so numerous that in many 

 cases the advertisers are having to re- 

 turn checks. Like this: 



Kindly cut out my advertisement. I do not 

 like to return checks. — L. Benson, Indianapolis, 

 Ind., September 22, 1918. 



Please discontinue our carnation ad. We are 

 sold out and dislike to return so many checks. — 

 Joy Floral Co., Nashville, Tenn., September 23, 

 1918. 



When you hear a man complain of the 

 cost of advertising you can be pretty 

 certain he spends a good bit of money 

 elsewhere than in The Review. 



THE COAL MARKET. 



The expectation of some florists that, 

 now the war is over, the price of coal 

 will be reduced will not be realized, at 

 least during the winter of 1918-19, as- 

 serts a Chicago authority on the sub- 

 ject. The maximum prices fixed by the 

 United States Fuel Administration will 

 be maintained, because they were based 

 on the cost of production, arrived at by 

 an investigation of the Federal Trade 

 Commission. 



During the last two weeks there has 

 been an oversupply of the poorer grades 

 of bituminous coal in Chicago and other 

 bituminous coal centers. For this rea- 

 son coal has been offered at from 25 to 

 50 cents per ton under the government 

 maximum prices. The better grades of 

 coal, however, such as Franklin county 

 in Illinois, are held at the maximum 

 price and little can be bought. The 

 cheaper coal comes from mines that 

 were not worked before there was the 

 great demand for fuel for war purposes 

 because the quality is so poor and it is 

 expected that their operation will cease 

 as soon as conditions become more 

 normal. 



"Any florist who feels sorry for him- 

 self because he has a supply of the bet- 

 ter grades of bituminous coal, bought 

 at the government price, does not know 

 the conditions," the coal man asserted. 

 "Florists use the best class of bitu- 

 minous coal, which will not be offered 

 in the market at a lower price for some 

 time to come, not during this winter, 

 at least." 



STILL TAKENO THEM OVEB. 



Last week the United States govern- 

 ment took over the American Railway 

 Express Co., which heretofore had been 

 outside government management, and 

 placed the express service of the entire 

 country under the control of Director 

 General McAdoo, the same as the rail- 

 road service is. 



The action was a surprise, coming, as 

 it did, after the actual, if not the tech- 

 nical, close of the war, and it has 

 aroused great opposition in political and 

 economic circles. The American people 

 have been willing to stand for anything 

 the purpose of which was alleged to be 

 the winning of the war, but there are 

 many who cannot see why government 

 control and operation should be ex- 

 tended after the war is won. 



Almost the first act of the director 

 general will be to raise express rates 

 and the employees ' salaries. 



Florists heretofore have said little, 

 not wishing to appear to be in the posi- 

 tion of opposing anything the govern- 

 ment considered desirable in prosecuting 

 the war. But it is a matter of common 

 knowledge in the trade that the govern- 

 ment operation of railroads, telegraph 

 and telephones and its acquiescence in 

 the previous combination of express 

 companies, all have resulted in a marked 

 deterioration of service and a consider- 

 able average increase in the cost of that 

 service. 



Now that the war is won, the trade 

 will not be satisfied with anything short 

 of the quickest possible return to the 

 private operation of public utilities. 



GET YOUB OBDEBS IN. 



In a recent communication to The 

 Review, John Wolf, of Savannah, Ga,, 

 says: 



I must mention that the express service Is the 

 worst I have ever known. It Is impossible to get 

 things on time. 



There are times, of course, when it is 

 necessary for florists to send rush orders 

 for stock; there also are times when 

 florists receive orders for flowers or 

 designs that depend on normal express 

 service to reach their destinations in 

 time. But many, many times failure 

 to get shipments when they are needed 

 is the fault of the florist himself. 



Ever since the war began and the 

 railroads were called upon to handle a 

 greatly increased amount of traffic with 

 the facilities that were taxed even be- 

 fore the speeding up of war work, The 

 Review has urged the members of the 

 trade to anticipate their wants and get 

 their orders in as far in advance as 

 possible. But the habit of years is hard 

 to break, and they have gone along as 

 in normal times — expecting pre-war 

 service. 



Outside of flowers, almost everything 

 used in a retail store is staple. These 

 things can be ordered now as well as 

 next week — they will be used sometime. 



This applies to what the retailer will 

 need for the holidays — Thanksgiving; 

 Christmas, New Year's, St. Valentine's 

 day and the other big flower-selling days 

 of the season, ending with Memorial 

 day. 



Now is an excellent time to take an 

 inventory — find out what things will be 

 needed for these holidays and order 

 them. An order placed now will mean 

 that the goods will arrive well in ad- 

 vance of the time they are needed. 



CHICAaO. 



The Market. 



Business has been excellent; it has 

 fully recovered the ground lost in the 

 height of the mum season and is larger 

 than ever before at this date. Shipping 

 continues brisk and wholesalers report 

 a large number of Thanksgiving orders 

 on hand. It is the opinion of some that 

 the first part of next week will see the 

 biggest shipping in the history of the 

 Chicago market. While the shipping is 

 going along in such good shape, city 

 trade is keeping pace with it and prices 

 are much above normal. The retailers 

 are also looking for a "grand and glo- 

 rious" Thanksgiving and have made 

 many preparations for handling a large 

 volume of business. Corsage work has 



