ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



101 



heads and say, "I am inot my brother's 

 keeper." The world is better as we 

 make it better. If we can beep some- 

 body else from starving and keep hold- 

 ing their head up by marketing our 

 honey to them, we are making the 

 world better. "When I take something 

 out of the soil; or if my 'bees can pro- 

 duce a pound of honey, I have added 

 wealth to the country; the other man 

 has not added a cent in wealth to this 

 country; I will admit that he is a means 

 between the two parties but he is not 

 there for the benefit of the other fel- 

 low's health. 



Mr. Cavanagh-— The time was when 

 we could produce honey but we oould 

 not sell it 



Mr. Pyles — A few years ago we did 

 not produce the crops we do now. 



Mr. Cavanagh — And we could not 

 have disposed of the honey if we were 

 able to have produced it. 



Mr. Pyles — Twenty years ago honey 

 was sold in an old pine box or any 

 kind of wood; now we have got to go 

 to the expense of putting it up in a 

 very much better way; we can't sell 

 honey like we did twenty years ago. 

 If I shipped it to Chicago or to Peoria 

 like it was done twenty years ago 

 I would not get enough to pay the 

 transportation charges. 



Mr. Cavanagh — Are you going to let 

 the consumer pay for getting this 

 honey from you to him, or are you to 

 pay for it? You admit there is an ex- 

 liense in marketing your product to the 

 consumer; one plan is to tell everybody 

 what you have; another is to use the 

 newspapers in advertising; another, to 

 have boys go around and distribute 

 circulars that you have issued; your 

 time is worth something; every one's 

 time is worth something. Who is 

 going to pay for this expense, after the 

 121/2 cents you have got to have, net? 

 AVho is going to stand that expense? 

 If s^ou stand that, you get less for j^our 

 honey. 



Mr. Pyles — This is the question: The 

 expense of transportation will have to 

 be paid for, after I get 12% cents for 

 my honey; that must be added to the 

 price of the honey; that is a legitimate 

 expense; the railroad company must 

 have their expense. Perhaps the best 

 thing I con do is to tell you about 

 a community located on the Eastern 

 line of Marshall and Putnam Counties, 

 a community of Quakers; they buy 

 everything in lots, and sell it; each 



one weighs their clover seed', and they 

 put it all together, and then it is sold 

 to the people of the community. When 

 they buy their California fruit, they 

 buy it together and it is hauled in and 

 each one takes a certain amount; it 

 is the wealthiest farming community 

 that I know of in the State of Illinois, 

 and they have made it wealthy by 

 the co-operative plan; they stand as 

 the consumer and the producer; some 

 things they produce and some things 

 they consume. 



Mr. Cavanagh — ^What are their retail 

 prices? Are they below anybody else? 



Mr. Pyles — Montgomery Ward 

 prices; the same as those of Mont- 

 gomery Ward. 



Mr. Cavanagh — There is a good prof- 

 it in Montgomery Ward prices. 



Mr. Pyles^ — Our own grocer told me 

 the people are buying groceries of 

 Montgomery Ward as cheap as he 

 could buy them. 



Mr. Cavanagh — I really want to 

 know if there is any short cut from 

 tlie producer to the consumer, whereby 

 you can eliminate all this expense of 

 distribution? By the mail order prop- 

 osition s^ou have to tack on as much 

 again as the stuff originally cost; there 

 is no mail order house that does not do 

 that unless they have a sj'stem like 

 the department stores. As a rule if 

 it costs $1.00 to produce an article 

 it costs $2.00 in the mail order process 

 and advertising. That community 

 spends thousands and thousands of 

 dollars every year in advertising. 



Mr. Pyles — No, they do not; it is a 

 community of Quakers. 



Mr. Cavanagh — Do they market any 

 large quantity, and how do they reach 

 the consumer? How do they 

 reach their people with their 

 honey without having to adver- 

 tise it or send out circulars, or have 

 some one tell them about it? How 

 do the people know that they have 

 honey for sale? The proposition is 

 here: In every business that I know 

 of there is an expense of getting the 

 proiduct from the producer to the con- 

 sumer; I don't know how we can get 

 around that. You might offer them 

 honey for sale in your own town for 

 12% cents — How many people from 

 Chicago would go down and buy it? 

 You would' have to spend lots of money 

 in telling the people of Chicago that 

 j-ou have this honey for sale. 



Mr. Pyles — ^What is the reason that 



