TWELFTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



paper, and while you are here together, 

 in Chicago, I thought it would 'he a 

 good time to tell you Avhere the con- 

 sumers are to be found. I want to get 

 a list of your names, the members of 

 this Association. This is what our 

 proposition is: 



I will not go into the economic con- 

 ditions that bring us to this study. 

 Ours is a league that is co-operative, 

 non- profit inaking, and is absolutely, 

 purely and simply a Consumers' 

 League. We want to buy. We will 

 want to buy honey before very long 

 in various Counties, depending on how 

 far we go, and at that time we will 

 want to know whether it will be with 

 you as individuals if we can get your 

 names, if you do business individually, 

 we want to get your prices and terms, 

 delivered, and then we will show you 

 we are able to pay for the goods, and 

 we want to get them of you, or if you 

 have an Association that you prefer 

 to deal through, we will be glad to deal 

 direct with the Association, and 

 do business in a wholesale way. I 

 will leave with your Secretary my ad- 

 dress, and will 'be glad to have you 

 folks communicate with us as an as- 

 sociation, or to have you furnish us 

 with a list of your members, and we 

 Avill treat them fairly and properly. I 

 presume these bee-keepers are nearest 

 to Chicago of any group we run into, 

 although I don't know. 



This is the thought I came here to 

 bring to your secretary and he gave me 

 kindly permission to say these few 

 words to you of what I had in mind. 



Pres. Huffman — We are glad to have 

 the gentleman with us and glad to have 

 heard him talk on this subject; that is 

 what a good many bee-keepers have 

 been looking for, to sell direct to the 

 consumer; and I think his suggestions 

 are all right; it is right that we confer 

 with him, and I believe that to give 

 him our names, the names of the mem- 

 bers of this association, would be a 

 good thing, and he can write to each 

 and every one of us and we can help 

 him as well as ourselves. If you want 

 to ask the gentleman any questions, 

 he may give you further light as to 

 how to ship the honey, but, of course, 

 we have his address, as he has said. 



Mr. Curti.s — We buy honey ordinarily 

 at the local grocer's and pay a high 

 price for it, and I find that the grocers 

 are under some trade conditions in the 



city; he is not getting so much money 

 although we are paying high prices. 

 We find that the yearly purchases of 

 consumers in Chicago will run perhaps 

 five million dollars annually; that is 

 the price at the producinig point. It 

 will cost one million dollars more to 

 bring the material from the producer 

 to the consumer than the material it- 

 self .is worth at the producing point. 

 Certainly that is a wide difference and 

 justifies almost any kind of action on 

 the part of the producer and the con- 

 sumer. We find that the raisin grower 

 in California gets two and two and a 

 quarter cents a pound out there; we 

 pay from fifteen to twenty cents here. 

 I presume you are acquainted with 

 these conditions. Mr. Yocolm, a trans- 

 portation man, in his article in the 

 World's Work for the month of De- 

 cember, analyzed this situation very 

 thoroug"hly, and this movement of ours 

 is in line with the things they recom- 

 mend. 



The chairman of this meeting has 

 called attention to shipping; we have no 

 fixed mode of shipping as yet — whether 

 we will establish an independent depot 

 or Avarehouse of our own, in one or more 

 localities, depends on whether we are 

 permitted to use the present means on 

 an economic basis. 



Pre?. Huffman — The question that the 

 gentleman just raised in regard to the 

 distribution — of course he has reference 

 to the city of Chicago. I do not see 

 why we cannot ship to them direct, 

 when they ore thoroughly organized, — 

 and at a reduced price; so soon as they 

 have some way of receiving the honey 

 we can work through them; but in- 

 dividually we can do as he says, — ship 

 direct to the consumer; we know that 

 we do not get what the agents get; 

 XA'e get our price and then they get 

 theirs, and sometimes it is plentj' high. 

 Could we not do that, Mr. Curtis? 



Mr. Curtis — Yes; such articles as we 

 can buy we can distribute; such articles 

 as we cstn receive at our stations, svioh 

 as honey, which usually comes by itself, 

 that is a very simple matter, our get- 

 ting together with the producers. 



I will also say, this movement is 

 calculated to be a State-wide and Na- 

 tional-wide movement. This will be 

 the nucleus of a very large organization. 

 What we are after now is to get the 

 names and get in touch with the pro- 

 ducers on food products, either indi- 



