dbe IRatlonal IRurscr^man. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated 
Vol. XXIX. HATBORO, PENNA ., MAY 1921 
Present P olicies of A. A. N. Will be Endorsed by the June Convention 
I did not intend to say another word on this question 
until June convention, but Mr. Pitkin’s elaborate ref¬ 
erence to me in April issue of the trade journals suggests 
that this contribution is not out of place. My esteemed 
friend forgets established rules in his article in that he 
uses numerous quotations, and in such fashion as to 
lead the reader to conclude that said quotations were 
something I had said on the subject, when in reality I 
had said nothing of the kind. I have refrained from all 
personalities in this discussion and shall so continue. I 
was in no wise responsible for and do not endorse the 
array of “progressives vs. the old guard” appearing in 
recent issue of American Nurseryman, and had I been 
consulted I would have refused to allow use of my name 
in this fashion. If I have had any part in shaping the 
policies of A. A. N. in the past, I have endeavored to elim¬ 
inate selfish interests in all of it. I accord to every other 
man the right I reserve for myself, to think and act for 
himself, hence Mr. Pitkin in opposing a policy for the 
Association which he deems impractical is acting wholly 
within his rights, and when he thinks any of us on the 
other side are going to fall out with him for this, he is 
drawing on his imagination. The only criticism I have 
of a few of my good friends who voted “no” in the last 
two conventions is that their sense of comprehension 
seems, for some inexplicable reason, dull. Can’t the 
minority realize that in this land of ours majorities rule, 
and that majorities are going to continue to rule? On 
the eleventh of last November a Republican majority, as 
brutal as the majority against Mr. Pitkin in last A. A. N. 
convention, gave me the greatest jolt of my life, but 
there is not a Republican in the nation who has a better 
President to-day than have I, or who would do more to 
hold up his hands. I believe in the rule of the majority 
and the rule of the majority has made this the greatest 
nation under the sun. Now, if Mr. Pitkin can persuade 
the majority that the Association’s policies of the past 
few years are inferior to the good old days prior to 1915, 
then back to “normalcy” we go, and I’ll bow to the will 
of tin; majority, and be gracious about it. So much for 
introductory. 
What we all want, I take it, is to determine what is 
best for the nursery interests of America, and to do that 
particular thing. If we are not right we want to get 
right. Anyone offering a criticism, however, should 
offer something in place of the thing criticised. If any¬ 
one has a better horse, trot him out. 
Article IX. of the Constitution 
During the past five years we have been erecting a 
house, and above the door we have placed this sign: 
Only those who can and will live up to the teaching of 
Art. IX of the Constitution can enter.” ’ If we had done 
nothing more than to honestly adopt and honestly en¬ 
deavor to live up to the ethical standards set forth in Ar¬ 
ticle IX of our Constitution, the money and efforts of 
the past five years have been wisely expended. Some of 
oui fiiends are terribly afraid that our acknowledg¬ 
ment of needed reforms will create in the minds of the 
public a suspicion that all is not right among the nur¬ 
serymen, and they resent any inference that there is any 
ground for suspicion here, and with bravo worthy a 
poker player of long ago say, “we are as clean in our 
methods as men in other lines of business.” Well, no¬ 
body doubts this, but where does that get us. Now, 
brother, I know, you know, and, God bless you, the pub¬ 
lic knows that this is all buncombe, pure and simple, 
and because the public knows, the public appreciates and 
is responding to our determination to clean house. The 
selling methods of many nursery concerns in the past 
was a disgrace. The advertising was misleading and 
often one hundred per cent false. It was an ac¬ 
knowledged practice, often openly discussed on the floor 
of the convention, that the nurserymen’s dealings one 
with the other were downright rotten, and the statement 
by one of the leading nurserymen of America to the ef¬ 
fect that “there is a certain bunch of men in the trade 
who openly boast that they make rejections pay their 
freight bills,” brought forth the resolution on compulsory 
arbitration, which I believe all agree has been salutary. 
In theology, repentance and acklowledgment of sin is ne¬ 
cessary to forgiveness, and the same is no less true in the 
business world. Let us quit dodging this issue. I said 
in a speech before the convention some years ago that 
if we refused to clean house the public would demand 
that the government do the cleaning for us, and we have 
been busy at the job for several years, and while not 
half through we can report progress. There is not a 
thinking man among us but that knows that from an 
ethical point of view the improvement in nurserymen’s 
policies is most marked. Now, I do not mean to say 
that the thing was all bad. Many firms have always pur¬ 
sued methods above reproach, but it is the guilty ele¬ 
ment whose sins all of us have had to answer for, and 
they have not always been the one-horse, backwoods 
nurserymen either. 
Our Efforts Are Approved ry the Press, 
Entomologists, and the Public Generally 
Mr. Pitkin asks, and I take it has an open mind here, 
what good has the Association accomplished under the 
new regime. I repeat that the public generally recognize 
and appreciate the effort we are making to get on a 
higher plane. I have before me a voluminous file of let¬ 
ters from influential men, not nurserymen, representing 
a certa-'r phase of horticulture and representative of the 
United States. Without exception these men endorse the 
work of the Association and predict in glowing terms the 
