186 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL EEPOKT OF THE 



more members; we could never get down to the very bottom of this 

 question of the National Association. 



I dare to make the suggestion, I may be wrong, and if wrong I 

 am always willing to yield to the majority-^as long as you make any 

 kind of a society or any kind of organization of one man power, or 

 the autocracy of a few, so long you are going to have the old system 

 which is bound to die.' 



So long as the National Bee-Keepers' Association or any other 

 democratic body, where every one who is a member of it will have the 

 same rights and derive the same benefits, and the whole body be the 

 representative vote of all bee-keepers — where the motion to move 

 forward, just like in the Balkans, not come from the commanding 

 general but where the members themselves in a democratic way move 

 forward in their enthusiasm, take their democratic leaders with them — 

 when the movement will come from the multitude, then j^ou will have 

 success. 



When out of the 800,000 bee-keepers of America will come a 

 motion for forward movement — then we are going to have National 

 democratic Bee-Keepers' Association and as such, victorious, harmoni- 

 ous and extremely effective. 



But one thing is true, as shown by past history, you cannot take 

 a man with whip and drive a hundred thousand men to his ideas 

 because American manhood and American womanhood will turn 

 against such a man and crush him. 



The future of our organizations must be democratic, for the 

 benefit of all — a democratic organization where every one has an equal 

 chance, an equal voice, equal representation — equal rights and responsi- 

 bilities — therefore if you want to succeed — be democratic and drop 

 every kind of autocracy, no matter what kind it is. 



PUSHING TO THE FRONT IN BEE-KEEPING. 



{Miss lona Fmvls, Medina, Ohio.) 



In the past there has probably been as many as 95 per cent of 

 the bee-keepers that have been compelled to work practically alone 

 and have had little or no chance for comparing results with others, 

 and so it is small wonder if they have not grown as rapidly, and it is 

 also but little wonder that they should have been contented with 

 sometimes a mere living. 



That is going to be all changed now. Those bee-keepers who might 

 have been having a thousand colonies and might easily have managed 

 them, have been quietly contented with about two hundred or less, 

 and even those perhaps were not taken as good care of as they should 

 have been, but I think now bee-keepers are going to wake up and pay 

 a little more attention to not only the number of colonies but also 

 to giving them better attention. There has never before been such an 

 impetus as at present to better bee-keeping. The journals and bee 

 literature, Government work, and plenty of available labor, high prices, 

 good crops, and a ready market, all of these we have now, and what 

 more could we ask for? Certainly nothing more, except what we 

 ourselves can supplj^ 



