March 25, 1920 



The Florists^ Review 



29 



PUSmNG THE SLOQAK. 



Is Educating tlie Public. 



That local cooperative advertising in 

 conjunction with the national adver- 

 tising campaign is fast becoming a fact 

 !S demonstrated by the recent activities 

 of Sti Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Buf- 

 falo and Baltimore. Cincinnati has a 

 regular organized campaign in which 

 )nost of the growers and retailers are 

 banded together. By the percentage 

 plan — that is, the growers pledging one- 

 half of one per cent on all the stock 

 they sell and the retailer one per cent 

 on his purchases — a total of one and 

 one-half per cent is obtained on all 

 stock that is sold to the local 

 market. This is the most equitable way 

 to collect for this worthy cause, as every 

 one is assessed according to the amount 

 of business he transacts. 



I do not understand how anyone 

 could fail to join in such a plan when it 

 is for the good of the entire trade, but, 

 of course, there are in every city men 

 who will find some fault with such a 

 plan. My advice to the florists in such 

 a city would be to go ahead without 

 them; they will be marked men in a 

 short time and will be only too glad to 

 get in. There is no doubt that the best 

 business men in the cities referred to 

 above are linked up with the scheme. 

 Get your campaign under way and in 

 a short time you will have no trouble 

 in getting 100 per cent of those who will 

 be benefited by your campaign. 



Dreams Bealized. 



Let us look for a moment at what 

 local advertising means. It is not the 

 business you already have in your par- 

 ticular locality that you should be so 

 much interested in, as in the business 

 which you have not. This country has 

 a population of something like 100,000,- 

 000. Of this number it is safe to say 

 that not over ten to fifteen per cent 

 are flower buyers, or in any way 

 interested in flowers. If this small per- 

 centage could be augmented to fifty per 

 cent, can you not see how the business 

 in flowers all over the country would be 

 increased? This would mean that busi- 

 ness would be from thirty-five to forty 

 per cent greater than it is today. Some 

 people will say that this is the asser- 

 tion of a dreamer. To those I would re- 

 ply that not over twenty-five years ago, 

 when wc saw the first automobiles, many 

 of us looked upon them as the dream of 

 some fanatics, which would never be 

 realized. Today they are not a dream, 

 but to the pedestrian in our crowded 

 streets they are more of a nightmare. 

 Let any man who has been successful 

 in the florists' business look back over 

 his career 'and see if it has not been 

 more or less of a dream come true. 



The advertising of flowers is any- 

 thing but a dream. It is not a theory; 

 it is conveying to the public a confidence 

 in that which you grow. Advertising is 

 not a game of chance, because you get 

 out of it just in proportion to what you 

 put in it. The best advertising agencies 

 will tell you that if you have the right 

 product there is no question about suc- 



cess. Has anyone who reads this ar- 

 ticle ever heard of the florists' product 

 being questioned? I want to call your 

 attention to one of the lowliest articles 

 In existence at one time, the groundnut. 

 Many times we have paid our nickel for 

 a quart of this nut in the gallery of some 

 theater or at the circus. Did any of 

 us ever expect to see it as it is today, 

 served on banquet tables, in the best 

 confectioners' shops, put up in glass 

 jars and made into peanut butter? I 

 can remember the time when they were 

 fed to the hogs. This is a victory for 

 advertising. 



New Uses for Flowers. 



We are advertising the slogan, "Say 

 It with Flowers." Did we ever stop 

 to think that the public is often uncon- 

 siously "Saying It with Flowers"? 

 For instance, there is in Harrisburg, Pa., 

 an office building, ten stories high and 

 covering about half of a city block. 

 Every window in this immense building 

 has a window box. One of the things 

 the national committee is endeavoring 

 to do is to create new uses for flowers; 

 surely here is at least a prospect. Is it 

 too much to imagine that the time will 

 come when architects will provide 

 window boxes for the great office build- 

 ings they plan and let the tenants pro- 

 vide the plants? Think of what an edu- 

 cation this would be to the public alone. 

 We have merely scratched the surface 



as to the ways that flowers can be used. 



I went into a lunch room recently in 

 one of the busiest commercial districts 

 of a large city at a time when flowers 

 were extremely scarce. It was opening 

 day and there were baskets, horseshoes 

 and bunches of flowers in every nook 

 and corner. As I looked at this sight, 

 I could not but feel that the proprietor 

 realized the advantage of ' ' Say It 

 with Flowers." 



The florists have the product. Edu- 

 cate the public and organize every city 

 and town in the country, not to adver- 

 tise any individual, but to push the 

 slogan, "Say It with Flowers." Ee- 

 member how small one-half or one per 

 cent of your receipts is for this pur- 

 pose and, at the same time, stand by 

 the national committee. There will 

 then be no danger of the future of the 

 florists' business. Tate. 



SHBINEBS GOING WEST. 



If y,ou are going west next June to 

 attend the greatest of all Imperial 

 Council sessions, or, in other words, if 

 you are going to attend the convention 

 of the A. O. N. M. S. at Portland, Ore., 

 in June, 1920, the Portland Floral So- 

 ciety wants you to register with James 

 Forbes, 354 Washington street, state 

 vice-president of the S. A. F., as soon 

 as convenient, and the society will do 

 the rest. 



The city will be taxed to its utmost 

 capacity to care for the "caravans," 

 but the florists intend to see, that visit- 

 ing tradesmen are taken care of and 

 properly conducted to the greatest and 

 most flourishing spots in the oasis of 

 Portland. And it will be some oasis! 

 F. A. Van Kirk, Sec 'y, 

 Portland Floral Society. 



<^ OVER THE PEAK -^ 



if?wrirsvir?wrrsvirirsvir)rsvirir8>rtr>svir?s\iti«tir)«vih^ 



HIGH PRICES PASSING. 



Financial Critic's View. 



Indicating to florists the trend of 

 general business conditions that will 

 duly affect the trade, the conclusions of 

 one surveying the nation's activities in 

 a critical way are of importance, inas- 

 much as they tell of a point reached 

 that all have been watching for. The 

 following is written by the financial 

 editor of the Chicago Tribune, the 

 largest newspaper in the middle west: 



"The corrective influence of higher 

 interest rates, which first asserted itself 

 in the stock market a few months ago 

 when liquidation began and a lower 

 trend of prices followed, may now be 

 distinctly recorded as having reached 

 mercantile activity. There is a definite 

 slowing up. The riotous giving of 

 (.rders, without regard to prices or other 

 limitations upon manufacturers, has 

 halted, a condition that will soon be set 

 forth in formal trade reports. It may 

 now be asserted with reasonable ac- 

 curacy that the peak of high prices in 

 mercantile lines has been about reached 

 and that recession is on the way. 



"It is the experience at the banks 

 that merchant borrowers have become 

 uncertain over the outlook, are seeking 

 counsel as to the prudent course to fol- 



low, and are being told that new condi- 

 tions in the foreign trade situation must 

 be recognized, that to try to continue 

 business on the inflated war basis will 

 not only prove expensive in interest 

 rates during enforced prolongation, but 

 ultimate losses must follow. 



Situation Has Cbanged. 



"As late as six weeks ago the average 

 mercantile borrower was not looking for 

 ndvice; he felt confident of his position 

 because anything placed on his counters 

 met a ready sale. Within the last thirty 

 days this has changed. 



"The caution in the matter of new 

 buying being exercised by retailers is 

 felt by manufacturers in reduced or- 

 ders and a discontinuance of the policy 

 of what may be designated as open or- 

 ders. Until a short time ago the retail 

 merchant was obliged to buy, not at 

 current (juotations, but at such quota- 

 tions as might obtain at the time of de- 

 livery of the goods, three or six months 

 forward. That policy on the part of 

 manufacturers was dictated by the era 

 of advancing prices. He proposed to be 

 able to profit by the higher price that 

 might be expected to have been at- 

 tained by the time the goods were ready 

 for the buyer. 



"But now the manufacturer cannot 

 secure such orders. He must accept to- 



