August 21, 1919. 



The Florists^ Review 



27 



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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 



HE great pleasure it gives 

 itie to preside at this meet- 

 ing I cannot find words ad- 

 equate to express. I do 

 not tliink myself worthy 

 of the high honor you have 

 conferred upon me by 

 electing me your presiding 

 officer. I feel that the 

 honor should be intended 

 more for St. Louis, the community I rep- 

 resent, than for just the individual. Be 

 that as it may. I do want sincerely and 

 from the bottom of my heart to thank 

 the St. Louis Florists' Club for electing 

 me to this most cherished and honorable 

 position ill the gift of our beloved so- 

 ciety. 



My constant prayer and aim has been 

 that I may live up to your expectations 

 and to the great responsibilities of the 

 office. The future only will tell how well 

 this has been done, hence I beg you 

 withhold judgment for a little while, 

 and when the curtain finally drops and 

 this administration goes out, kindly 

 cover our mistakes with the mantle of 

 charity. 



We are just now in the first stages, so 

 to speak, of the re- 

 construction period 

 after one of the 

 greatest wars ever 

 fought by mankind. 

 AVe can only grasp 

 the immensity of it 

 when we stop to 

 consider that ap- 

 proximately 50,000.- 

 000 men were mobil- 

 ized for the great 

 conflict, of w h i c h 

 8,000,000 are dead, 

 18,000,000 are 

 wounded, 6,000,000 

 are permanent 

 wrecks and 7,000,- 

 000 were blown to 

 pieces, buried dead 

 or alive, or are jiris- 

 oners to be worked 

 or starved to death; 

 9,00(1,0(1(1 civilians, 

 women, children and 

 aged, h a v e been 

 murdered, star\ed 

 and slain by disease 

 just because some 

 war lords dreamed 

 of a world conquest. 



What the War Cost. 



Edgar Crammond, 

 a British financial 

 writer,estimates the 

 total cost of the 

 war, including indi- 

 rect losses, at $260,- 

 000,000,000. The De- 

 partment of Com- 

 merce in 1916 reck- 

 oned the total na- 



Tlip full text of the address of ,T. Fred Ainmann 

 I)resident of tlie Society of American Florists, 

 delivered at the convention in Detroit, Angnst 

 1», 1919. 



tional wealth of the United States at 

 $228,000,000,000. Accepting Mr. Cram- 

 mond 's figures as somewhere near the 

 truth, this war has consumed $32,000,- 

 000,000 more than the value of all prop- 

 erty in the United States three years 

 ago. 



Colossal and unprecedented as it all 

 is, nevertheless strong and courageous 

 people can stand it if only they resolve 

 that it shall not have been done in vain. 

 Let us, as true Americans, resolve that 

 the 50,000 or more of red-blooded Amer- 

 icans who gave up their lives and made 

 the supreme sacrifice on a foreign field 

 of battle have not died in vain, and that 

 we, as mehibers of a national body, 

 whose charter was given by an act of 

 the Congress of the United States, shall 

 unflinchingly do our part in time of 

 peace a<s we did it in time of war, by ex- 

 tending the hand of true Christian fel- 

 lowship to the bleeding nations of Eu- 

 rope and by honorably and in an Amer- 



J. Fred Amtnann. 



(President of the .Society of American Florists.) 



ican, businesslike way working untir- 

 ingly to make our own nation better 

 morally, politically and commercially. 

 Above all, let us insist that everybody 

 wlio wants to claim and does claim citi- 

 zenship in this great land be first of all 

 an Amercan. 



Right here let me quote from an edi- 

 torial in the New York Times, which I 

 consider just as apropos now as during 

 the war, entitled "The More Excellent 

 Way": 



"The More Excellent Way." 



This colossal war is profoundly affecting Amer- 

 ican thought and life. It is safe to say that 

 more men and women are thinking, and think- 

 ing seriously, than ever before in our history. 

 The days of prosperity are not conducive to se- 

 ri<His thought. Life is too easy. Things come 

 without overmuch effort. At such times we are 

 jirone to skim the surface and miss the depths. 

 A certain light-hearted tlippancy seems to go 

 hand in hand with prosperity. That day is gone. 

 Times have changed. The placid depths are 

 broken up. The days in which we live impose 

 upon us the duty of serious thinking and a deeper 

 sense of gravity. This war has brought home 

 to a good many men the consciousness that they 

 have somehow missed the path of high endeavor. 

 We have been walking in the shadows instead 

 Qf breathing the free air of the mountains. But 

 toda.v men are searching for the way to the shin- 

 ing tablelands. To find that path and, when 

 found, to walk in it, they recognize as a duty to 

 themselves and to their country. 



This discovery means 

 a radical change in the 

 general attitude of life. 

 It cannot be accom- 

 plished without a new 

 conception of the law of 

 attainment. Men are 

 born to achieve. A 

 kindly but shrewd ob- 

 server of American life 

 recently remarked that 

 its outstanding charac- 

 teristic was the passion 

 for attainment. And it 

 is here that the war in 

 teaching the great lesson 

 of life and conduct. Be- 

 fore the war, men valued 

 life in proportion to what 

 they could get out of it. 

 .Not what they could 

 sive, but what they could 

 ^et: not how much the.v 

 could put into life, but 

 how much they could ex- 

 tract from it. They laid 

 life under tribute for 

 their own ease, enjoy- 

 ment and comfort. That 

 man had attained most 

 who got most. The one 

 idea was to get, and, 

 having got. to keep. 

 There was little thought 

 of service rendered, less 

 of sacrifice to be made. 

 The imperious demand 

 on life was to give. give. 

 We ,Tre slowly hut 

 surely learning that 

 there is a more excellent 

 way. The war has come 

 with stern demand for 

 service and sacrifice uimn 

 the part of every Ameri- 

 can citizen. In its lurid 

 lifrht we are learning the 

 more excellent way of 

 Mttainment. It is teach- 

 ing the old Ijcnt lesson 

 that the man who seeks 

 to s.nve liis life loses it 

 ;ind the man wlio sacri- 

 fices ills life saves it. 

 "Who can tell." said an 

 old (Jreek philosopher, 

 "wliether to die may not 

 be to live, and to live 

 may not be to die?" It 

 was a paradox, but all 

 life is a paradox. The 

 man who values life bv 



