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ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



127 



try to force their right of way across 

 our garden patch and attempt to grab 

 our markets, and we swear by all that 

 is holy, that we will not buy our sup- 

 plies off of that train (which some of 

 us do) and still work in friendly co- 

 operation with the train crew in boost- 

 ing our honey markets. 



There is always recourse when a 

 railroad wants our fields for a right 

 of way or when a corporation invades 

 our local market. The courts of law 

 will compel the railroad to pay us the 

 assessed damage, and the court of 

 public opinion will grant to home pro- 

 ducers the preference over any honey 

 that even the biggest corporation can 

 bring into our markets. 



I know that this is true. I have 

 seen it tried time and time again. The 

 local producer is supreme and un- 

 shakable in his home market if he uses 

 due diligence in taking care of it. The 

 large handlers of honey can gather the 

 large crops of the remote producer and 

 distribute it to the spots where the 

 influence of the local man is not su- 

 preme, and do it at a profit by adver- 

 tising it and creating a demand for 

 it. To do this profitably he must buy 

 close, and sell at a considerable ad- 

 vance to cover necessary expense, and 

 also allow his retailers a reasonable 

 profit. 



The things make it necessary for 

 him to fix the price high enough so 

 that it gives the local man ample 

 margin to sell his crop. JHoney can 

 not be brought long distances, bottled, 

 distributed and sold at a price so low 

 as to affect the sales of the local bee- 

 keeper, and the home grocers will not 

 get "stung" by buying foreign honey 

 more than once, as that one time is 

 all they want. 



From a wide experience and obser- 

 vation, it is obvious that the large 

 firms, they do a legitimate business 

 and sell for legitimate prices, are a 

 great help to the little fellows and, in 

 their turn, the little fellows are a help 

 to the big ones. When the local man 

 sells his honey crop at home, it is 

 permanently off the market. Every 

 pound sold to the ultimate consumer 

 is a pound out of the way. It does not 

 have to be reckoned with any more. 

 When 10, 50 or 100 thousand small 

 producers sell their one, two or five 

 tons at home, there is a vast aggregate 

 of honey out of the way for keeps. 

 When the big fellows gather up the 



remote product in 10, 20 or 100 ton 

 lots, and distribute it to the cities and 

 larger markets, THAT surplus is not 

 left to glut the market and depress 

 the price of everybody's honey. 



It is obvious, then, that the interests 

 of the large producer and distributor 

 and the local producer and distributor 

 are mutual. There is no real an- 

 tagonism, as some might believe, but 

 they are identical. They both have a 

 common desire. They both wish a 

 greater interest in and a better de- 

 mand for honey. How are we to get 

 it? 



We started to talk of co-operation 

 in advertising. This means ALL the 

 bee-keepers and distributors, each in 

 his own way, working to establish the 

 same policy and. attain the same end. 



It is evident that, if ALL the bee- 

 keepers are to co-operate, they must 

 have the positive assurance that their 

 interests are really identical, in this 

 one thing, even if they are not in some 

 others. 



This is the greatest part of the 

 problem. A local bee-keeper could not 

 be hypnotized into spending money 

 that would benefit the A. I. R. line 

 people, or the Muth people, or any 

 other firm more than it would himself, 

 and he would be right in his refusal 

 to do so. 



Neither would the A. I. R. people, the 

 Muth people, be inclined to spend money 

 if it would benefit George Williams or 

 any other local bee-keeper more than it 

 would themselves, and they would be 

 right in their position. 



The ideal co-operative advertising Is 

 that which brings the first, direct and 

 greater benefit to the one w^ho finances 

 it, and which does no harm to others in 

 the same line, but incidentally benefits 

 the business at large. W^here all the in- 

 dividuals do this, it advances the in- 

 terests of the w'hole body. 



To do just this is the policy of the 

 United Honey Producers, when it pro- 

 poses to have the schools teach "The 

 Food yalue of Honey" in the domestic 

 science departments, and the "Economic 

 Value of the Bee" in the graded and 

 high schools. 



The idea is to get the coming genera- 

 tion interested in HONEY. Not comb 

 honey, nor extracted honey, not any 

 particular kind or quality of honey, but 

 HONEY. 



The older generation was educated 



