10 



The Florists^ Review 



June 19, 1919. 



increase of 15 per cent is necessary to 

 maintain the railroads. Only so can the 

 operating expenses be met. It seems sure 

 that higher freight rates will increase 

 the price of coal by autumn. 



From another direction, railroad trans- 

 portation threatens to cause trouble 

 to coal buyers next fall. Last year, un- 

 der war regulation, coal was given the 

 right of way, as a matter of necessity. 

 Next winter coal, without such prefer- 

 ence, will have to take its chance with 

 other commodities. Great industrial ac- 

 tivity — the added output to make up for 

 war's repression in manufactured lines 

 — will create a heavy strain on transpor- 

 tation facilities. Exports are goings to 

 be large. But there are only so many 

 freight cars in the country. Under such 

 pressure, a scarcity is bound to result, 

 and late coal buyers will feel it heavily. 



Solution Is Early Busring. 



There is, however, a way out of that 

 difficulty. Coal can be shipped during 

 the summer. The buyer who takes time 

 by the forelock and stores his coal now, 

 is going to dodge a lot of trouble on this 

 score. 



The demand for coal is, of course, 

 bound to surpass any previous record. 

 War restrictions and regulations are off. 

 Industries that were skimped last year, 

 will make up for it this year. Nobody 

 — home-dweller, apartment house owner, 

 manufacturer, office building proprietor 



— is going to be so sparing as he was last 

 year. High rents, high wages, high 

 prices — the general presence of money — 

 induces free spending, particularly 

 after the enforced economy of war time 

 is, over. 



We can only agree with the authori- 

 ties who warn us of the certainty of 

 higher prices for coal next fall and the 

 probability of a shortage, possibly se- 

 vere, in the fuel supply. Low produc- 

 tion, the shortage of labor, the contem- 

 plated increase of railroad freight rates, 

 the possibility of a freight car famine, 

 the unprecedented demand — the argu- 

 ments advanced are all sound ones, 

 backed up by convincing facts. 



One way out of the difficulty is of- 

 fered. In view of the present soft mar- 

 ket, caused by the postponement of or- 

 ders by those running on stocks left 

 from last winter, prices can be obtained 

 that are sure to represent a saving in 

 contrast with what one will have to pay 

 by autumn or winter. One saves, too, 

 the increase in transportation cost that 

 is sure to come when rates go up. And, 

 no matter what happens next fall, coal 

 can be delivered in the summer, before 

 the grain crops move, and before the 

 rush of business activity that cold 

 weather brings. Yes, the best thing to 

 do is to take Dr. Garfield's, Mr. Mor- 

 row's, Secretary Wilson's and the fuel 

 men 's advice, and buy coal now. 



CHICAGO RETAILERS AROUSED. 



Seek to Awaken the Growers. 



By direct appeal to the growers as 

 the chief sufferers, the Chicago Eetail 

 Florists' Association hopes to correct 

 conditions which so far have proved 

 impossible to remedy by other means 

 BO long as the present system of mar- 

 keting cut flowers is continued. 



"How do you like to have your prod- 

 uct cheapened by being used as bar- 

 gain bait to call the people into de- 

 partment stores?" That was the ques- 

 tion put directly to the growers at a 

 meeting to which they had been in- 

 vited, at the Randolph hotel, Chicago, 

 June 17. The answer was unanimous: 

 They did not relish it at all. 



What Started It. 



The meeting was the result of an 

 advertising sjunt pulled off recently by 

 one of the largest low-price department 

 stores in Chicago. The managers are 

 shrewd; they don't cheapen their regu- 

 lar lines of merchandise by selling at 

 ridiculous prices, but when they get a 

 chance to pick up some other fellows ' 

 line in such a way that it can be sold 

 for a day or two without regard for 

 values, they jump on it like a kitten on 

 a June bug. That is what happened in 

 Chicago. The store in question found 

 someone who was worrying under a 

 heavy load of flowers and bought a huge 

 quantity, advertising them more exten- 

 sively than ever before has been done, 

 with a scare head clear across a page 

 ad in a widely circulated evening pa- 

 per, "Fine fresh Roses, 19 cents a 



dozen!" It doubtless was all the bet- 

 ter in the eyes of the department store 

 manager that the public has become ac- 

 customed to paying $2 to $4 per dozen 

 for roses in the flower stores. 



Not many regular flower buyers stood 

 in the line at the bargain counter, per- 

 haps, but it certainly did more than 

 anything else that has happened this 

 spring to depress the wholesale prices 

 of flowers, for how could the retailers, 

 compete unless they, too, bought 

 cheaply? 



Getting Together. 



Perhaps seventy-five growers and re- 

 tailers attended the meeting called to 

 consider the situation. Some of the 

 commission men had pleaded the im- 

 possibility of destroying stock sent to 

 them to sell, declaring that their busi- 

 ness lives depended on getting for the 

 owners of the flowers as much, or what- 

 ever, money the conditions from day 

 to day make possible. So the retailers 

 appealed to the growers to keep their 

 stock off the bargain counters of the 

 department stores, to take individual 

 action if collective action is impossible. 

 They were urged to follow the lead of 

 Weiss & Meyer Co., Maywood, this rose 

 growing concern having announced last 

 week, in a full-page advertisement in 

 The Review, that its commission house 

 had been instructed not to sell the 

 Weiss & Meyer roses to any others than 

 recognized retail florists. 



President L. R. Bohannon, of the Re- 

 tail Florists' Association, occupied the 

 chair. He emphasized the point that 

 the traditional trade antagonisms are 

 buried and that the purpose is to work 



out something which will benefit all 

 branches of the trade, one the same as 

 the others. President Bohannon called 

 on George Asmus, George Wienhoeber 

 and O. J. Friedman to describe the 

 retailers' situation and right there one 

 of the mostTremarkable facts developed. 

 The retailers have become converts to 

 high prices; they have discovered that 

 they make more money selling roses at 

 $3 a dozen than they do at $1.50. Each 

 of the three speakers approached the 

 subject from a different angle, but all 

 agreed that good prices make flower 

 selling a real business, while 19-cent 

 bargains to attract people within sight 

 of other merchandise make progress 

 hopeless for any class of florists. They 

 agreed, also, that the trade can adver- 

 tise flowers and develop the business for 

 florists if prices afford room for profit, 

 but that it is a waste of money to urge 

 the public to * ' Say It with Flowers ' ' 

 while the popular estimate of values is 

 based on department store ^bargain ad- 

 vertising, "" 

 All Others Agree. 



August F. Poehlmann, president of 

 the Chicago Wholesale Cut Flower Asso- 

 ciation and himself a large grower, 

 spoke in general agreement with the 

 ideas of the retailers, but pointed out 

 the difficulty of getting cooperative ac- 

 tion where so many men of many minds 

 are concerned. John Poehlmann empha- 

 sized his belief that the greatest harm 

 is done all branches of the trade by 

 letting department stores advertise 

 themselves with our merchandise and 

 advocated giving away whatever sur- 

 plus develops rather than letting outside 

 parties use it against us. 



Joseph Kohout, president of the re- 

 cently organized Commercial Flower 

 Growers' Association, was called on to 

 speak for that body and deplored the 

 difficulty of obtaining cooperation be- 

 tween the large number of men in the 

 business, each of whom now goes it 

 alone. He said the growers ' association 

 at its meeting June 19 has for its sub- 

 ject the Milwaukee plan of raising ad- 

 vertising funds. Walter Amling, sec- 

 retary of the growers' organization, 

 said it now numbers sixty-eight mem- 

 bers, with over eight million feet of 

 glass and an investment exceeding 

 $5,000,000. 



Others called on for views, who talked 

 briefly, were Arthur Blome, H, N, Bruns 

 and J. W, Rodgers, the latter of Day- 

 ton, O., who said the florists of his city 

 annually buy $100,000 of cut flowers in 

 the Chicago market and who suggested 

 that if the growers had a more exact 

 knowledge of the cost of growing flow- 

 ers it might help solve some of the hard- 

 est marketing problems. 



Who Has Workable Plan? 



H. B. Howard suggested that the sys- 

 tem of selling each grower 's stock on 

 its merits is a bar to maintaining a 

 minimum market price and the disposal 

 of the surplus by other methods. He 

 offered the thought that if the principal 

 growers could agree to have their 

 wholesaler pool the day's receipts on 

 some equitable plan in time of glut it 

 might then be possible for the whole- 

 salers to cease cutting under each other 

 whenever the market is overstocked. 

 President Bohannon said he had thought 

 of a plan on similar lines, whereby the 

 various interests could pool the surplus 

 under the direction of a manager whose 



