ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



67 



pay one dollar and be members of 

 the State only, and some are willing 

 to pay the $1.50 and belong to both, 

 and that is a question we will have to 

 have settled for us — whether we can 

 do it and remain truthful and loyal to 

 the National. It has been done in Mis- 

 souri. Missouri imakes it fifty cents 

 for the State membership instead of 

 one dollar. 



I think every one wants to be loyal 

 to the National. 



Under the circumstances, however, 

 we believe (I think a majority of us 

 believe) it would be a mistake not to 

 accept the one dollar. We want to 

 know whether it can be done and be 

 agreeable all round. We are ready to 

 hear you, Mr. Tyrrell. 



Mr. Tyrrell — Mr. President, Mem- 

 bers of the Association: 



It offers me a great deal of pleasure 

 to have the privilege of meeting and 

 addressing the members of the Illinois 

 Eee-Keepers' Association. I have read 

 about the work that has been done 

 in your Association, and I have ap- 

 preciated for a long time that you have 

 one of the most progressive Associa- 

 tions of Bee-keepers in the United 

 States so far as I am acquainted. I 

 certainly feel that you have a loyal 

 set of officers who are working out 

 these problems for you. 



My position, understand, in coming 

 as a representative of the National 

 Association niust not be confused. 



I do not want you to feel that I have 

 come here to tell you Avhat you can an«l 

 cannot do. We are one great family. 

 According to the action taken at our 

 last convention, you are as much a part 

 of the National Association as I am, 

 or as any other Association is, and 

 these problems that are presenting 

 themselves are problems for your con- 

 sideration just as well as they are for 

 ours. Don't lose sight of that fact — 

 that the National is not one Association 

 and this State Society another Associa- 

 tion. 



I will try and answer all the ques- 

 tions as best I can. 



The old Constitution, under which 

 we were working, had been in force 

 for many years. The old Association 

 had efficient officers at its head — men 

 who devoted conscientious work and 

 tried hard to acomplish as much good 

 as possible for the bee-keepers, and 

 I want to say in this respect the As- 

 sociation never had a more conscien- 



tious, hard working and thorough man 

 than the man we have with us today, 

 Mr. France. 



But in spite of the fact that you 

 tried, and that we tried through the 

 Association to accomplish something — 

 to climb ahead, the officers were handi- 

 capped under the old Constitution. 



We were at that time a competi- 

 tive organization: Then we could say 

 the National was one society, and the 

 Michigan still another, because you 

 had different constitutions and did. not 

 have representation in the National 

 convention. 



You went there as individuals. One 

 man in your convention stated that 

 according to the new Constitution there 

 is a delegate to be sent for every fifty 

 members; (that was a mistake); he 

 said that we would have to send six 

 delegates and it would cost three hun- 

 dred dollars to have this association 

 represented. 



Under the old constitution, if you 

 were represented in the National and 

 represented properlj^ you had to send 

 three hundred members of the Illi- 

 nois Association to the National Con- 

 A-ention; now multiply that by the cost 

 for each delegate and you will find 

 out what it cost you under the old 

 constitution. 



Tender the old constitution the Con- 

 ventions necessarily were local in 

 chnracter. Few men went from dis- 

 tant parts of the country, and those 

 few were the only representatiA^es we 

 had from those distant parts. The rest 

 of the attendance were all local bee- 

 keepers and the laws that were brought 

 up and passed would be influenced by 

 that local attendance. 



It was not a representative meetins' 

 of bee-keepers of this country. And 

 yet the association tried to represent 

 the bee-keepers of the whole United 

 States. 



A short time ago we understood from 

 the Bee Journals that the membership 

 of the National Association was creep- 

 ing up and that we had nearly five 

 thousand members — over four thou- 

 sand five hundred members — and I was 

 under the impression that we had that 

 many members on our list. 



When I got out the first circular, 

 which, by the way, I have with me this 

 morning, I got out an edition uf five 

 thousand, and then I set girls to work 

 addressing envelopes, and I found 

 when I addressed the envelopes to 



