OCTOBEE 28, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



13 



l)een 

 have 



much better dead than alive. You 



.seen such cases; so have 1. And 



inw many are there vifho have worked 



1 others in our business who have been 



ug to save any great amount out of 



hat they have been able to earn, to pro- 



"i,le lor a rainy day or old age? 



Is There Money in the Butinett ? 



>^o\\, I know the cry of almost every 

 empl"yer : ' ' We would be delighted to pay 

 more, but there is nothing in the green- 

 house business, "We are not making any- 

 thim': the men we employ make more 

 thaiTwe do." Well, let us see. [The 

 speaker here referred to a number of the 

 pstablisliments that have added largely to 

 their investment in glass in the last few 

 vear^. I If time would permit, I could 

 Jell of thousands of dollars so invested 

 in the greenhouse business from Maine to 

 ('alit'i'rnia. Now, employers, what can 

 von s!iy? If there is no money in the 

 florists' business and you are not able to 

 pay living wages to your men, how are 

 voii able to do all this? You certainly 

 must lack in ment^ ability, to put your 

 vnhieil money into a business which is 

 jjiviufi you no returns. I know sometimes 

 vou think us ignorant, but we are not 

 I|iiite so lacking, for, if you did not pay 

 us we would not stay long in your em- 

 ploy. 



Why Not Raise the Prices ? 



Again, if you are not able to pay more 

 mil draw more intelligent young men 

 into the florists' business, so you would 

 he al)le to get brain as well as brawn, 

 why don't you get together and raise 

 the price of your products? Are we 

 responsible if you try to cut each other's 

 tiiroats by paying $22 per thousand for 

 tulips and selling them for $20 per thou- 

 sand, and other things in proportion? 

 Has not everything else advanced? Do 

 you not pay more for the juicy porter- 

 house steak you eat? We men used to be 

 able to buy steak for 10 cents per pound ; 

 now we pay 16 cents, and find it hard to 

 get much of that at our rate of wages. 

 If you make no money in your business, 

 get together, advance the prices. 



If you are selling roses at $1 per dozen, 

 ihiiige $1.50, but do not forget the poor 

 fellow who is growing the goods. Share 

 a little with him; he is not as bad as 

 soini' of you think. You know he is a 

 man the same as yourselves, with blood 

 in his veins, of the same color, and as a 

 general thing it takes but little to make 

 him feel good. As a rule, they are a 

 jolly lot of fellows, and you would be 

 surprised at the result if you should say 

 to your grower, "Bob, your stuff i.s look- 

 ini; fine; you have the best looking house 

 of i-arnations in the city." It would 

 ■'"•t like magic. So, if you are not able 

 to pay more in money, be at least kind 

 ■"111 eonaiderate in small matters, and you 

 "ill find that you will gain. 



Ill closing, I would urge every em- 

 pl' vee to be faithful and upright in his 

 '■•^'ii'luet toward his employer, and to 

 ev( ly employer I would suggest that you 

 ''' your best to gain the confidence and 

 gdii.l will of your employees, remember- 

 '"u that your success in business depends 

 "l'"n those to whom you pay your money. 

 '''■' them see that you are interested in 

 "' ir welfare, and that it is on their 

 '■'ithfulness the success of your business 

 ^'" atly depends. 



I^EADiNG, Pa.— C. W. Beears, who for- 

 ''I'^fly conducted a flower store at 235 

 ^'irth Ninth street, has taken charge of 

 ' ^tore at 206 North Ninth street. 



AN EMPLOYER'S VIEV. 



L.\ synopsis of a paper by August S. Swanson, 

 of St. Paul, Minn., read before tbe Minnesota 

 State Florists' Association, October 19, 1909.] 



1 am expected, in this paper, to give 

 the employer's view of the employee. 

 Now, 1 hope no one will take otfense 

 from what I may say. I may perhai)s 

 handle this delicate question without 

 gloves, but remember my remarks are not 

 aimed at individuals. My intentions are 

 to explain existing conditions, and I 

 think I am as well fitted to do this as 

 any one, because, even though at present 

 I am classed among the employers, it is 

 not so long since, and I well remember 

 it, wlien 1 belonged to the other class, 

 the employees, in which class I spent 

 twenty years of my life, starting at an 

 early age to learu not only to work, but 

 how to work. 



Well, this subject affects us all most 

 directly, as it opens up for discussion the 

 ever interesting help problem, a problem 

 which seems, year after year, to be be- 

 coming more and more serious ; yes, some- 

 times I think myself it is becoming a 

 conundrum without a solution. 



The reason, as I see it, is this: Our 

 business or profession, whatever name 

 you may give it, occupies such a peculiar 

 position that we cannot proceed with the 

 same speed of progress or development 

 as any of the other trades or professions. 

 When I look back only as far as I re- 

 member, forty years ago or a little more, 

 it is really overwhelming what changes 

 have taken place in the industrial world. 

 I well remember when most clothes were 

 woven by hand, by simply manual labor, 

 and well I remember also when the 

 farmer cut, not only his grain, but even 

 all his hay by hand ; and even the thresh- 

 ing out of the grain was done wholly by 

 manual labor, not to speak of any other 

 industries, in which we all know there 

 has been really marvelous development, 

 almost wholly on account of their being 

 able to take advantage of the great dis- 

 coveries and inventions in the line of 

 power, other than manual, that nature 

 has provided. 



A Peculiarity of the Business. 



Now we live in a period which has, we 

 may say, revolutionized the industrial 

 world, until today there is hardly a thing 

 made or produced in which the steam 

 or electrically driven machine has not 

 played a most conspicuous part, and done, 

 if not all, the greater part of the work 

 formerly done by manual labor. 



Yet, as you well know, we, as an in- 

 dustry, have not been able to take advan- 

 tage of these truly wonderful develop- 

 ments going on all around us. When I 

 look back, I find we are doing the work 

 practically in the same manner as when 

 I first started to work, the only differ- 

 ence being that we worked harder and 

 kept at it longer, twelve to fifteen hours 

 a day being customary. 



As I see it, these great changes that 

 have taken place have had their effeet 

 on huma'n beings as well. Men do not 

 look upon labor the same way as we did 

 when I started to work. That is why 

 today, among the many problems eon- 

 fronting us for .solution, the hardest one 

 to solve is the help problem, the ques- 

 tion of honest and efficient help. I use 

 the word "honest" advisedly, because I 

 do not consider that I am treated hon- 

 estly when I make an agreement to pay 

 so much money for so much help, and the 

 other party just gives me so much of 

 his time, regardless of whether that time 

 is worth anything to me or not. 



Earoiflg One's Wages. 



We have all had our experience witii 

 the man who tries to accomplish as lit- 

 tle real, useful labor as possible during 

 working hours; the one who loafs as soon 

 as the boss is absent, or the one who 

 seems to find his greatest delight in hin- 

 dering others in their work by a lot of 

 foolish and questionable conversation. 

 This fellow seems to be afraid that some 

 one else might be doing something use- 

 ful. And there is the one who seems to 

 take pleasure in destroying or losing all 

 the tools on the place, and when any- 

 thing is lost or destroyed through his 

 carelessness, says, "Oh, what is the dif- 

 ference? The old man has lots of money 

 and he can stand it." This I have 

 heard time and time again. 



For these classes of employees I have 

 little sympathy, patience or regard. I 

 do not think they are entitled to any 

 more respect than the sneak thief or 

 pickpocket, who will steal your purse 

 when you are not looking. Such a i)erson 

 is not capable of filling any position of 

 trust, and still, that is really what we 

 expect of every employee. It does not 

 matter what the work is, whether at the 

 potting table, the work of handling the 

 hose, or any of our simplest operations, 

 the employee who does not care how the 

 work is done when the boss is not around 

 is not earning his wages, I don't care 

 how much or how little he is paid. He 

 is not trustworthy, and no one is very apt 

 to give such an employee a position of 

 responsibility. 



A Distinction in Dishonesty. 



It is right here, at this point, that 1 

 discover we are behind the times, be- 

 cause we are old-fashioned enough to ex- 

 pect other people to look at this ques- 

 tion in the same light as we do; they do 

 not. A man nowadays is so accustomed 

 to machine power that he has almost be- 

 come a part of a machine himself, and 

 when seeking employment he never thinks 

 about getting paid for the amount of 

 work he performs or the manner in which 

 he performs it. No, he simply sells you 

 so much of his time for a certain sum. 

 And there, you see, we are at a disad- 

 vantage, because we have no machine to 

 run the man, compelling him to turn out 

 so much work every hour the machine is 

 working. 



An instance which illustrates this the- 

 ory plainly happened the other day. A 

 young fellow whom I had in my employ 

 a short time, but whom I discharged for 

 being lazy, some time afterward came 

 back and returned me $1 which I had 

 overpaid him. This shows that while he 

 was too honest to accept pay for any 

 more hours of time than he had actually 

 given me, still he did not consider it any 

 dishonesty to waste as much as possible 

 of this time for which I was paying him, 



1 really sometimes wonder what is go- 

 ing to become of our business in the fu- 

 ture. Where are the young men who are 

 willing to give up their time and learn 

 this business for the small inducements 

 there are in it? For, we mu.st admit it, 

 the pay is miserable when we consider 

 what is wanted. 



Fitness for the Work. 



In the first place, a young man ex- 

 pecting to make a living out of this busi- 

 ness must be well equipped with not only 

 a strong, robust physical condition, but he 

 must also be sound mentally ; he must have 

 brains and be prepared to exercise, use 



(Concluded on pagre 32.) 



