ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS'' ASSOCIATION. 29 



by another man, you have to be a crank in a business if you are going 

 to be a success. Dr. Miller proves that to be a successful bee-keeper 

 you have to live with your bees, you have to love your work, and that 

 is true, whether you are a lawyer, doctor, or whatever you are, if you 

 love your work, if you make it a part of your life, live it, dream it, 

 you make a grand success. I want the members to buy that magazine, 

 it is well worth reading by any bee-keeper. 



Ladies and gentlemen, you have certainly reached a point where 

 you are an important factor among the food producers of the world; 

 it is therefore an honor to the city of Springfield that you meet here 

 each year, and I wish you a most successful meeting, both pleasure to 

 yourselves and profit. I thank you. 



The President. — Mr. Barber, we certainly appreciate your wel- 

 come, and we thoroughly agree with the idea that the bee-keeper has 

 reached an important station in the affairs of the country, especially 

 as a food producer. 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Members of the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Assoiiation, Ladies and 

 Gentlemen: 



Since last we assembled our hearts and minds have been increas- 

 ingly absorbed in the world-wide struggle to make the earth again a 

 decent place to live in. It could not be otherwise. We are American 

 citizens and free men. We are not true Americans if we give not our 

 first thought and best effort to this cause of human freedom every- 

 where — to this holy crusade to rid the earth of conspirators seeking 

 to enslave all its people. 



We have entered upon the fifth year since nine criminals, meeting 

 in secret conclave at Potsdam, resolved that "The Day" had come, 

 and plunged the world into a war that has already taken more than 

 nine million human lives. For their "Day" these criminals and their 

 accomplices had prepared for many years. The most devilish feature 

 of that preparation was the systematic mental and moral poisoning 

 of their own people, until that people, once justly renowned for kindliness 

 and humanity, has descended into the very abyss of fiendish treachery 

 and bestial cruelty. 



With the German people, as we once knew them and in whose 

 blood many of us are sharers, we have indeed no quarrel. In the light 

 of Louvain and the Lusitania, and all the horrors since we may well 

 doubt whether the German people we once knew still exist within the 

 realms ruled by Hollenzollern and Hapsburg. A great poUtical philos- 

 opher long ago observed: "Every people has the kind of government 

 it deserves. " Hence the continued existence of the German people we 

 once knew, all respected, and many loved, must be doubted so long as 

 those bear its name continue to tolerate government so depraved, 

 treacherous and criminal. 



For these reflections upon public situation I make no apology. 

 They acutely condition our bee-keeping enterprise. Because of them 

 we have little strength to spare for our special bee-keeping interests, 

 and may well be content to "hold fast and carrj^ on." 



