40 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
Observations by the Optimist 
Comment Serious and Othenvise, on Trade Topics 
EXCLUSION 
UST by way of prediction, let it be set down that the 
few short-sighted growers who applaud the impend¬ 
ing prohibition of imports, may possibly have an¬ 
other guess coming. A monopoly is always appreciated 
by the “party of the first part,” but one seldom lasts long. 
In this country, we grow some lines that Holland grows 
too; there are other things we cannot grow supplied us 
by Holland and on which the buyers have always made 
a profit. The profit now accrues to those temporarily in 
control of our home supplies at monopoly prices. Let us 
bear this in mind: that we can shut out Holland stock, 
but we can’t shut out Holland nurserymen! Many of 
them have been growers for the American trade ex¬ 
clusively. What are they going to do now? Europe will 
not be able to use much of their stock for years to come. 
Is it unreasonable to suppose that what has already oc¬ 
curred to us has already occurred to them? If they can¬ 
not grow stock for the American market in Holland, why, 
they can come here and grow it. Besides, that would 
eliminate the tariff difference. They will begin to ar- 
rve before long; they will seek employment in your nur¬ 
series ; you will be glad to employ them; they will accus¬ 
tom themselves to your methods and after you have edu¬ 
cated them in the knowledge of how to compete with you, 
they will proceed to do that very thing. They are expert 
growers, trained from boyhood, far more efficient than 
the average American propagator, thrifty and economical. 
Not being able to reproduce their Holland soil and cli¬ 
mate, they will not be able to grow the Standard Roses, 
Azaleas and Rhododendrons, but they will grow what you 
and I are now growing and they will beat us both in 
quality and price. This is not set down in any feeling of 
alarm; our market offers opportunity for more good 
growers; it is just by way of pointing out that prohibi¬ 
tion will simply transfer competition from Holland to our 
own shores. Mohamet will come to the Mountain. 
LABOR 
It is apparent that relief from the embarrassing labor 
situation is close at hand. That is, the supply will be in¬ 
creased. Munition plants have closed down, war fac¬ 
tories are shut, two million soldiers are on their way 
home and when all these disengaged men return to their 
normal employments, there will be plenty of labor. Rut 
the question of supply itself is more important only than 
the co.st of it. Wages are high or low according to the 
cost of Iving and it doesn’t look like that is going to come 
down soon. We are going to have to feed all Europe un¬ 
til the next han^est and possibly for a year beyond that; 
it is one of our peace burdens; and that is not going to 
make our own living expenses one bit less. How. then, 
can we expect our labor to cost us less? It won’t. Com¬ 
petition for jol)s would seem to compel lower wages. 
Now, when a man earns three dollars a day and spends 
two-seventy-five of it, he is happy; but when he gets two- 
fifty and it costs two-seventy-five to live, it means strikes 
and riots and sabotage. Many trade organizations are al¬ 
ready declaring for maintainance of the present wage- 
scale even after it could be reduced. It would be against 
public policy to permit wages to fall below the cost of 
living. The problem may be handled by employers in the 
manner indicated and again it may be that conditions may 
force the Government to fix a minimum wage-scale. The 
war has upset so many conditions that we need not expect 
to be able to get back where we were four years ago; we 
can’t take up things where we dropped them; we have 
to begin all over again; peace brings problems far more 
serious than those of the war. We nurserymen might 
just as well make up our minds that for years to come 
our labor expense will be just as much as it is today; and 
sixty per cent of all our expense is for labor. If our pay¬ 
rolls were of their usual length, at present wages, just 
what would the balance-sheet show? We cannot make 
permanent our present neglect of the many things we 
have let pass; when we get our usual number of men 
back, how much shall we make at present labor cost? 
The laborers who became soldiers are coming back with 
new ideas; they are not going to be content except with 
better conditions than they left. The labor here has been 
employed at abnormally high wages, but neither are they 
going to resume quietly a lower standard of living. 
“Labor omnia vinrit.” We used to write it in our copy¬ 
books at school; we write it in our pay-rolls now. Our 
prices are less than they were ten years ago, because 
cost of production has more than doubled. Figure it out. 
SHORTAGE? NO: MORE DEMAND 
Did you read President Mayhew’s letter about fruit- 
trees? All other reports indicate what is referred to as a 
shortage of nearly all kinds of fruit-trees and small 
fruits; and it is very general—down South, out West, 
North and East. There has been a great demand from all 
over the country. Isn’t it rather easy to account for it? 
Look at the way fruit has been advertised as a good thing 
to grow for food. We were told that we could use it at 
home and ship the less perishable food to Europe. And 
the American people are wonderfully responsive; they are 
intelligent and they read and talk and think; they take 
hold of suggestions that sound reasonable. We nursery¬ 
men have had the benefit of the biggest sort of free adver¬ 
tising campaign, only we didn’t realize it and didn’t con¬ 
nect up with it. This big demand for fruit-trees is the 
drect result of it. There was Hoover, the Food Adminis¬ 
trator, who ke])t hammering on the idea of fruit as food; 
and there was Houston, in the Department of Agriculture, 
talking fruit in his speeches and putting the idea into 
department bulletins. Did you notice his use of the Des 
Moines Resoluton in one? And there was McAdoo, Direc¬ 
tor General of Transportation, putting nursery stock on 
the priority list, food-producing material, to be moved 
first! We had three big Government departments at 
