60 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
WIkmi tins (jiioslioii has eoiiK' to me I liave answered i< 
will) a (iiK'stion, "will you live up to the spirit of fellow¬ 
ship and eo-opeiation (Miibodied in this n'solulion.” and 
(‘V(‘i‘y time the ans\\(‘r has been, “yes.” Then, let us 
judge; (‘very otlu'r of the five hundi'ed mendx'is in the 
American Association of Nurserymen by that ])artieular 
iiK'mber whom we know best, and let us look well to our 
own household. I therefore, unhesitatingly forecast the 
success of the pi'oposed organization, lirst. because the 
plan has been adjudged a practical business organiza¬ 
tion by soiiH' of our best business minds, l)ecause no one 
has any criticism to otfer on that score, and, furtliermore, 
l)ecause I believe in the inb^grity and in the business acu¬ 
men of men comj)rising the imunbershi]) of the American 
Association of Nurserym(‘n. To reach other conclu¬ 
sions one woidd be forced into the embarrassing position 
of del)ating the intelligence and integrity of fellow mem¬ 
bers, a thing I think none of us will do. 
.\ssoci.VTiON Funds and Energies in the ‘Past Expended 
Almost Exclusivela' on Legislative Matters. 
A review of disbursements of Association funds jirove 
conclusively that in the minds of our ollicers Legislative 
matters have been paramount to all others, and as a re¬ 
sult, such matters have been most efficiently looked after. 
With no thought of minimizing the imjiortance of safe¬ 
guarding the nursery interests from a legislative point 
of view, I think there are other questions which cannot 
longer be neglected without serious loss to the nursery¬ 
men. As everywhere else in business life, there are 
times that an attorney is needed, and I am glad to say 
that, in my opinion, the American Association of Nursery¬ 
men has one of the best in the country, but we are over¬ 
looking business problems and opportunities which we 
wrestle with three hundred and sixty-five days in the 
year, and take to bed with us at night. 
A Very Heal Prorlem at This Hour is Transportation. 
Take the question of transportation, for illustration, 
always a jiroblem, but esjiecially so at this date. What 
it would have been worth to the shippers of nursery stock 
to have had a competent tralTic man located in some cen¬ 
tral city, to be sure, is conjecture, but from some work 
Mr. Sizemore has taken time from his duties with my 
business to render some of you, I am firmly of the 
opinion that had we had some such man, with time to 
look after matters of transportation, much of the delay 
and loss could have been avoided. To be sure, our 
jiresent organization has not Ix^en idle here, and every¬ 
thing ])ossible has been done to relieve the situation. 
The acting President and your efficient attoriu'y have been 
in close touch with the situation at Washington, and 
])iomises have been made by government officials that 
the nurserymen’s interests will, as far as possible, be 
safeguarded. What is needed in addition to what has 
already been done is a traffic man cajiable of locating de¬ 
layed sbipments, ki'cping in direct touch with freight 
inov(‘ment and pushing freight through to destination. 
Promises are good, bn/ we need and must have 7^esulls. 
1 am led to believe that the matter of transportation \\ ill 
conlinm- to be a very serious probhun during the imme¬ 
diate fuiure. at least, and I imgret that there is so little 
that the ))r(‘sent organization can do to reliiwe the situa¬ 
tion. 1 am so thoroughly convinced of the shippers’ 
needs in the mnlier of transjiortation. beliiwing that each 
hour liecomes more critical, that if the condition of our 
treasury warranted, I would ask the Executive Commit¬ 
tee to })ut a traffic man at work in an endeavor to move 
the shijmient of winter and spring orders. This, to-day, 
is our real problem. If congestion continues through 
the spring season, I dare not think of the enormity of 
the nurserynum’s losses. Stock, destination March 1st, 
which arrives March Ibtli, or April 1st, will be worth as 
much as the ashes from last year’s bonfire. One of my 
friends said to me a few days since that he was that day 
unloading three cars of stock ordered out last October, 
much of which was seriously damaged by having gone 
through the freezes of the winter, and all- of which was 
ordered for last fall orders. The government officials 
in this matter of transportation, as well as everywhere 
else, are confronted with greater problems than ever 
before in the history of this country. They are, beyond 
doubt, exceedingly anxious to keep industrial wheels 
moving, and will most gladly make us any reasonable 
promise, but regardless of priorUiy classifiealion, if our 
stock does not move we will go broke. Right now a 
trans])ortation man staying on the job every minute of 
the day would, in my opinion, make the Association a 
more effective trade organization. 
purlicity 
Some of our friends in other trade organizations think 
we are a great joke in the matter of publicity, but one of 
these days they will wake up and find that we move 
slowly, but eventually get there. When word goes out 
from Chicago next June that the American Association of 
Nurserymen has voted to establish a business office to 
take over the management of the affairs of the iVssocia- 
tion, it will prove the biggest publicity boost the nursery 
interests ever received, and, by the way, Ave will never 
get very far in the matter of publicity until we are in 
position to plan and execute a publicity program from 
a central office. Think of the tax on one’s time necessary 
to study ‘intelligently the question of publicity and 
then consider the arduous duties every day brings to each 
of us, and it is no surprise that our publicity committees 
are able to accomplish so little. The question of pub¬ 
licity for American nurserymen is big enough to com¬ 
mand the time of an expert, and such an organization as 
we are considering should make ample provision to in¬ 
augurate and maintain a publicity campaign along 
broadest possible lines. A publicity campaign, ade¬ 
quately financed and intelligently executed, would add 
tremendously to our yearly income and would make the 
Association a more effective trade organization, and less 
than such an effort would be a waste of effort and money. 
When we are ready to expend intelligently the money 
subscribed to a publicity fund, I am personally ready to 
subscribe every dollar I am able, and until w e are ready 
I think w e should wait. 
PURCHASING SUPPLIES 
The members of American Association of Nurserymen 
spend approximately a quarter of a million dollars an¬ 
nually tor sujiplies. jiractically all of which are pur¬ 
chased individually, and the great bulk of which is 
shipped across the continent local freight. From the in¬ 
formation I have been able to gather, I am of the opinion 
that a purchasing agent under the direction of our jiro- 
posed general office, buying for the entire membership, 
could save, consei-vatively, 6% on our annual supply bill, 
which, loaded car load to distributing point within a 
