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The Florists^ Review 



KOTEMBEE 24, 1921 



ff 



PnblUhed every Tharsdar by 

 The Florists' Publishing Co., 



600-S60 Oaxtoa Building, 



606 South Dearborn St., Chicago. 



Tel., Wabash 819S. 



Retflstered cable addrew, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897. at the post-omce at Chl- 

 caffo. 111., under the Act of March 

 3. 1879. 



Subscription price, S2.00 a year. 

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



Adrertlslng rates quoted oa 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertlslng accepted. 



Kesults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Rainbow Number! Maybe you no- 

 ticed it. 



Business, it was lately said, is bad only 

 in spots, mostly in neglected spots. At- 

 tention to its needs will bring quicker 

 revival. 



Mail The Review a clipping of your 

 newspaper advertisement for Thanksgiv- 

 ing day. Also a copy of any circular or 

 folder you sent out. Thanks ! 



Window space in a flower store is too 

 valuable to the florist to permit display 

 of theater notices and other posters. 

 Leave them for the barber's window. 



Sunshine has become one of the most 

 popular of anemone-flowered chrysanthe- 

 mums grown to single stem. Anyone who 

 has stock plants will find quick buyers for 

 them. 



Expecting a good season for telegraph 

 orders and desirous of getting their share, 

 a number of retailers have inserted their 

 cards in the Pink Part of The Review this 

 month. Nine new ones appear this week. 



Perhaps it would be well to say here 

 that to be sure of getting things printed 

 in the same week's issue of The Review, 

 the material must be in the office by Mon- 

 day. Pricting usually begins Tuesday 

 morning, but sometimes Monday night. 



The "privilege of service," expressed 

 by President Harding in his proclamation 

 of Thanksgiving day as the object of all, 

 is particularly the florist's. In few lines 

 of business is the public willing to pay so 

 much for it as in ours. Let it be wortli 

 what we charge. 



Florists would be liandicappcd if the 

 special delivery privilege on parcel post 

 shipments were denied them. Write or 

 telegraph your congressman, ns William F. 

 Gude suggests on this page, to defeat the 

 bill authorizing the restriction of the spe- 

 cial delivery privilege. 



There seems small prospect of an 

 early reduction in express charges, either 

 on plants or cut flowers. The express 

 company officials assert that their operat- 

 ing costs have come down scarcely at all, 

 but there is a suspicion that, even were 

 their costs lower, the express ofiicials 

 would be reluct^int to reduce rates on the 

 shipments of this trade, because of the 

 special care required in the handling. 



Exaggeration is out of place in adver- 

 tising in this field. Unknowing persons 

 sometimes believe and are deceived; wise 

 ones are not reached by such facetious ap- 

 peal. 



An untidy store advertises a careless 

 florist. Once a day is not often enough to 

 sweep out the place if business is brisk 

 enough for litter to accumulate in visible 

 quantities. 



Prosperity is said to breed good feel- 

 ing and adversity the reverse. But it is 

 to be hoped that the spirit of coopera- 

 tion engendered in this trade when the 

 boom was on will not suffer even if busi- 

 ness falls off somewhat. 



Though there may cease to be horse 

 races, there will never be lack of dif- 

 ferences of opinion. But fewer differences 

 would arise in this trade if shippers of 

 young plants would only send out what 

 they would be satisfied to receive. 



The threatened railroad strike caused 

 heavy buying of coal by large consumers, 

 but the market has since settled down to 

 await the demand that will be occasioned 

 by resumption on a large scale of factory 

 operations. It is again a buyers ' market, 

 with prospect, dealers say, of staying that 

 way for a few weeks. 



Deflation, in progress for more than a 

 year, is accomplished in many lines of 

 manufactured products. Reserves and sur- 

 plus stocks are used up, and new sup- 

 plies must be provided shortly. Resump- 

 tion of activity in such lines is decreasing 

 unemployment and increasing purchasing 

 power. Though the rise may be slow, 

 signs indicate gradual betterment. 



LET'S ALL GET BUSY. 



November 15 the following bill was 

 introduced in the Congress of the United 

 States and reported favorably by the In- 

 terstate Commerce Commission: 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- 

 resentatives of the United States of America in 

 Congress assembled, That the Postmaster Gen- 

 ernl is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to 

 restrict tlie application of the special delivery 

 stump or e(iiilvalent stamps and the special serv- 

 Ige rendered in connection therewith to mail mat- 

 ter of the flrst class. 



This would either mean that the thou- 

 sands of people who receive packages 

 from florists daily, by special delivery 

 parcel post, would be denied the privi- 

 lege of the mail, or we should have to 

 get a special privilege. 



Don't you think it wise to have every 

 florist in the United States write his 

 congressman not to disturb the special 

 delivery business which the florists and 

 druggists now enjoy, to say nothing of 

 tlie other merchants in whom we are not 

 so much interested? 



William F. Gude, 

 Washington Representative, S. A. F. 



MORE MERCHANTS. 



When flowers were scarce and the de- 

 mand for them was large, the art of 

 making a few go a long way was well 

 repaid. It may be feared, however, that 

 florists who cultivated that art in times 

 of need are slow to abandon it when the 

 occasion is past and there .are plenty of 

 flowers to sell. Though art and service 

 are essential in the retail florists' busi- 

 ness, merchandising is not to be lost 

 sight of. The public wants flowers and 

 we should seek to sell them flowers, and 

 more flowers. Let art and service assist 

 to that end. 



Here and there are florists who show 

 what can be done in flower-merchandis- 



ing. When flowers are to be had in 

 large quantities, they buy extensively, 

 advertise strongly and not only move 

 many flowers, but also make some new 

 customers for themselves. The examples 

 are, however, all too rare. They show, 

 nevertheless, what can be done. The 

 public is not oversold on flowers. It has 

 not begun to buy them in the propor- 

 tions that they should be bought. Many, 

 many more will be sold when greater 

 effort is made to sell them. In the pres- 

 ent condition of our flower markets 

 there is opportunity for florists who will 

 make such effort. We need more mer- 

 chants among florists. 



GETTING BACK TO NORMAL. 



Too many business men, among them 

 florists, fail to adjust themselves to the 

 proper perspective in viewing the re- 

 adjustment through" which we are pass- 

 ing. The trouble is we are inclined to 

 measure our decrease in business against 

 the peak of activity in 1920. We seem 

 to lose sight of the fact that that was 

 just as abnormal as the present situation 

 is subnormal. The public speeded up to 

 a period of extravagant buying and be- 

 cause it had to slow down again we do 

 not like it. 



What is meant by getting back to nor- 

 mal? The question has been answered 

 in a loose sort of way by the declaration 

 that we ought to get back to a 1914 

 basis. We cannot swing the world back 

 on its axis and make it unwind itself to 

 the extent of aeven times 365 revolutions. 

 Getting back to normal means readjust- 

 ing ourselves as far as possible to what 

 would have been the 1921 basis of 

 human progress. We have every right to 

 assume that it would have continued 

 progressively along the lines it had al- 

 ready started. In the period following 

 the signing of the armistice there was 

 what was regarded as a period of wild 

 extravagance. The industrial com- 

 munity in particular has moved up a 

 step — several steps, in fact — and desires 

 to hold what it has got. These higher 

 standards of living are an asset to the 

 community and to florists in particular, 

 and even though we may have to pay 

 somewhat higher wage scales than in 

 1914, not, of course, on the inflated basis 

 of 1919, it will represent an increase in 

 purchasing power which will react to the 

 benefit of ourselves and all industry. 



While we are readjusting ourselves 

 from the abnormal to the normal, pre- 

 paratory to benefiting by the progress 

 made meanwhile, let us view the re- 

 actions taking place in their proper 

 proportion. This country can and will 

 buy as many flowers as it ever bought 

 before when its purchasing power is re- 

 stored. 



WHAT HAVE YOU TO OFFER? 



Nearly all the men with greenhouses 

 could produce a little more than they do 

 and make just that much more money by 

 letting the trade know wliat they have 

 for sale. No need whatever to be lim- 

 ited to a local market. Like this: 



Please discontinue ad of Asparas'is elongatiis: 

 plants all sold. We liave had some qiiick results 

 from Review ads, but this beats the record. — F. 

 W. Fletcher, Orlando, Fla., November 12, 1921. 



We pertainl.v have had pood results from our 

 nds. — C. L. Tipton, Mgr., Tipton Nursery, Little 

 Bock, Ark., November 15, 1921. 



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. 



