AooDST 20, 1908. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



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THE NIAGARA FALLS 



CONVENTION 



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TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 

 ^ SOQETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS 



THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD AT CINONNATL 



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OFHCERS FOR 1909: 



President, J. A. VALENTINE, Denver, Colo. 



Vice-prerident, E. G. GILLET'f', Cincinnati, Ohio. 



Secretary, WILLIS N. RUDD, Morgan Park. Ifl. 



Treasta-er, H. B. BEATTY, Oil Qty, Pa. 



The twenty-fourth annual convention, 

 which opened at Niagara Falls, N. Y., 

 on Tuesday, August 18, proved as great 

 a success as had been expected by the 

 most enthusiastic, save that the facilities 

 did not come up to the promises of Mr. 

 Cutler, the eloquent gentleman who, at 

 Dayton and Philadelphia, told us so 

 convincingly of the pleasures and profit 

 to be derived from a convention at the 

 Falls. 



But the fact that the accommodations 

 were inadequate was no fault of the 

 hospitable gentlemen who backed up 

 Mr. Cutler's promises with the utmost 

 that they had. The Cataract-Interna- 

 tional Hotel Co. gave up the entire first 

 floor of the Cataract House to the pur- 

 poses of the convention. They permit- 

 ted C. H. Keitsch, superintendent of the 

 trades ' display, to take possession of 

 parlors, ball-room, dining-room and ev- 

 ery available space he could find and do 

 >vith it as he would. They permitted 

 without protest the roughest treatment 

 of carpe^ and woodwork, such as is in- 

 cide«tal to installing a great trades' dis- 

 play^ they never winked an eye when 

 thousands of feet of lumber were 

 dragged into their parlors for staging, 

 and they did not appear to hear the 

 sounds of hammer and saw resounding in 

 one of the world's famous hostelries 

 (for the oldest part of the Cataract was 

 put up in 1822 and has housed presi- 

 dents and princes), and they did not say 

 a word until they saw the plantsmen 

 spilling water over the ball-room 's hard- 

 wood floor, with warping thioatoaed — 

 then they asked for "saucers" under 

 the pots, and Supt. Keitsch supplied pie- 

 plates. 



All this the hotel company's officers 

 endured with a smile, for they had of- 

 fered the space without charge to se- 

 cure the convention for their city, and 

 they were too good sports to spoil the 

 game — but it is dollars to doughnuts 

 they never would have let the trade ex- 

 hibits in if they had any idea of the 

 carload after carload of stuff that was 

 to come down upon them. They prob- 



ably thought florists' exhibits would be 

 flowers. 



The trades' display was the greatest 

 on record. It overcrowded the many 

 large rooms given over to it and flowed 

 out upon veranda and lawn, and even 

 at that Supt. Keitsch was obliged to 

 turn down applications for over 2,000 

 square feet of space. Twice as much 

 rooiu might easily have been used. Supt. 

 Keitsch 's troubles were multiplied by 

 the inadequacy of the space, but he 

 handled his task with a minimum of 

 friction. The boilers, building materials 

 and heaviest exhibits were placed in a 

 floored tent on the lawn. 



The exhibits as a whole served to give 

 a new idea of the way our trade has 

 broadened and the multiplicity of arti- 

 cles now necessary in the conduct of a 

 florist's establishment doing a general 

 business. Individually the exhil;>its were 

 more elaborate than ever, more attract- 

 ively staged and notable for the number 

 of novelties shown. It proved that as 

 the trade broadens bright minds are at- 

 tracted to the problems of meeting its 

 needs, and instead of having approached 

 the highest development, we are in real- 

 ity only at a beginning, for as rewards 

 increase so will creative endeavor. 



Niagara Falls is a splendid convention 

 town and ideal weather favored the 

 gathering of a big crowd. And there 

 certainly was a large attendance, but 

 just how large it would be hard to say. 

 There was no one room large enough to 

 hold at one time all who were there, 

 and no record Avas kept for purposes of 

 issuing entertainment tickets. Not all 

 registered. Suffice it to say that the at- 

 tendance was so large that the aisles in 

 the trades' exhibit were pretty well con- 

 gested most of the time, and there was 

 ail oapecially large proportion pf ladies. 



First Business Session. 



Vice-president George W^ McClure 

 called the convention to order promptly 

 at -2 o'clock Tuesday afternoon. He be- 

 lieves brevity is the soul of wit and ap- 

 plied the theory in his introductions. E. T. 



Williams, editor of the Cataract Journal, 

 extended the usual welcome as the repre- 

 sentative of the mayor. He paid his 

 respects to floriculture in due form and, 

 among many other things, offered assur- . - 

 ances that the future of Niagara Falls 

 would have been safe even without out- 

 side interference, as the citizens feel too 

 keenly the importance of the cataract as 

 a means of attracting visitors to permit 

 of encroachment on the flow of water by 

 the power plants. 



P. O'Mara, of Jersey City, replied to 

 Mr. Williams and in characteristic style 

 thanked hi*i. for the things he liad said, .. 

 and for some left unsaid, but he warned i([ 

 him that, while we are willing to leave' 

 the falls in the hands of the local people, 

 should we see signs of overlooking public 

 interests the society will take up the 

 quest of an accounting. 



At the conclusion of Mr. O'Mara's ad- 

 dress President F. H. Traendly was in- 

 troduced and received an ovation. After 

 brief words of thanks he took up routine 

 business and put it through with dis- 

 patch. His address was as follows: 



President's Ad dr es s. 

 In preparing^py address to you, 1 

 am following a custom established by all 

 of my predecessors. I have no thought 

 of outlining any policy which would help 

 to build up our society to the numbers to 

 which its good work for the different 

 branches of our business entitles it. I 

 know well that every conceivable plan 

 for accomplishing tins has been tried. . 

 The florists of the country have had 

 an object lesson, showing the value of 

 organized effort to attain results, in the 

 success of the society last year in ap- 

 pearing before the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission for the purpose of compell- 

 ing the express companies to revise their 

 freight rates. The contention of the 

 S. A. F. prevailed, thus financially bene- 

 fiting many florists throughout the coun- 

 try. This one instance should prove to 

 everyone, grower, retailer, wholesaler and 

 supplyman, that his interest lies in be- 

 coming a member of the S. A. F. They 

 may then see that many problems which 

 they have fa<»ed at some time during 

 their career A^i conquered with diffi- 

 pulty, if at all, "would have become easy 

 if they had been members of the 

 S. A. F. 



Advantages of Membership. 



To the younger men of our business 

 who expect to make their liying in the 

 florists' business, being a member of 

 the S. A. F. will gain them much valu- 

 able information, as well as the experience 

 and advice of our older members; and '» • 

 to the young men whose experience is *• 

 confined to one branch of our business, • 

 there is no better way of gaining a gen- 

 eral knowledge of the business than by 

 attending the meetings of the S. A. F. 



We have just passed through one of 

 the worst panics this Country has had in 

 years, and I think the florists' business 

 is to be congratulated, in that it has 

 weathered the financial storm as well as 

 it did. To my knowledge, very few 

 failures have occurred, and while flo- 

 rists in general have not made the money 

 they have made in recent years, I feel 

 that I am safe in saying that most of 

 them have more than paid expenses. I 

 think this is much better than most 

 manufacturing concerns were able to do. 



Overproduction of Flowers. 



Ex-president Burton and Ex-president 

 Breitmeyer, in their messages, called 

 attention to the large amount of green- 

 house building going on at that time. 





