140 



TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OP THE 



would' be more apt to attend the Con- 

 vention. 



I wonder if it would not be possible 

 for us, even with our limited means, 

 to send notices to a great many 

 proTQinent men wh"b would be liable to 

 come — send thena a notice of the meet- 

 ing, urging them to attend. Our Sec- 

 retary and President cannot take this 

 in their own hands and stand the ex- 

 pense of writing letters — ^but would it 

 not be a good plan for the Chicago- 

 Northwestern to take this up some few 

 days before the meeting — tell what 

 benefits are to be received by attend- 

 ing the convention — have something to 

 make them come for, and we would 

 have a very much larger attendance 

 and a convention full of interest. 



Mr. Dadant — It is not easy to get a 

 crowd to come to conventions. I be- 

 lieve a good strong letter to different 

 noted men might bring them. I sent 

 , out 500 post cards. 



I am sure I would be glad to have 

 any suggestions and help we can get to 

 make this a stronger meeting; it ought 

 to be a stronger meeting. Chicago is 

 a central point — with all railroads run- 

 ning into it. If we could be sure of 

 three or four or five strong men, like 

 Mr. France and others, it would be a 

 drawing card; one thing I neglected to 

 do — I might have written to Mr. Boy- 

 den, and told him to notify all bee- 

 keepers coming into his store. When 

 Mr. York was here with the American 

 Bee Journal, when bee-keepers came 

 into hi9 office, he would tell them that 

 the Northwestern was going to have a 

 meeting at such and such a time, and 

 in such a place; and we had a better 

 attendance. 



We have now had three or four poor 

 seasons, and the bee-keeper has felt 

 poor and has not wanted to spend the • 

 money to come. 



Mr. Boyden — How did it come you 

 selected these days? 



Mr. Dadant — We always have had 

 our meeting during the Fat Stock 

 Show; I had intended to have it then; 

 Mr. Dittmer said — "We are going to 

 have a Wisconsin meeting the 17th and 

 18th — why not have the Chicago-North- 

 western right after ours? If you do 

 this several will go right from the Wis- 

 consin meeting." I said — "All right." 



Mr. Pyles — Along this line of making 

 this convention something to be re- 

 memlbered^why not ask all the Bee 

 Journals to give it a write-up? Why 



not have them tell in their Journals 

 what the Chicago -Northwestern in- 

 tends to accomplish? I believe that any 

 of them would be willing to do this; 

 I think it would be well to put in the 

 Journals, not only a notice of the meet- 

 ing, but a write-up; I believe we could 

 have a great many more people here 

 if this were done. People don't read 

 an ordinary notice, as a rule, but if you 

 have a write-up I think you wUl ac- 

 complish greater resuKs. 



Mr. Dadant — If I can get three or 

 four of the noted bee-keepers, like Mr. 

 France, to say they will come, and then 

 put that in the Bee Journals, it will 

 make a lot of difference and will be a 

 good drawing card; but they are al- 

 ways busy. 



Pres. Huffman — I am satisfied if you 

 give Mr. France a personal invitation, 

 and ask him to come, he will be with 

 us. 



Mr. Cavanagh — If we simply send out 

 a post card, saying there will be a 

 meeting of the Chicago-Northwestern 

 on such and such a day — it will prob- 

 ably be thrown away; but if we "fea- 

 ture" this meeting and give them the 

 impression that we are "live" ones — 

 that there is going to be something 

 doing — that we will have something of 

 interest for every bee-keeper who is 

 present — we will be sure to get a much 

 larger attendance. If we could tell 

 them that Mr. E. E. Townsend is going 

 to give us his system for operating his 

 out-apiaries; and different men will be 

 present to inform us on subjects of 

 vital interest to the bee-keeper — it is 

 bound to count. Tell them all about 

 what we are going to do — and these 

 fellows will be bound to come; let them 

 know that we are going to give them 

 a good lively time. People don't like 

 to come to a, convention to keep it from 

 dying out, but they want to come where 

 there will be a good lively meeting. 

 Perhaps by that time the A. I. Root 

 Company will have their moving pic- 

 tures started! 



Pres. Huffman — ^The suggestion was 

 made by Mr. Baldridge — as to who pays 

 the delegate's expenses — How are you 

 going to leave it? What is your pleas- 

 ure? Or will we leave it as it is and 

 let the delegate take his chances? 



Mr. Cavanagh — ^I will go just the same. 



Mr. Pyles' — I move that we adjourn, 

 to meet at the call of the Executive 

 Committee. 



Pres. Huffman — It was left that way 



