18 



The Florists^ Review 



JuNB 19, 1919. 



f^^^mi 



r£9f 



Established, 1897, by «. L. GRANT. 



Pabltshed every Thursday by 

 The Florists' Publishing Co., 



620-S60 Oaxton BulldlnAr, 



508 South Dearborn St., Ohlcago. 



Tele., Wabash 8196. 



Rei;intered cable address, 



Florriew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897, at the post-office at Chl- 

 caKo, 111., under the Act of March 

 3.1879. 



Subscription price, $1.60 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.50; to Europe, $3.00. 



AdTertlsintr rates quoted npoa 

 request. Only strictly trade ad* 

 vertlslng accepted. 



'Besults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Have you an apprentice on your place, 

 or do you count on hiriag the other fel- 

 low's young men as soon as he gets them 

 trained? 



The difference between good stock and 

 poor stock usually is found in the wages 

 of the grower. A good man is worth 

 what he costs. 



This will be a busy summer for florists, 

 because we have, all of us, to make prepa- 

 rations for a season bigger and better 

 than any before. 



The trade can use more stock next sea- 

 son, it is true, but what is much worse 

 needed is more stock of a quality to jus- 

 tify asking the best prices for it./ 



There are getting to be so many or- 

 ganizations in the trade that it would take 

 about all of one man's time to keep in 

 touch with all of their activities, or in- 

 activities. 



Our fastidious Railroad Administration 

 objects to the shipment of bone meal, 

 sheep manure and other fragrant articles 

 by express. Some of the supply houses 

 have had trouble over it. 



Growers inclined to complain of the 

 continued high price of coal in the United 

 States may be interested to know that in 

 England all coals other than anthracite 

 still are strictly rationed. 



If you can judge the tone of business 

 by the number of bankruptcies, here 's en- 

 couragement. Bradstreet 's report for last 

 week showed only 94 failures — the same 

 number as the week previous — as against 

 193, 270, 285 and 323 for the correspond- 

 ing week in the years 1918 to 1915. 



The office of The Review always is 

 ready and willing to answer questions on 

 any trade subject, but if readers would 

 preserve their papers for even one year 

 they would have at hand, for immediate 

 reference, information on nearly every 

 matter about which they write and spend 

 days waiting for an answer. 



Gardeners and horticulturists at New- 

 port, R. I., are worried over the situation 

 brought about by the federal plant quar- 

 antine, which they say will make it diffi- 

 cult to replace palms and other tropical 

 plants that died last winter during the 

 time when it was impossible to obtain 

 sufficient coal to heat the greenhouses. 



DECLINE IN PRICES OBABUAL. 



Opinion is general among business 

 men of all sorts throughout the country 

 that there will not be any immediate re- 

 duction in prices and the decline, whe i 

 it comes, will be gradual. The informa- 

 tion and education service of the De- 

 partment of Labor has made a wide- 

 spread effort to sound all classes of 

 trade on this question. Some well-in- 

 formed men in touch with industrial and 

 financial affairs maintain that there 

 will be no recession from present prices, 

 that labor is short, exports are high and 

 imports low, and consequently no change 

 will come about until the foreign situa- 

 tion is changed. Since that may take 

 years, the prospect of a lower cost of 

 living is distant indeed. Even those 

 who anticipate a decline in commodity 

 prices believe it will not come for a 

 considerable time yet, and then be so 

 gradual as to be little felt. While there 

 is so strong a foreign market for Ameri- 

 can goods, creating a demand on our 

 labor market, the governing factor in 

 living costs — labor — is not likely to go 

 down, and while labor is high, com- 

 modity prices stay up. 



after July 1. So the Republicans may 

 force Director-General Hines and other 

 members of the administration to sub- 

 mit to increasing the railroad tariffs 

 despite their statements. 



WILL SOUTHERNERS ORGANIZE? 



The florists of Texas are working 

 strenuously and untiringly to attract to 

 the convention of the state association, 

 at Austin July 9 and 10, members of 

 the trade from all over the souiB. The 

 presence of J. F. Ammann, president of 

 the S. A. F., assured by telegraphic ac- 

 ceptance, and his words on publicity 

 and other national trade phases, give 

 the convention an aspect larger than 

 that of merely a state meeting. Indi- 

 cations are that the efforts of the 

 Tex*ans are to be rewarded with suc- 

 cess, and that a considerable number of 

 florists from outside the state will at- 

 tend. Whether a southern organizatioiv 

 will result, it is too early to predict. 

 Robert C. Kerr, working indefatigably 

 as chairman of the welfare committee, 

 thinks the meeting will be a "semi- 

 southern convention." Several florists 

 from other states will promote a dis- 

 cussion as to the prospects of a south-' 

 em organization. 



HINES WON'T RAISE RATES. 



While the railroads remain in govern- 

 ment hands, there is, at least for the 

 present, no danger of higher freight 

 rates, according to a statement of Di- 

 rector-General Walker D. Hines, of the 

 railroad administration. He is quoted 

 as saying that there would be no further 

 increase until business had returned to 

 normal. He declared that if rates were 

 raised to bring $.300,000,000 additional 

 revenue to the roads, wholesalers and 

 jobbers wouM force an additional $900,- 

 000,000 from the ultimate consumer, and 

 he did not propose to add to the present 

 high cost of living. 



To supply the funds necessary to 

 make up the deficit incurred in operat- 

 ing the roads, the House of Representa- 

 tives has voted $775,000,000 to the rail- 

 roads' revolving fund. In the course of 

 debate on the subject. Republicans in the 

 house insisted that the Democrats should 

 increase rates so that the railroads 

 would pay their own operating expenses, 

 instead of paying them out of the tax- 

 payers' money. And Senator Cummins, 

 who is to be chairman of the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission, is preparing a 

 program whereby rates will advance 



CO-OPERATION HELPS CREDIT. 



Gratified with the success of the reso- 

 lution they had adopted in previous 

 years as Canons of Commercial Ethics, 

 the National Association of Credit Men, 

 in closing their convention at Detroit, 

 added as the eleventh a principle whose 

 practice will help creditor and debtor 

 in any field of business: 



"The foundation principle of our 

 credit structure — cooperation — should 

 dominate and control whenever the 

 financial affairs of a debtor become in- 

 solvent or involved, that equality there- 

 by may be assured to the creditors 

 themselves and justice to the debtor. 



"The control of any lesser principle 

 produces waste, diffusion of effort and 

 a sacrifice of interest, material and 

 moral, with a separation of creditor and 

 debtor that is offensive to the best laws 

 of credit procedure. 



"Cooperation and unity save, con- 

 struct and prevent; therefore^ individ- 

 ual action pursued regardless of other 

 interests in such situations, whether se- 

 cretly or openly, expressed by either 

 creditor or debtor, is unwise and un- 

 ethical." 



RESERVE STOCK. 



Because business is good this season, 

 there is no reason for selling out so 

 closely that next year's success will be 

 made difficult. It is necessary to re- 

 serve the facilities for continuing the 

 business, as the following humorous let- 

 ter indicates: 



Please discontinue our ads. as we have sold 

 everything except the benches and must keep 

 them for future use. — H. O. Hannah & Son, Sher- 

 man, Tex., June 7, 1919. 



If 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. 



BIG ENGLISH SHOWS RESUMED. 



If anything were needed to show that 

 British horticulturists, like British sol- 

 diers, are equal to all emergencies, the 

 proof was to be found in the resump- 

 tion of the famous Chelsea outdoor and 

 tented flower show last month; the Brit- 

 ish trade papers say that, considering 

 there were only three months' notice of 

 the fixture, the result was nothing short 

 of a marvel. "Of course, when com- 

 pared with the gigantic shows held be- 

 fore the war, one might say the exhibits 

 were less numerous, and the space cov- 

 ered by the tents smaller, but the im- 

 pression of many visitors would be that 

 the tents were nearly as extensive as on 

 former occasions, for the council wisely 

 decided to give more room for .visitors, 

 so the groups were farther apart and 

 more space was given in the gangways. 

 Notwithstanding this, it was practically 

 impossible to ^et around some of the 

 tents when the public had been ad- 

 mitted. Taken as a whole, the exhibits 

 were first-class. Never do we remember 

 to have seen less inferior stuff." 



To judge from the descriptions in the 

 trade papers and the list of inedals and 

 awards of merit, it may be said that 

 flower shows in England have been re- 

 sumed on a scale comparable with the 

 series of national shows of the S. A. F., 

 with few of the old stand-by exhibitors 

 missing. 



