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The Florists' Review 



JcME 6, 1913. 



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THE SQUARE DEAL. 



[A paper by S. S. Skldelsky, of Philadelphia, 

 Pa., read before the Philadelphia Florists' Club, 

 June 3, 1913.] 



I question whether there is a man 

 present tonight who will not concede 

 that our march of progress along all 

 lines in which we are engaged has been 

 steady and uninterrupted, and that it 

 will well compare with that of any 

 other body of progressive business men 

 in this country. 



I need hardly dwell on details or 

 draw comparisons between the men and 

 methods of a generation ago and those 

 of today. It is within the range of 

 memory, I venture to say, of the young- 

 est man present, how the florist of the 

 late eighties or the early nineties con- 

 ducted his affairs; how he struggled 

 along in his antiquated greenhouse, 

 growing everything in general and 

 nothing well in, particular; how he 

 worked and slaved and often deprived 

 himself of the barest necessities, in 

 order to make ends meet, and how 

 often he failed to accomplish even 

 this simj^le object. But things have 

 changed since then — and for the bet- 

 ter, of course. 



The Society of American Florists, 

 be it said to the credit of the leading 

 spirits in that body, has done much 

 to bring order out of chaos. Its an- 

 nual conventions, extending over a pe- 

 riod of three decades, are unquestion- 

 ably responsible to a large extent for 

 the progress achieved in horticulture. 



The Trade Societies. 



Who will question the tremendous ad- 

 vance made by the American carna- 

 tion? 



May we not assert without a mo- 

 ment's hesitation that the American 

 Carnation Society, composed, as it is 

 for the most part, of earnest, consci- 

 entious, hard-working and painstaking 

 members, is directly responsible for the 

 improvement and popularization of this 

 truly magnificent American product? 



The Rose Society, although much 

 younger in point of years, has already 

 accomplishe<l enough to win the ap- 

 plause and admiration of every rose 

 lover everywhere, both amateur and pro- 

 fessional. 



The Chrysanthemum Society may 

 well point with pride to its own record. 



The Sweet Pea Society is doing its 

 share, and is doing it most admirably, 

 toward the sum total of the general 

 good in floriculture. 



I may mention in brief the Gladio- 

 lous, the Dahlia and the Peony Socie- 

 ties, all of which are engaged in 

 ajdendid work, well worthy of our finan- 

 cial and moral support. 



A Sign of Progress. 



The recent National Flower Show, 

 held in New York city, conceded by 

 all those present to have surpassed the 

 most sanguine expectations of its most 

 ardent promoters and supporters, is but 



another proof that the American hor- 

 ticulturist has not only not stood still, 

 but, on the contrary, has kept his pace 

 well to the front in the general proces- 

 sion of progressive business men. If 

 the National Flower Show, held two 

 months ago in New York city, has sur- 

 passed that of Boston, held two years 

 previously, it is but a matter of sim- 

 ple logic to deduce that we have ad- 

 vanced during the intervening two 

 years to the extent at least of the im- 

 provement in the later affair over the 

 earlier one. 



And may we not, basing our calcu- 

 lations, hopes and expectations on the 

 selfsame principle — may we not, I ask, 

 reasonably expect that two years hence 

 Philadelphia may show even more won- 

 derful results? 



On the whole, I think, we may well 

 congratulate ourselves upon our success 

 and point with pardonable pride to 

 our advance along all lines in horticul- 

 ture. 



The Xeed of Readjustment. 



If I have digressed considerably 

 from the subject proper I have chosen, 

 namely, "Are We Giving Each Other 

 the Square Deal?" it was my object 

 primarily to present the subject to you, 

 not from the standpoint of the fault- 

 finder or muck-raker, but rather in the 

 light of absolute impartiality, touch- 

 ing upon the good and the objection- 

 able features in our inner circles, in 

 the hope that some public-spirited men 

 in our midst may find a means and a 

 way of adjusting matters for the bene- 

 fit and welfare of every man in the 

 trade. 



I must confess at the outset, how- 

 ever, that it is with a feeling of trepida- 

 tion, although by no means akin to that 

 of a guilty conscience, that I am ap- 

 proaching a subject which may touch 

 many a sore spot and, for aught I know, 

 bring me into disfavor with some of 

 my friends in the trade. 



Nevertheless, I will undertake the 

 task. 



It is high time, it seems to me, that 

 we pause for a moment — long enough to 

 take a general survey of ourselves, to 

 look into our own shortcomings, to 

 scrutinize our business integrity and 

 our business methods with relation to 

 each other, to take account of things 

 that require improvement and adjust- 

 ment. 



Each for Himself. 



It may prove something of a jolt to 

 many of us when we discover that, 

 much as we have progressed in our 

 business, much as we have modernized 

 our business methods with regard to the 

 flower-buying public, much as we have 

 improved things about our stores and 

 our greenhouses, we have made but lit- 

 tle, if any, progress with reference to 

 the improvement of our relations with 

 each other. 



My observations during a period of 

 years, among all sorts and conditions 



of men engaged in the trade, have led 

 me to but one conclusion, and that is, 

 that "Each for himself and the devil 

 .take the hindmost" is the prevailing 

 sentiment. It is a fact beyond ques- 

 tion, that often men, possessing un- 

 bounded energy, perseverance and 

 business acumen — all the qualifications 

 necessary to insure one's own success 

 — are at the same time exceedingly sel- 

 fish and narrow-minded. 



Carried away by the current of their 

 own sordid interests, they fail to recog- 

 nize the fundamental principle of 

 "live and let live," forming the cor- 

 ner stone, the very foundation of true 

 prosperity. 



Grower and Retailer. 



Let us take a casual glance at the 

 business relations existing today be- 

 tween the average grower and the av- 

 erage storekeeper, retailing the grow- 

 er's product. 



What do we see? Are they working 

 hand in hand for their mutual benefit? 

 Do we find them in true brotherly ac- 

 cord, each considering the interest of 

 the other and both striving to advance 

 the general good of all? 



Hardly. 



When the much dreaded glut is on 

 and stock of all sorts becomes plenti- 

 ful — a veritable eyesore to the com- 

 mission man — what is the result? 



The average retail ma'n buys n'o 

 more than he actually needs to supply 

 his immediate demand. The fact that 

 he pays but 1 cent for a carnation 

 well worth 3 cents does not in the 

 least disturb his conscience. On the 

 contrary, he seems rather glad to get 

 bargains. Nor does he concern himself 

 with the economic law of supply and 

 demand. If he can get 70 cents or $1 

 for a dozen carnations costing him 12 

 cents, why, so much the better. It 

 seldom occurs to him that in times of 

 an oversupply it might be good busi- 

 ness policy to take a "flyer" at 1,000 

 instead of 100 carnations, to reduce the 

 price, in order to insure quick sales 

 and thereby relieve an overcrowded 

 market and benefit himself in the end. 



The Bargain Counter Policy. 



To be sure, there are exceptions. 

 There are men in the trade, be it said 

 to their credit, who have long since 

 recognized the expediency of facing 

 circumstances and making the best of 

 business conditions as they arise. I 

 know several prominent retail men 

 who are not at all averse to the idea 

 of the bargain counter policy in times 

 of oversupply. These men reason thus: 

 "When stock has accumulated and 

 business is dull, it is the policy of 

 department stores and progressive busi- 

 ness houses in general to move staple 

 commodities at reduced prices, rather 

 than suffer business stagnation and 

 financial loss. Applying the same prin- 

 ciple to our own business, it is most 

 desirable that we, florists, with an ac- 

 cumulation of perishable stock in our 

 ice-boxes and on our counters, adopt 

 the same policy. Let the rank and 

 file, the working man and the working 

 woman, buy flowers when flowers are 

 plentiful, rather than stock our waste 

 barrels with them. Both the growers 

 and the retail men would be sure to 

 benefit by such business methods in the 

 end." 



Unfortunately, such men still consti- 

 tute the exception and are in the small 

 minority. In the majority of cases the 

 grower is still looked upon as a source 



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