24 



The Florists^ Review 



Januabt 1, 1920. 



Bstebllsbed. 1897, by Q. L. GBANT. 



Published every Tharsday by 

 The Florists' Poblishinq Co.. 



620-600 Oaxton Balldlnir, 



608 Soatb Dearborn St., Oblcaaro. 



Tele., Wabash 8196. 



Begrlstered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3, 1897, at the poet-offlce at Ohl- 

 oago. 111., under the Act of March 

 ». 1879. 



Subscription price, $1.60 a year. 

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



AdTertlsln? rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertlslnff accepted. 



n 



EESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



Last call to plant lily bulbs for Easter 

 flowering. 



Three months till Easter. It is on 

 April 4 this year. 



Get acquainted with your competitor — 

 you may like him. 



Now a little time to take breath until 

 St. Valentine's day. 



Optimism is the prevailing sentiment 

 concerning spring prospects. 



There's nothing so foolish as sending 

 out good stock insecurely packed. 



Demand, the trade is sure of; produc- 

 tion is the matter of most concern. 



Evert foot of extra bench space put 

 to use is so much added to spring profits. 



Cyclamen, the most popular Christ- 

 mas plant, was far short of the demand. 



It would take some time to compile all 

 the records that were broken in the holi- 

 day rush. 



The weather was with the florists this 

 Christmas, making the work of wrapping 

 considerably lighter. 



Users of the Pink Part reaped ample 

 return for the holidays; Christmas wire 

 orders were far beyond previous years. 



No complaint has been heard about 

 Christmas trade, even from the public in 

 regard to high prices. They are an old 

 story now. 



The present gives the greatest oppor- 

 tunity the trade has ever had to turn time 

 and effort into money. No worker is un- 

 rewarded these days. 



The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 

 railroad, which hauls most of the sphag- 

 num moss out of Wisconsin, lifted its em- 

 bargo December 24, but labor and other 

 conditions are such that it is feared moss 

 will come out slowly. 



Dissatisfaction with express service 

 appears in so many quarters that action 

 by shippers towards uniting in an at- 

 tempt to secure whatever remedy may be 

 obtained is growing weekly. Various per- 

 sons in the trade have expressed a desire 

 to obtain sufficient data that common 

 cause might be made in the matter by 

 florists. What's your experience? 



If any florist fails to get profitable 

 prices, the chances are nine out of ten it 

 18 because he does not ask for them. 



Antone who is afraid to ask a legiti- 

 mate profit upon his investment of time, 

 ability and capital is a business slacker. 



NEW HOLIDAY BEOOBD. 



No report has come from any city 

 that did not tell of Christmas sales 

 that surpassed all previous records. 

 Prices made the usual holiday ascent, 

 touching figures never before asked in 

 the history of the trade. Beauties at $2 

 and carnations at 30 cents each would 

 not have been dreamed of at a previous 

 Christmas. Yet they were asked and 

 paid this year. The prices, moreover, 

 did not hinder sales. In many cases 

 complaints were uttered by customers, 

 but they made their purchases just the 

 same and there is no indication that 

 their grumbling was stronger or more 

 bitter than it is when the same person 

 buys food or clothing on other days. 



Sales were limited, not by the pub- 

 lic's disposition to buy, but by the 

 amount of stock offered for sale. Many 

 stores closed before evening Wednes- 

 day, some at noon, with stock com- 

 pletely sold out. The usual lull, or break 

 in prices, which comes the day before 

 Christmas, when all orders seem to have 

 been filled, was only felt in a few places, 

 and then not severely. All that the 

 growers had produced was taken by the 

 retailers, who in turn were completely 

 relieved of it by the public. 



Purchasing was of a character never 

 before witnessed. Department stores 

 and luxury shops report unparalleled 

 sales. The public, having money in 

 abundance, spent it freely. No stint, no 

 restraint seemed to be exercised. From 

 the florist's point of view, ,as from 

 others', it was not only a Merry Christ- 

 mas, but a * ' Money Christmas ' ' as well. 

 From it retailers derive no hint but that 

 of a rich outlook ahead, so long as the 

 public's spending proclivities continue. 



FITBTHEB COAIj BOOST SEEN. 



The increase of fourteen per cent 

 in miners' wages has already been 

 passed on to florists in some places, 

 despite the fact that the government's 

 settlement was on the basis that the 

 extra wages should come out of the 

 operators' profits, not out of the con- 

 sumers' pockets. As the operators meet 

 this week to formulate their case for 

 presentation to the commission which 

 is to determine the ultimate wages to 

 be paid, they declare a further increase 

 in wages will be necessary, which must 

 be added to the retail price of the coal. 

 They state, also, that the fourteen per 

 cent, if paid by the operators without 

 an increase in price to consumer, would 

 wipe out the profits of all but the larg- 

 est operators and that to insure con- 

 tinued operation it must be added to the 

 consumer's bill. 



In the Senate committee's investiga- 

 tion of the coal situation the incom- 

 pleteness of the administration's settle- 

 ment of the strike is echoed in the words 

 of Senator Frelinghuysen, of New Jer- 

 sey, "The public may look for an in- 

 crease in the price of coal or another 

 strike," when he characterized the 

 proposition of Attorney-General Palmer 

 which the miners' accepted as "loaded 

 dice for the American public," 



What the award will be of the coal 



commission is not easily predicted, even 

 by fuel experts, for they declare too 

 great a rise cannot be made without 

 threatening the bituminous coal in- 

 dustry with the competition of anthra- 

 cite coal and fuel oil. Florists are 

 doubtless glad to hear that there is, 

 therefore, some limit besides the sky 

 in the ascent of soft coal prices under 

 the stimulus of miners' demands and 

 operators ' buck-passing. 



SEIZE THE OPPOBTUNITY. 



Use of the present favorable oppor- 

 tunity by both givers and users of credit 

 to establish themselves on a firm finan- 

 cial basis is advocated by the follow- 

 ing resolution of the convention of the 

 National Association of Credit Men: 



' * Commercial credits in the last three 

 years have held a favored position be- 

 cause of our increasing wealth and be- 

 cause business generally has been con- 

 ducted with profit, but prudence and 

 wisdom suggest the exercise of care in 

 the giving and asking of credits and 

 that the sound principles of credit 

 should not be neglected. We would im- 

 press upon credit grantors the need of 

 keeping their affairs liquid, of not spec- 

 ulating in credits, of exercising just as 

 large a discrimination and carefulness 

 in the selection of credit risks as when 

 conditions were not so favorable. We 

 urge that they insist upon the observ- 

 ance of credit terms; upon the impor- 

 tance of a quick turnover, of assets, 

 merchandise and receivables and thus 

 be in a safe position whatever emergen- 

 cies may happen. To the receivers of 

 credit we would offer the advice that 

 they buy carefully and as their reason- 

 able needs require; that they arrange 

 to meet terms of purchase punctilious- 

 ly, refrain from abuses of credit priv- 

 ileges; that they keep their affairs in 

 liquid shape and recognize the obliga- 

 tions of units in the commercial field to 

 build up a prosperous and safe com- 

 merce." 



FEW FAIIiUEBS. 



The slight call for the use of the 

 heading "Business Embarrassments" 

 in The Review is one trades indication 

 for the general business success 

 throughout the country. Bradstreet's 

 reports only seventy-seven failures in 

 the United States for last week, against 

 125 for the previous week and 100, 187, 

 260, 310 for the corresponding weeks of 

 1918 to 1915. The New England states 

 had five, middle twenty, western eigh- 

 teen, northwestern three, southern nine- 

 teen and far western twelve. Canada 

 had four, against twenty for the pre- 

 vious week. In the United States about 

 80.5 per cent of the total number of con- 

 cerns failing had $5,000 or less, and 12.9 

 per cent had from $5,000 to $20,000 

 capital. 



STOCK IS SCABCE. 



It makes little difference what is 

 offered, there are ready takers and no 

 indications of a decrease in the de- 

 mand. Like this: 



Please omit my ad until I fill the orders and 

 see if I have anything more to sell. — A. Walker, 

 Forestport, N. Y., December 23. 1919. 



We are all sold out through our ads in The 

 Review. — Walker Floral Co., Youngstown, O., 

 December 27, 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. 



