28 



The Florists' Review 



OCTOBBB 13, 1921 



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CANADA'S WELCOME. 



Nation to Nation. 



I count it an honor and privilege to 

 represent here today the only national 

 association of professional horticulture 

 existing in this dominion, the parent of 

 the child represented by my friend, S. 

 A. McFadden. The Canadian Florists' 

 and Gardeners' Association, previously 

 named the Canadian Horticultural As- 

 sociation, has for nearly a quarter of a 

 century been quietly doing its work and 

 is today in every Canadian ])r()vinee 

 touching the interests and stimulating 

 the aspirations of those who belong to 

 the industry. I count it an even greater 

 honor to stand here charged with a mes- 

 sage of greeting and welcome to so 

 many fellow-workers from all parts of 

 this continent and from the motherland 

 of the empire to which we Canadians 

 belong. 



In a few sentences I should like to say 

 why this meeting is so greatly appre- 

 ciated and why I so deeply feel the privi- 

 lege granted me. First of all, we are 

 glad to welcome you for yourselves as 

 brother florists. We recognize and are 



Address of wekonie to those attending the 

 anntiiil meellnK of the F. T. D., nt Toronto, Of- 

 tober 11 to 13, delivered on behalf of the Cana- 

 dian Florists' and (Jardeners' Association by 

 W. E. Groves, president of the association. 



thankful for the fact that it is our pleas- 

 ure to look into the faces and to grasp 

 the hands of the princes of the profes- 

 sion from "over the line." While we 

 in Canada are quite ready to flatter our- 

 selves on our capabilities, we are equally 

 ready to sit at the feet of the men who, 

 in tlie realm of floriculture and floral 

 art, have challenged and are challenging 

 the attention of this whole hemisphere, 

 and because of your fixed, lofty position 

 in the j)rofession we gladly greet you. 

 And then we feel and admire the fine 

 spirit of camaraderie, and the splendid 

 atmosphere of real comradeship your 

 j)resence here today so plainly mani- 

 fests. Our more northern climate and 

 possibly our more rugged upbringing 

 may be responsible for the fact that in 

 our make-up we are not so full of that 

 nervous energy or so charged with that 

 electrical movement characteristic of 

 you people from the great country to 

 the south. We may lack the fiery clo- 

 (pience of your Ammanns, your Grake- 

 lows, or your Breitmeyers; you may not 

 easily find in our ranks so many of the 

 men who "Sehling" and "Push"; it 

 may be said of us that we have a rug- 

 gedness of will and a tenacity of pur- 

 pose which, with our backs to the wall, 

 shows its teeth like Britain's emblem- 

 atic bulldog p.nd "never says die," but 

 when we look into your faces and say 

 we greet you, the same solid sincerity is 



W. E, Groves. 



(President Canadl.-in Florists' iind fJanlcncrs' Association.) 



backing our words. And because we 

 appreciate you just for yourselves we 

 welcome you with a handgrasp that is 

 warm and real and true. 



What F. T. D. Signifies. 



We rejoice in this meeting and in 

 your presence on account of the great 

 organization you represent. It is a 

 theme for a sermon, but I refrain. If I 

 read F. T. D. correctly, I am perfectly 

 ready to challenge contradiction in the 

 statement that it is next to impossible 

 to find either on this continent or even 

 across the herring pond any commercial 

 organization that in its fundamentals 

 touches such a high point in twentieth 

 century business ethics as does this fine 

 association. Built upon a foundation, 

 that of cooperation, without which the 

 business life of the coming years will 

 be a mere travesty, it has captured the 

 spirit and grasped the possibilities and 

 brought the principle into the range of 

 practical commercial life. Your own 

 great statistician, Eoger Babson, has 

 quite recently claimed that for success- 

 ful business life there have to be four 

 fundamentals: Integrity, faith, indus- 

 try and cooperation or good feeling. 

 Apply this great test to F. T. D. aims 

 and ideals and deny the claim I have 

 previously made if you can. Surely the 

 pioneers either builded better than they 

 knew or they had a glimpse ahead that 

 any of us might envy. We have not all 

 caught the vision; we have not all 

 climbed the great Pisgah height and 

 looked into the promised land; there are 

 still a few check valves wide open to 

 let in, shut like clams to any outward 

 flow, but they are few and insignificant 

 and in the great onward march will soon 

 be forgotten. You are here today repre- 

 senting the ideals and shaping the des- 

 tinies of the association that so fires our 

 imagination and stirs our emotions. Be- 

 cause of this we greet you and with 

 outstretched hands we welcome you. 



Just one other thought — my theme is 

 national, Canada; the organization foi 

 which I am proud to speak is also na- 

 tional; the .association to which I am 

 privileged to speak is international. At 

 this particular time in the world's his- 

 tory it is impossible for any thinking 

 man to stand before an audience drawn 

 from so many states in ^e union and 

 so many provinces of the dominion, with- 

 out thinking of the influence such a 

 gathering has upon the problems affect- 

 ing the nations on each side of that 

 ".3,0(10 miles of border line." Even 

 today Belgium and Flanders speak to 

 us of a torn and tattered world. The 

 best thought and the best heart of the 

 best men and women everywhere are 

 looking for, working for, praying for a 

 golden age of peace and prosperity, for 

 a brighter and better world that is 

 surely coming. And at such a time as 

 this we might reverently thank God 

 that the balance of the world's com- 

 mercial life, its social life, its interna- 

 tional life is to a large extent in the 

 hands of the two great English-speaking 

 peoples. 



