THE NATIONAL NURSERY^fAN 
217 
body or any section of this body that happened to meet in other 
parts of the country. But I notice, and I am sure you will all 
observe, that there is a growing feeling of cooperation, a growing 
feeling of friendliness, a growing feeling that our business is in 
common and that your success is mine and that by the establish¬ 
ment of our business on sound, sane, honest principles and by 
supplying those to the world, that we can take it up and build it 
up honestly from our plan and force, if you please, the public to 
recognize us as we really should be now. 
Then going back to publicity. I am a retailer pure and simple 
and I know there are other men in this audience who undoubted¬ 
ly will begin to say, “That order you gave ("ashman, you sent an 
experienced high class salesman with all kinds of persuasive 
arguments to get that order and he gets it through,” and he 
builds up other orders in that one interview and that publicity 
really does not enter in. Now, 1 used to have those ideas myself. 
I used to think that that was straight goods, but I am beginning 
to get over that. I have gotten entirely over it. I find that 
there must be a community interest excited in anything if you 
are going to make a demand for any product. That has been 
demonstrated so clearly and effectively to me in all other lines 
of business that I really think it a waste of time to debate it, 
because a community interest and a market must be built up by 
agitation and that agitation today must be by keeping before the 
eyes of the public or the consumer the particular article or 
product in which you are interested, and the fact that no one 
wants to manufacture non-essentials, have been made into 
wonderful businesses today, is a great demonstration to me that 
any business can be made the same. 
Now there is not, so far as I know, maybe I am prejudiced, but 
I do not believe there is a business on the face of this earth that 
is so essential to civilization as the nursery business. There is 
no disputing the fact that the nursery business today is the 
most essential on God’s earth, unless it is the struggle that we 
are now engaged in, but it only emphasizes one thing that we must 
do, we must keep, as our president said, the home fires burning. 
We are today facing a period of famine, so far as fruit in this 
country or in European countries is concerned. The time is 
approaching when this government must give its attention to the 
production of more fruit, more thought must be given to this, 
and I am sure you all know that the human body, in order to 
conserve life, must have a certain amount of fruit or fruit juices. 
Our population has been growing while the fruit crops have been 
decreasing. Old orchards are dying out and are not being re¬ 
placed because of the fact that farmers are encouraged to put 
that ground into raising cereals. The high prices of everything 
now, including meats and cereals, encourages the farmers to pay 
no attention to raising fruit, consequently we are going to face 
the serious condition in our country which will mean a fruit 
famine and which will mean that the government must take hold 
of the matter of plantng more trees and encourage the planting 
of more fruits throughout the land. 
On the other hand, the vast wealth that has been made during 
the past generation has brought about a conditioh of people 
wanting to enjoy that wealth and is there any greater way that 
any man can enjoy his life after he has made a sufficient amount 
to keep him than to live in a beautiful home that has beautiful 
surroundings, and the surroundings, you will agree with me, 
make the beautiful home, consequently there is a demand that 
has not been awakened, at least not by the nurserymen of this 
country. We have been agitating in our small way, but there 
has not been a concerted action to bring this thing out and flash 
it on thp screen before the wealth of this country that they can 
secure what their heart’s desire really is. You know that by 
reminding a person of what they really need, you can awaken a 
desire and create a need, and that is what we are interested in 
and starting this movement for. In my business, if there is any 
little thing that I think will increase the sales of my agents five 
per cent or two per cent, I am willing to invest $100 or $200 or 
$500 in it. I have put into the man’s hand the very best outfit 
that money can buy. If he is incapable and has not the capacity 
to handle it,- I do not want him. Another thing, I have a policy 
that if a man cannot earn what I consider four times what an 
ordinary man is worth, I do not want him on my force. I tell him 
that so and so is in need of men, I am sure you can get a good 
place over there. I am looking for high class men, fewer of 
them, but men who can go out and get the business, and I can 
prove to you that that ])olicy has been successful. 
Now, then, how is the matter of publicity going to affect me, 
with my high class men, who go out to secure orders and who 
through personal persuasion secure the order? Why, bless your 
soul, we cultivate the field before we sow the seed. Always a 
field not properly cultivated will not produce an abundant crop. 
It is the cultivation of the field that we are interested in, and 
after the business, or a desire for our product is created, then it 
is up to me to get my share. 
1 am not afraid of the other fellow. If 1 am, I am not worthy 
of the name. I should go into a business where 1 can work with 
my equals. But it is the cultivation of the field, the creation of 
the demand that we are interested in, and in accepting a position 
on this executive board I had that in mind, and I am here to say 
to my retail friends, that so far as I am concerned, and I cvan 
raise my voice higher than any other man in the room that I 
know of, that I will not i)ermit without making some sort of a 
struggle, a dollar of this money that goes into this treasury to be 
expended where it will not benefit us all alike. "Tliat is what you 
are interested in, that is what I am interested in. We are inter¬ 
ested in getting this thing down to an equitable basis where we 
can all say that we have had an opi>ortunity to share in the 
harvest that has been created and we are going to share in it, 
gentlemen, just as true as you are sitting here, if this cami)aign 
is put across, we are going to share in it and 1 am going to invest 
in it and my initial investment is only an invitation to my neigh¬ 
bor to come in with me. We do not want to make it so high that 
it is going to scare the little fellow. Put it where he can reach 
and where he can say he has had an opportunity to come in and 
share with this development idea. We: are going to map out 
the campaign after we find that we are all united. We did not 
want to do anything when we were not united, but I want to tell 
you, it has made wonderful progress and I want to congratulate 
the men that have started it. Don’t you know, somebody is 
always responsible for some good idea that has made wealth for 
the world and usually it is the fellow who starts the good idea, 
or the wonderful, valuable idea that gets the least out of it? 
That has been the history of the world. Nevertheless, it has 
been put up here right in front of us and if we fail to take advan¬ 
tage of it, don’t let us blame any one else afterwards and don’t 
let us put off until tomorrow what we can do today. 
This committee is not going to spend your money simply 
because you have made an appropriation, or a contribution, or 
made a promise to do so. I made my promise several months 
ago and it will probably be several months, probably a year, 
maybe longer, before there will be a dollar of that money called 
for, but you can rest assured that in the hands of this committee, 
when there is any money called for, that it is going to be put into 
a work that they think will return 100 times its original amount 
in value. 
I am very sincere in these matters and I would like to bring 
about a correction of all the evils in any business I am associat¬ 
ed with. I want to see my friends and competitors enjoy with 
me the prosperity that I can get out of business that we are 
engaged in. So let us not haggle over contributing a very small 
percentage of our yearly business into the creation of more busi¬ 
ness, which again will result in the creation of more business 
and before we leave this room I think every man here should 
stand on his feet and have his say as to what he thinks about it 
and the best thing that any man can say is, “Put me down for 
$100,” or “$250 a year.” If it is in order, Mr. Chairman, we have 
spent considerable time on this, we have gone over it, if there 
are any questions to be asked we can answer them, but if it is in 
order I am going to ask Henry Chase to take his pencil and come 
to this blackboard and indicate the amount and name of any 
concern who is not already in it, that wants to join with us in 
this movement. 
MR. ATKIN: This is not a question of the heart, it is a 
question of dollars and cents, and it is only dollars and cents 
that create further dollars and cents. I think the time is here 
for every one of you to get into your mind that this is the 
moment to apply the Golden Rule, instead of the rule of gold in 
helping each other. In selling nursery products, the party that 
buys them ordinarily does not buy them for sentimental reasons. 
A few days ago a man came into my office and said to me, “.Mr. 
Atkins, can you remember about five years ago you sold me 
about $600 worth of your nurserj" products? I said I did. He 
said ,“I sold my house the other day. Those $600 made me 
$5,000.” So you see. Gentlemen, it is not always the love of 
plants and flowers that influence people when they buy our 
l>roducts. Many people buy them because they know it is a good 
thing; they are going to improve their grounds, in addition to 
having the pleasure and inspiration coming from beautiful sur¬ 
roundings. I think, gentlemen, that there is not a nurseryman 
in this country today that has vision beyond the present, but 
what realizes that advertising, or publicity is the power behind 
their business. That is my positive thought, it is the power 
behind their business. Now, gentlemen, I have worked on that 
committee and this committee has this power to offer to you, and 
I will further augment this power by making our subscription 
