34 



The Florists' Review 



KOTBMBEB 18, 1920 



Established 1897^' 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Florists' Publishing Co., 



600-560 Oaxton Building, 



SOS South Dearborn St., Obicago. 



Tel., Wabash 8196. 



Keiiriotered cable address, 



Fiorvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897. at tlie post-ortice at Chi- 

 cago, Hi., under the Act of March 

 3.1879. 



Subscription price, 12.00 a year. 

 To Canada, $3.00; to Europe. $4.00. 



Adrertislntr rates quoted on 

 roqiieHt. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertislng accepted. 



KESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



The first fall of snow tightened coal 

 prices somewhat, but there are indica- 

 tions that they will be lower. 



A TIMK has come in which we need no 

 longer put up with what we can get. 

 Once more he who pays may pick and 

 choose. 



Banks arc increasing pressure on 

 customers who have not reduced loans. 

 Florists should do the same with all who 

 have not paid. 



What are you doing to boost Thanksgiv- 

 ing day sales? Send clippings of your 

 advertisements or photographs of your 

 window display to The Ecview, telling us 

 about it. 



To close down glass now is refusing 

 the opportunity to make money three or 

 four months hence. Neither the high 

 cost of coal nor the business situation 

 warrants it. 



In order that The Review may reach 

 its readers at the usual time, the forms of 

 the issue of November 25, Thanksgiving 

 day, will close one day earlier than usual. 

 Contributors and advertisers should send 

 their material to reach this office not 

 later than November 20. 



Though prices in other lines continue 

 to fall, florists need not and should not 

 ask less for what they sell. So far were 

 florists from profiteering during the war 

 that they did not, as a rule, charge as 

 much <as they should, even when prices 

 were highest. Though raw materials 

 and labor are lower in other lin^Si^j^-OW" 

 ers do not cost less to grow, and the nbrist 

 who lowers prices does so at his own 

 expense. 



Sometimes one hears complaint that a 

 florist does not receive so many telegraph 

 delivery orders as he thinks he should, but 

 usually it develops that the number of 

 orders received is at least as great as the 

 number sent out. There is just one way to 

 build up a good volume of incoming trans- 

 fer orders; it is to work up among one's 

 customers a good volume of these orders to 

 send out. Every order sent out sooner or 

 later results in one coming back. Qet some 

 orders to transfer to florists in other cities 

 and there soon will be orders coming back, 

 a fair exchange all around. 



The flower business in the country 

 towns has been affected scarcely at all 

 by the deflation process now, we hope, 

 approaching completion. 



The growers who produce the best 

 stock were the least backward about pay- 

 ing a high price for their coal. Practi- 

 cally all have a full supply or plans for 

 obtaining it. 



As employment becomes less in other 

 fields, former workers are returning to 

 the greenhouses. It would be a mistake, 

 however, to lower wages on that account. 

 Let us build up our working forces now 

 that we have the chance. 



In the last six to twelve months there 

 have been enormous losses on stocks of 

 sugar, t^a, coffee, leather, wool, silk, seeds, 

 to mention only a conspicuous few. 

 Florists have been fortunate; nothing of 

 that kind has occurred or can occur in our 

 field. 



Long ago a popular philosopher re- 

 marked that if a man made a better mouse- 

 trap than any other, even tliough he made 

 his home in tlie woods, the world would 

 beat a path to his door. That was before 

 the days of modern selling methods and 

 national advertising; today the man would 

 move out of the woods, blazon the merits 

 of his mousetrap and make a fortune 

 large enough to build a concrete auto- 

 mobile road to his country residence in 

 the woods instead of letting the public 

 beat a mere path with their feet. 



COREESPONDENTS WANTED. 



If your city is not represented in the 

 news columns of The Review and you 

 would like to put it. on the map, write 

 the editor of The Review. Members of 

 the trade who are in contact with the 

 florists of their city will find the sending 

 of a weekly news letter a pleasant and 

 not diflScult undertaking. There are 

 openings in the following cities particu- 

 larly: 



St. Pjinl. Minn. 

 rx>nisviIlo. Kv. 

 Toledo, O. 

 Memphis, Tonn. 



The ability to gather news is of more 

 importance than dexterity with a pen. 



Dplroit, Jlioh. 

 linffnlo, N. y. 

 Omaha, Neb. 

 Minneapolis. Minn. 



A LITTLE IN FRONT OF THE NEXT. 



And thoy nskoil nio how I did it, 



And I g.Tve them the Scripture text: 

 "You Icopp your iicht so shining 



A little in front of the next." 

 They ropiiMl .ill thoy ronid follow. 



But they couldn't copy my mind: 

 .\n(l I left them, swontinp and steallnp, 



A year and a half behind. — Kipling. 



Isn't that a great bit of ver.se? Good 

 thing for a fellow to think about and 

 even to recite aloud if he can back it up 

 with results. 



"Keeping a little in front of the 

 next" is more than beating your com- 

 petitors in business. Simply to take busi- 

 ness away from your neighbors by price 

 cutting is destructive, but effort to keep 

 ahead of them in the creation of new 

 ideas in flower arrangement, display and 

 selling tends to speed up and improve 

 your service and that of all those in the 

 trade who see your progress. 



tiir '■ 



COAL MEN NOTE IMPROVEMENT. 



Continued improvement in the soft 

 coal situation was noted in a review 

 of the industry issued at the beginning 

 of this week by the National Coal Asso- 

 ciation, in terms that give comfort for 

 those growers seeking further fuel sup- 

 plies. The association said it had no 

 reports of any "immediate shortage" 

 from any section of the country. 



"Great manufacturing plants in^dire 

 need of soft coal early in the fall now 

 have an ample supply on hand," the 

 review asserted. "Public utilities 

 everywhere have had their immediate 

 wants filled, while many of them have 

 been -able to provide stocks for the 

 winter." 



Decreased prices have resulted as a 

 natural consequence of the improved 

 situation, the review declared, adding 

 that in many places the decline had 

 been "from twenty-five to fifty per 

 cent below prices which prevailed up to 

 six weeks ago." 



The government geological survey's 

 weekly report estimated bituminous pro- 

 duction during the week ending No- 

 vember 6 to have been only 11,500,000 

 tons, due largely to loss of time on 

 election day and on religious holidays 

 in the coal fields. 



HAVE YOU HEARD OF IT? 



"This is a new one to us," writes 

 W. E. Kemblc, from Oskaloosa, la. "We 

 wonder if you have ever heard of it 

 before, or if other florists know of any- 

 thing like it and what they think about 

 it. We have our own opinion, but should 

 like to know what others think." 



Being in the same situation and of 

 the same mind as Mr. Kemble, The 

 Review prints the clipping from an Oska- 

 loosa paper which explains the novelty 

 that caused his wonderings: 



Leo and Art Baldauf, nephews of the late 

 Aaron Bosenhlatt, also W. S. Oberfelder, a rela- 

 tive of the family, have instituted a Memorial 

 Flower Fund in Oskaloosa by a money contri- 

 bution to the local Social Service League and 

 by their suBgestions the Social Service Board 

 has established "The Memorial Flower Fund" 

 and is following up the ideas of older organiza- 

 tions in the manner of handling this fund. 



In the case of the deatli of a friend you ma.v 

 give this lasting tribute by notifying the Social 

 Service League that you wish to contribute a 

 definite amount to the Memorial Flower Fund in 

 memory of .your friend. The secretary then In- 

 forms the immediate family that in memory of 

 the departed one a contribution to the Memorial 

 Flower Fund has been made by the above In- 

 dividual and that the name of the loved one thus 

 remembered will be included in the Memorial 

 Flower Fund list in tlie next report of the Social 

 Service League. 



This fund, of course, is used for the relief of 

 the ill and the poor, and tiie sentiment conve.ved 

 in furnisliing flowers for such occasions is carried 

 out in the desirable manner descril)ed above. 



In the near future the Social Service League 

 win have the necessary printed blanks, includ- 

 ing letter that will be sent by secretary to the 

 immediate family, and will be very glad to have 

 these on display for information and approval. 



POINTING A MORAL. 



Anyone can print a newspaper — as 

 long as his money holds out — but it is 

 quite another matter to get that news- 

 paper read. One can even get people 

 to subscribe to a publication without 

 reading it — you can lead a horse to 

 water, but you mav not make him drink. 

 That is the" test: 



I consider every issue of The Review worth 

 the subscription price for a year and never get 

 too busy to read it every week. — Darwin Z. Cur- 

 tiss, dealer in Bulbs, Plants, Seeds, Ypsllanti, 

 Mich., November 8, 1920. 



The advertising manager of the paper 



that is read has the softest snap on earth 



— results bring advertising faster than 



anything else ever will: 



Continue the same Display ad to Deceml)er; it 

 is doing good work. — M. D. Preston, Highland 

 View Gladiolus Gardens, Cuyahoga Falls, C, 

 November 8, 1920. 



Please discontinue my Classified ad and hold 

 balance to my credit till some future time; sold 

 out. — Mumma's Greenhouses, Leesburg 0., No- 

 vember 4, 1920. 



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. 



