THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
87 
to standardize grades and quality and how can you har¬ 
monize in the minds of the buying public the prices of the 
wholesaler who sells to the consumer; the prices of the 
landscape nurserymen, so-called, the catalogue nursery¬ 
men and the agency concern? The committee that under¬ 
takes that job will need more than human understanding. 
This “trustworthy” plan does not aim to increase the 
demand but to confine business selfishly to Association 
members and hopes to hold members in the Association 
by the fear that they cannot succeed if outside of the fold. 
Is that ethical? Are the original development advocates 
satisfied with the absolute abandonment of their plan? 
Mr. Mayhew says, “We have had five years of house- 
cleaning.” A good house-wife would say that any house¬ 
cleaning that does not result in expelling dirt, but simply 
stirs up a lot of dust inside of the house is a mighty poor 
job and better never started. I fail to see any dirt 
thrown out of our doors so far. There has been a lot of 
talk about the Vigilance Committee but what has it done 
that would interest the public and convince it that we are 
reforming? It took up a few cases at Chicago, mainly 
matters of trade practices and of no concern to the buyers 
of our products. The public is not interested in the eth¬ 
ical question of whether I should send a wholesale price 
list to a consumer—in fact it would approve. The com¬ 
mittee was challenged directly by Lovejoy to act on some 
specific cases where he felt the public was deceived and 
injured. What was done? 
A condition, not a theory confronts us. The A. A. N. 
is composed of many men of many minds, necessarily so 
because of the many methods of the distribution of our 
products and the wide range of prices that the consumer 
is asked to pay. We embrace growers who sell to dealers 
or consumers, landscape nurserymen, so-called, cata¬ 
logue men, agency houses, and many varieties in every 
class. Their prices can never be harmonized, conse¬ 
quently their interests will be divergent. Why waste 
time in trying to harmonize such widely separated meth¬ 
ods in the hope of bringing about uplift, cooperation, 
progress and reform? The catalogue man does not care 
about my troubles and I don’t worry about his. 
There are a few fundamental points in which every 
nurseryman in the country is interested; prominently 
transportation, legislation, and tariff. Let us 
get back to the old days of “the simple life;” confine the 
activities of the Association to such matters of general 
interest. Foster and develop the department of transpor¬ 
tation and the work of the traffic manager. Legislation 
and tariff can be handled by committees as they were in 
the past and as they are being handled today. Only mod¬ 
erate dues will be necessary and every reputable nursery¬ 
man in the United States should be eligible for member¬ 
ship and should he brought in. Our membership should 
be as large as possible in order to back up our committees 
when they go before Congress, State legislatures and 
railroad officials, for membership means votes and in¬ 
fluence—and votes count in Washington and State legis¬ 
latures. Affiliated organizations, wholesalers, retailers, 
market development subscribers, meeting at the same 
time and place as the main association can handle their 
individual problems as they see fit. 
This is an expression solely of my individual ideas and 
not a statement from the Old Guard. It is longer than it 
should be hut your invitation must be blamed. My views 
may be wrong, but are honest views and should not he 
termed “intemperate criticism.” They are not the views 
of one “whose long tenure in high and leading positions 
naturally makes it difficult to grasp the point of view of 
the progressives,” for I have never held an office in the 
Association. They are based on rather close observation 
of the developments of the past five years, starting with 
the earnest hope—although somewhat skeptical—that 
the then proposed program would lead to profitable and 
glorious results. I have never believed that there is any¬ 
thing generally, ethically, or fundamentaly wrong in the 
policies and practices of the nursery business or in the 
character of its members, and I do not believe it now. We 
have some crooks perhaps. In what activity are they 
absent? Let us clean them up quietly and not advertise 
our frailities to the world. 
As Mr. Mayhew says, “the majority must rule” and if 
the majority after sober, careful thought—uninfluenced 
by fervid oratory and stage effects (if that is possible) — 
decides that “it stands square for the policies which are 
now the approved policies of the Association;” then, 
those of us who cannot agree with the majority and the 
present policies, must decide our future course. 
OFFICIAL EXPRESS CLASSIFICATION 
Bulbs or tubers—Second Class rates. 
Plants—Berry or vegetables, boxes or crated, second 
class. 
Not otherwise specified—1st class. 
In pots or tubs, not crated, 2 times 1st class. 
In pots, weight of shipment not exceeding 25 lbs., 
when in corrugated paper boxes, pots securely 
fastened to sides and bottom so that contents can¬ 
not shift—1st class. 
Will not be accepted when in pots or other recep¬ 
tacles completely boxed, except as provided above. 
Trees—Trees and Shrubs, Growing. 
In pots or tubs, plant and receptacle crated 1st class. 
In pots or tubs, not crated 2 times 1st class. 
Trees Not Otherwise Specified, and Shrubs and 
branches thereof 
Charges must be prepaid or guaranteed. 
Boxes, crated or strawed and baled— 1st class. 
On the subject of marking, the Classification has this 
requirement: ( g .) Nursery Stock and Trees in bundles 
or hales must be marked with not less than two tags, se¬ 
curely attached, and when in bales, shippers should 
place a duplicate address tag inside the bale for the pur¬ 
pose of identification. 
The advantages of having an “inside address” is that 
when the original tag is torn off by accident in transit, 
the additional tag enables the express people to identify 
the shipper. This avoids the necessity of sending such 
shipments to the “Over Without Mark Bureau” and pre¬ 
vents a claim. 
A considerable amount of nursery stock is sent to the 
“On Hand” departments, through incomplete or inaccur¬ 
ate addressing, as well as refusal by consignees to accept 
