November 3, 1921 



The Rorists* Review 



19 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 



IT SEEMS but a few weeks since we 

 were together at our last convention, 

 in Memphis last year. At that time 

 we were rejoicing over the business of 

 the preceding year; and it was great. 

 We had not yet begun to feel the busi- 

 ness decline, which has since brought us 

 face to face with a year of strenuous 

 merchandising and careful management. 

 I believe I can truly say that we have 

 all sweated blood and worn our fingers 

 almost to the quick in carrying on busi- 

 ness and coming through the year. 



Now, also, is a fitting time for great 

 rejoicing, for business is again on the 

 up-turn, and I am sure you will enjoy a 

 brisk business through the coming sea- 

 son and sincerely believe that before we 

 assemble again business will have re- 

 turned to normal, with another great 

 business and industrial expansion well 

 on its way to keep us busy. 



Good Business Ahead. 



I believe good business lies ahead. 

 For unless America's greatest business 

 men, manufacturers and merchants have 

 lost their keen insight, and their great 

 foresight, we shall soon again experi- 

 ence better business times. However, 

 the times just past make it important 

 that we now learn carefully of those 

 things which have caused lis loss and 

 nights of worry during the past year. 

 A free interchange of our experiences 

 concerning what we 

 have done and how 

 we have done it, to 

 make business pay, 

 will help to make 

 this convention 

 profitable to each 

 one of us. Let us 

 do this while the 

 lesson is still fresh 

 in our minds. Our 

 eighth annual con- 

 vention affords us 

 an all-favorable op- 

 portunity to crys- 

 tallize these success- 

 ful experiences to 

 our future and last- 

 ing good. 



We in Tennessee 

 have had a hoalthv 

 growth in the last 

 three years. Even 

 so, we are still in 

 the A B C's of 

 flower culture and 

 flower merchandis- 

 ing and the whole 

 florists' business is 

 but in its infancy in 

 the south. 



Tennessee grow- 

 ers have constructed 

 huge ranges in the 

 last twentv-four 

 months. Tennessee 

 retailers have built 

 magnificent modern 

 stores during the 

 last twenty-four 

 months. They may 

 look tremendously 

 large and bare at 

 present, but soon 



The address of W. H. Englelmrt. of Memphis, 

 Tenn., us president of the Tennessee .State Fld- 

 rists' Association, delivered at tlie annual meet- 

 ing, at Cliattanooga, November 1. 



they will prove too small and inade- 

 quate. I have read that one big steel 

 company is spending $10,000,000 in new 

 buildings, while their present factories 

 are only about one-third in use. That 

 company realizes that in another year 

 those plants may be two-thirds too small 

 and are keeping their unemployed at 

 work by this construction. 



Prepare for Expansion 



We can, perhaps, well apply this les- 

 son of employment to profit and benefit 

 in our own individual business. For 

 business is coming back, and the prob- 

 lem of the unemployed may be no prob- 

 lem at all if the florists' industry takes 

 care of its workers and every other in- 

 dustry does likewise, and I truly believe 

 we have been doing this for some time. 

 Now is a good time to build, remodel 

 and expand with your unemployed. It 

 costs so little and I can give you some 

 points in person on it if you wish. 

 Those who have had the foresight to 

 build and expand are sure to profit and 

 are to be commended for their wisdom. 

 For in flower growing today Tennessee 

 uses nine times what she grows, and it 

 will be some years before that ratio will 

 change much. The awakening of new 



William H. Englchart. 



customers who are coming to "Say It 

 with Flowers," will make us step fast 

 to keep pace with the resulting growth 

 in sales. Prepare for bigger business by 

 using the unemployed. 



The Tennessee florists' business is 

 still in its infancy and with more cus- 

 tomers, a bigger market, more glass and 

 a finer quality of merchandise being 

 grown here as well as shipped here, 

 there is every reason to assume that by 

 proper attention to management, good 

 merchandising and advertising and 

 fuller experience in growing, Tennessee 

 will show a phenomenal step forward in 

 the florists' business from now on. 



Association's Advance. 



We have more reasons to rejoice. 

 While we have been experiencing this 

 so-called air pocket in business, which 

 has not been confined to the south or to 

 Tennessee, but has affected the whole 

 nation, our Tennessee State Florists ' 

 Association has pushed its way to the 

 forefront among all the states in one of 

 the most inspiring sweeps of enthusiasm 

 and growth in membership that your 

 imagination can picture. One year "ago, 

 after six years of faithful, tireless effort 

 and determination, the total member- 

 ship of our association reached the cen- 

 tury mark. 



Last year, due to the great work of 

 my predecessor, A. J. McNutt, Tennes- 

 see was the only 

 state in the entire 

 south to be repre- 

 sented on the board 

 of directors of the 

 S. A. F., and the 

 only southern state 

 with a delegate to 

 the meeting, aud I 

 have you all to 

 thank for that 

 bono r. Tennessee 

 led the way, I am 

 proud to say, and 

 since then several 

 other southern 

 states have suc- 

 ceeded in gaining 

 representation. More 

 than this, our vol- 

 unteer state nlso 

 furnished a director 

 of the F. T. D., as 

 well as a director of 

 the S. A. F. Today 

 we boast an even 

 100 per cent in- 

 crease in member- 

 ship in one year, 

 numbering proudly 

 florists in Arkansas, 

 Alabama, Missis- 

 sippi and those in 

 kindred businesses 

 from New York to 

 Florida. This good 

 work must go on 

 until we number 

 every possible flo 

 rist in Tennessee 

 and our territory. 

 The time will soon 

 come when strength 

 of membershi]) will 

 tContlnueil on page 7."i ) 



