188 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
will welcome an expression of your wishes here as well as else¬ 
where. Direct the Committee.to go forward and they will build 
an organization capable of rendering you the most efficient ser¬ 
vice. 
SECRETARY’S OFFICE 
A year ago your Executive Committee engaged the services of 
Mr. Charles Sizemore as Secretary-Traffic Manager at a salary of 
$1500.00 per annum. One of the duties of his office has been 
that of auditing freight and express bills of the members, and in 
the discussion of the possibilities of this feature of his work with 
the Committee, I stated that if the membership would cooperate 
with this new office by filing with Mr. Sizemore their old freight 
and express bills, under the proposed plan of 15% of the claims 
collected to go into our treasury, 10% to the Secretary, and 75% 
to the member owning the claim, the amount designated as the 
treasury’s funds would largely pay the Secretary’s salary. How 
well my prediction has been verified is best told by the figures 
taken from the Secretary’s books on June 1st. 
Total claims collected - - - $7539.08 
Serving a total of 29 firms and distributed as follows: 
Funds returned to the members - - $5654.31 
Funds returned to the treasury - - - 1130.90 
Charles Sizemore’s commissions - - 753.87 
In other words, on June 1st, the salary for the year paid to the 
Secretary had been returned to the treasury with the exception 
of $369.10, and only twenty-nine firms out of a total of four hun¬ 
dred had made use of this service. It can readily be imagined 
what the possibilities of this office would be if the entire mem¬ 
bership would use the services offered, which, by the way, are 
cheaper by 10% than the same service offered by auditing firms 
generally. I think, gentlemen, I could not bring you better evi¬ 
dence of the possibilities of organization than is shown by this 
report. The very fact that has been demonstrated in digging 
good money out of old freight bills is true all along the line if 
we would go after it. I want to take this opportunity to say that 
Ml’. Sizemore has served this Association with all the ability and 
loyalty he possesses, and you will be pleased, I am sure, with the 
report he brings you. Furthermore, I want to express my appre¬ 
ciation of the able assistance he has rendered my office during 
the year just closing. 
MEMBERSHIP 
Fear was expressed quite generally a year ago that many of 
the larger firms would forfeit their membership rather than pay 
the advanced dues, and it is gratifying to be able to report that 
not only has this not been true, but a large’’ percent of the mem¬ 
bers have paid their dues under the present schedule than on 
corre^onding date of recent years. The last information com¬ 
ing to my office on June 16th, was that only fifty-nine members 
had failed to report, and not one of these was among the large 
contributors. In view of the fact that quite a large percent of 
the membership have in the past paid their dues during the con¬ 
vention, this report is most gratifying. The increase of member¬ 
ship fees and dues over the old schedule is approximately 100% 
as a whole, and altogether represents as fair and equitable a 
basis of taxation as could reasonably be hoped for. As I have 
already stated, I believe the present basis will provide adequate 
funds for taking care of the Association’s affairs in a creditable 
manner, and, as far as I have been able to learn, this basis is, 
with very few exceptions, satisfactory to the membership. It is 
not so much a*matter, after all, of what a thing costs to-day as 
it is the service rendered, and this is peculiarly true of mem¬ 
bership in this Association. This membership can be made 
worth much more than our present schedule suggests, and if we 
do not get “cold feet” it will not be many years before mem¬ 
bership becomes so valuable that every eligible nurseryman in 
the entire country will be begging for admittance, without re¬ 
gard to the cost. My hope is that we may leave the schedule of 
dues where it is and that we may raise the standard otherwise 
until membership in the American Association of Nurserymen 
will represent all that is best and nothing that is bad in Amer¬ 
ican horticulture. 
COUNSEL’S OFFICE 
A year ago this question unfortunately developed certain per¬ 
sonal applications which were certainly not justified and which 
retarded our work for one year. Some of us doubted the wisdom 
of the present policy as it relates to retaining Counsel at a sal¬ 
ary of $4800.00 per annum and $25.00 per diem and expenses 
while away from his office, while others of us held to the opinion 
that a different policy would best serve the Association’s needs. 
I hope I may be understood when I say that there is the best of 
feeling between the President and the Association’s Counsel, and 
that the personality of no man should be allowed to enter into 
our discussions here. It is simply a matter of Association’s 
policy as it relates to one of its officers, and if we are to continue 
our present policy, personally, I had rather have Curtis Nye 
Smith as A,ssociation’s Counsel than any other man I know. In 
view of the fact that the Executive Committee has been criti¬ 
cized by some for this expenditure, I am confident that in their 
report the Committee will ask for your direction as it relates to 
the future of this office. I am mentioning the office of the As¬ 
sociation’s Counsel in my report only to get the whole matter 
before you and that you may consider what I say in connection 
with the report of the Executive Committee. 
CREDIT AND COLLECTION BUREAU 
As will be shown in Counsel’s report, this department has 
shown substantial growth from the beginning and, notwithstand¬ 
ing the conditions of last season, shows a net increase in revenue 
over year ending June 1918. It is unfortunate that more mem¬ 
bers do not use this department, and it is also unfortunate that 
more members do not avail themselves of Counsel’s advice which 
is free to the membership. If we are to continue our present 
policy as it relates to this department, in justice to Counsel as 
well as ourselves, we should avail ourselves of the service offered 
which, under present plans, is paid for. 
LEGISLATION 
The question of legislation will very properly be covered in 
detail by reports from your Legislative Committee and Counsel, 
but there is one feature of legislation which I think it not out of 
place to be mentioned here, that relating to Quarantine Order 
No. 37. 
QUARANTINE ORDER NO. 37 
First, may I say that the American Association of Nurserymen 
has a right to speak for the nurserymen of America, and it is the 
only organization in the country that has that right. I do not 
agree with my friend, the editor of the American Nurseryman, 
that this Association “represents one-fifth of the nurserymen of 
this country.” I am cognizant of the fact that there are a great 
many small nurserymen who are not members of the Associa¬ 
tion, but I feel secure in the statement that any action of this 
body represents in a definite way the nursery interests of 
America, for the very obvious reason that this membership rep¬ 
resents- most probably 90% of the money invested in the bus¬ 
iness in America, and holds within its hands a large majority of 
the annual business in nursery products. This position is recog¬ 
nized by all, because no other body or individual makes any 
special effort to shape the destinies of the nursery business along 
national lines. In the light of this reasoning, a number of un¬ 
fortunate things have been said through the press and otherwise, 
and a number of unfair criticisms have been made, both pro and 
con. through periodicals in no wise authorized to speak for the 
American Association of Nurserymen, relative to the position 
taken by your officers before the Federal Horticultural Board in 
the matter above referred to. My good friend, the editor of the 
American Nurseryman, a prince of good fellows and a man who 
labors in season and out for the upbuilding of the nursei’y in¬ 
terests, has allowed his enthusiasm for exclusion of foreign 
grown nursery stock to lead him into a discussion of the question 
from a point of view hardly fair to the officers of this Association. 
