ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



89 



of, provided it waa found advisable by 

 the Directors. 



Mr. Baxter — That was done by the 

 delegates afterwards; it was not the 

 report of the committee. 



Dr. Gates — I understand j-ou now. 

 The report of the committee was simply 

 accepted and placed on file. 



You need not have any fear in re- 

 gard to the settlement of the Review; 

 it will either stay or go; there will be 

 action sure as the world. 



Pres. Baxter — In what way? 



Dr. Gates — I cannot prophesy; I can- 

 not say you must sell the Review; it is 

 for the Directors to say; you have 

 elected your Directors; it will be dis- 

 cussed and action will be taken. 



Pres. Baxter — It will be done pro- 

 vided you send delegates to the Con- 

 vention next February who will oust 

 those three Directors and put in three 

 others; if not it will go on as it has, 

 from bad to worse. I will say further, 

 and I know what I am talking about, 

 too, that this is a voluntary association, 

 it is not incorporated; it is like a part- 

 nership, therefore every man is liable 

 personally for all the debts of the cor- 

 poration, and whoever holds a bill 

 against this Society can pick on to any 

 one member of the Association and 

 bring suit against him for the whole 

 amount if he wants to do go, and living 

 in different states this would take place 

 in the United States Court, and we 

 don't know what is going to take place. 

 They have not given us a definite state- 

 ment — no books or an^'thing to show 

 what we are in debt for; nothing to 

 show what we have received; we are 

 totally at sea as to profit and loss or 

 expenses and receipts, and our Treas- 

 urer last year received practically noth- 

 ing. I don't know how it is the present 

 year, but Mr. Dadant who was Presi- 

 dent the previous year had nothing in 

 his hands; no money was turned over 

 to him; the books were not even 

 audited; there is nothing to show just 

 where we are at, and the longer it 

 goes on the worse off we will be. 



I contend that the National as it has 

 been organized and administered is en- 

 tirely wrong. I have no reflection on 

 Brother Gates; I think he ig one of the 

 best officers I have ever seen; it is the 

 Directors I am blaming. The National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association was organ- 

 ized for the aggrandizement of a one 

 man power and without any view of 



helping the fraternity at large; that 

 having failed, then we were left at sea. 

 We arrived at St. Louis without a 

 Secretary, last February, and we 

 didn't know where we were at at all, 

 and there was nothing to show how 

 we stood. 



Heretofore we had a good associa- 

 tion. We were doing some good. 



Can you show me one iota of good 

 that has been accomplished for the • 

 benefit of the bee-keepers at large 

 since this Association has been re- 

 organized? 



Can any one show me anything at 

 all that has been accomplished? 

 I would like to know what it is. 

 We went to work and got up a 

 Constitution for the new organization, 

 and we authorized * the incorporation 

 of this organization. As I said before 

 it was not done because, as Dr. Gates 

 has told us, we had no money to do 

 it with, . but now what has taken 

 place? This Constitution (I don't 

 know that there are any By-Laws) 

 has been presented to us here for 

 ratification or rejection or amendment. 

 Who authorized them to do it? Not 

 the delegates, by any, means. They 

 were never gotten up for the old As- 

 sociation; they were gotten up for the 

 new Association entirely, and, the new 

 Association having failed, I don't see 

 why they are brought up here. We 

 have nothing to do with them at all. 

 Dr. Phillips — I do not care to enter 

 into any controversy over what the 

 National has or has not done, but I 

 want to say a word or two that may 

 throw some light on the situation. 



I have attended ten Executive meet- 

 ings of the National Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation. I do not know whether I 

 shall attend ten more in succession or 

 not. I can say this, however, that a 

 large part of the time of each of the 

 last ten meetings has been devoted to 

 the writing of Constitutions. I do not 

 really know whether the Constitution 

 has ever done anybody any good or 

 not, but I am certainly positive that 

 the wasting of that time, writing 

 Constitutions at the Conventions, has 

 not profited any one. 



As we now have the National Con- 

 stitution it is -a delegate body but most 

 of the delegates went there last year 

 uninstructed by their Associations and 

 were not able to state what the mem- 

 bers of the National as a whole de- 

 sired. 



