20 



The Florists^ Review 



Sbptbubbr 16, 1920 



;!!AS^^lX»yX!^j:^S/j!.v?>'J[AS^Jlvt/JL^S/^ 



»s THAT $10,000 LOAN <*«? 



WARNS AOAINST S. A. F. LOAN. 



W. N. Rudd Writes Officers. 



Finding tiio action of the S. A. Y. 

 ;it Cleveland, authorizing the loan of 

 .$10,000 from the permanent fiiiul to 

 the general fund, reason for coneeru 

 regarding the Hoeiety's welfare, W. >«'. 

 Rudd, pjiHt |)resi(lent of the S. A. F., 

 has written the officers of the society 

 a letter of admonition. This, tojjether 

 with an explanatory reply from 8ecre 

 tary John Young, was last week ])laeed 

 in the hands of each member of the 

 board of directors of the S. A. F., in 

 order that full ccmsideration may be 

 given this phase of the society's affairs 

 before their next meeting in Washing- 

 ton. 



Under date of .September W, Mr. 

 Rudd addrosse^l, froni Morgan Park, 

 111., the following h-tter to President 

 A. L. Miller, Treasurer J. .1. Hess and 

 Secretary John Young: 



The writer firmly believes that the witlidniwal 

 of the sum of $10,000 from the penniiiieuf fund 

 of thiH HRRoeiatiOB on ii mere resolution, intro- 

 duced without previouB notice and passed witlioiit 

 the knowledge af a larKC number of tlie nieni 

 bers present at the late convention and of all 

 the members who were not present, Is not only 

 highly improper but is illegal, and will subject 

 the officers withdrawing and expendinj; the money, 

 under the 8atd resolution, to personal Iej;al r<' 

 spouslbllity. I, therefore, suKgest to the pn-sl 

 dent and the secretary the advisability of not is 

 suing warrants for this withdrawal and to tlie 

 treasurer the advisability of refusing payment for 

 an.T warrant so issued. 



It has appeared to tlie writer tliat tlien- li.-is 

 been of late aa orgy of expenditures of the so- 

 ciety's funds, although, as he lias not been in a 

 position to make careful examination of the de- 

 tails of the expenditures, this may l)e a mistaken 

 impression. 



If thia Bdoney, ar any part of it, has been with 

 drawn, I trust that you and tlie other directors 

 will see the necessity of getting it tiack into the 

 tn-asury where it bi-longs. und ijcttiii!: it bnck 

 <ini('b. 



Secretary Young's Reply. 



In i-osponse to Mr. Rudd's cominuni 

 cation Mr. Young wrote as follows: 



This will acka«wledgc receipt of your circiiliu- 

 letter under date at September 3, which was sent 

 to Mr. A. L. Miller, president: Mr. .T. J. Hess, 

 treasurer, and ■yself, as the secretary of the 

 society. 



The contents of this communication hav<- been 

 duly noted and a copy of same will be .sent !■> 

 each member of the board of directors. 



The writer wishes to tnk(> this opportunity to 

 say that he, n.s secretary, has not issued any 

 warrants for the withdrawal of any amount or 

 .'imounts from the permanent fund and under no 

 i-ircumstanc«« would he prepart" such vouclitT 

 without the proper authority. I am satisfied tliat 

 the directors and other officers of the so<'iet.\ 

 will give the mutter cart-ful consideration ln-fon- 

 ■loing anything of the kind. 



At the recent convention an amendment was 

 unanimously vote<i to our constitution and by- 

 laws: "That the finance and .iiidit rommitto- 

 should have tlwr im)w<t to maki- tfiiiiwir.iry loans 

 for the society or any of its duly dn ted i-om 

 mittee« and shall have charge of tlie iiivestnuiit 

 of all funds of the society subject to the api)n>\Ml 

 of the executive board." Every memlwr of IIh' 

 ■iO<"iety received due and legal notice that this 

 proposed amendment would lie offered and voted 

 ii|)on at the convention. 



.V motioa was made at the convention (and to 

 which you no do«bt refer), by .\dolphus <!udc. ;is 

 follows: 



"I would move, if I am in order, that the 

 proper authorities be permitted or be authoriz<'d 

 to borrow money from the permanent fund, $10.- 

 000, and place It to the general fund, and replace 

 it when they (cet the money." 



The motion wan seconded by Z. D. Rlackistonc 

 and was carried by a unanimous vote of the con- 

 vention, 



I mention this for your information. Kegani 

 ing the Increase of the expenditures of the w 

 (•lety's fimdfl to which you refer, I would say 

 that yonr opinion is shared in and was shared in 

 by the mentbers of the executive boanl in ses 

 Hion at Wlelr mcvt1«Hr hebl in Cleveland Inst .Tan 



uary. This matter was <'arefully looked into 

 and a committee was apiNjinted to audit these ex- 

 penditures and recommended that an audit and 

 finance committee be appointed. Hereafter no 

 bills incurred for the work of the society will be 

 paid unless approved by the chairman of this 

 .•ludit and finance committee, as well as the sec- 

 retary and president of the organization. 



It was mainly on account of these heavy ex 

 penditures that the Ijoard of directors decided 

 to accept advertising in the columns of Ww 

 .lonrnal of the society. 



[ believe that the twenty-six members of this 

 board have the best interests of the society at 

 heart and contemplate doing nothing with any 

 of the funds of the society that they believe 

 would not meet with the approval of the rank 

 :iiid flie of the organization. ..' .,<-'. 



A Matter of Record. 



In this connection it is interesting 

 to note how great was the uncertainty 

 on the ])art of most of those present 

 at thti Wednesday morning session of 

 the Cleveland convention, August 18, 

 ill regard to what actually happened. 

 (Comparison of the rejMirts given to 

 readers in the trade i)apers illustrates 

 this notably. 



One i»a])er's convention report, for 

 example, made no iiu-ntion of this int- 

 port;int subject at all, stating only that 

 "the niiitter of financing the S. A. F. 

 publicity campaign was then taken u]) 



and freely discussed, but postponeil fur 

 further action." 



Another i)aper stated in its issue of 

 convention week: "Adolph Gude 

 moved that $10,000 be borrowed from 

 the permanent fund and repaid when 

 the publicity committee is able to do 

 so. On motion of George Asmus the 

 discussion was tabled until a later 

 session, when the report of the finance 

 committee will be presented." In its 

 following issue, after it had opportu- 

 nity to study the official stenographer's 

 record of the meeting, the same paper 

 printed the following paragraph: 



We desire to corri>ct an error in last week's 

 issue that the motion to authorize the proper 

 authorities to borrow $10,000 from the permanent 

 fund and place it to the credit of the general 

 fund, for the temporary nse of the publicity com- 

 mittee, to be reidaced when the general fund 

 warranted it, was laid on the table for future- 

 action, when in point of fact It was passed at 

 the Wednesday morning session. 



Of all the trade i)apers Th«; Review 



was the only one which told its readers 



just what happenetl at this session in 



the issue that came out convention. 



week. In the August 19 issue, which 



.appeared the day after the convention 



session in question, the report of the 



Cleveland meeting carried, under the 



subhead, "Draft on Permanent Fund," 



the following paragraph: 



After much frank discussion of the publicit.v 

 campaign and the result to the aociety's finances 

 from the appropriations made to It, it was de- 

 cided to empower the proper officers to effect a 

 loan of $10,000 from the permaaent fund to the 

 general fund, to be returned "when circumstances 

 allowed." 



MADE IN TENNESSEE. 



Baum's Bulb Display. 



Probably the most interesting fea- 

 ture of the s«>asoii iu Knoxville, Tenn., 

 from the florists' view was Raum's bulb 

 displ.'iy, in ;i window of the Board of 

 Commerce building. The board has 

 been featuring home-made and home- 

 grown products in its show w^indow for 

 some time, endeavoring to illustrate 

 what can be accomy)lished in eastern 

 Tennessee and showing the wonderful 

 opportunity for advancement along va- 

 rious lines. 



After learning of Baum's bulb enter- 

 jirise the officials of the board were 

 anxious to feature a window of the 

 different .sijccies and varieties as soon 

 as the bulbs could be dug. The dis- 

 play was arranged September 6 and re- 

 mained on exhibition for two weeks. It 

 I'oiisisted of the matured bulbs neatly 

 .irr.iiij^ed on p.iper plates, one plate of 

 c;ich \ariety. forming a border around 

 till' edge of the window. The center 

 and hackgroiiud were made up of the 

 growing bulbs just as they came from 

 the field, and each article was labele<l 

 according to .species and variety, for the 

 l)enefit of the ]>ul)lic. Following is a 

 list of the bulbs on display: Lilium 

 speciosum, Lilium rubrum, Lilium 

 roseum, Lilium tigrinuni, Lilium gigan- 

 teum, Lilium candidum, narcissi, tube- 

 roses, hyacinths, tulips and the follow- 

 ing varieties of gladiolus: Europa, 

 .Vmerica, Niagara, Halley, Willy Wig 

 man. Master Wietze, Hohenstaufen, 

 Blue .lay, Golden West, Yellow Ham- 



mer, Carmine, Brilliant, Lily Leh- 

 in.'in, Princejis, I'ink Perfection, Au- 

 gusta, Schwaben, Klondyke, Mrs. 

 Frank Pendleton, Peace, Glory of Hoi- 

 land and, finest of all, the new variety, 

 Wilhelmina (Jude. Many more varie- 

 ties might lijive been displayed had it 

 been later in the season. The lily 

 bulbs were of excellent quality and 

 ranged in size from small bulblets to 

 bulbs four and one-half inches in di- 

 .imeter. (iladiolus corms ran front 

 tiny har<l cormlets to bulbs thre<> inches 

 in diameter. 



Attracted Much Interest. 



The window .attracted much atten- 

 tion and many people manifested their 

 iuterest liy asking questions regarding 

 the disi)lay and expressing their desire 

 to purchase bulbs when ready. One of 

 the leading daily papers thought 

 enough of the exhibit to give it a 1- 

 I'olumn write-up on a prominent pjige 

 in the issue of September 6. 



It is not the display itself that makes 

 the feature unique, but rather the fact 

 that an outside and disinterested agent 

 should manifest such a keen interest 

 and of its own accord advertise the 

 flower business in general to the people 

 of Knoxville and eastern Tennessee 

 free of charge. The value of such pub- 

 licity cannot be estimated. It not only 

 suggests flowers to the minds of the 

 people, but it tends to put the florists'' 

 business alongside of other progressive 

 enterprises, where it belongs, and is 

 another way of impressing the natinnjil 

 slogan, "Sav It with Ptowers." 



R. "R. M. 



