ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



149 



ever in the control of the National As- 

 sociation or simply in the hands of a 

 special committee, stating that I felt 

 if the Association controlled that fund 

 that he was assuming no obligations 

 . or risk in following the instructions 

 given him hy the Directors, and that, 

 if any one was censured for the trans- 

 fer, it would he the Directors and not 

 him. His reply to that letter read, in 

 part, as follows: 



(Here read letter from Mr, France 

 of August 12.) 



Believing that Mr. France was acting 

 conscientiously in the matter and not 

 wishing to stir up dissension among 

 the officers the matter was dropped, 

 and the League Fund has Taeen in the 

 Treasury while the Directors have been 

 out their expenses. From the above 

 letter it would appear that according 

 to Mr. France's interpretation the 

 League Fund was in the hands of the 

 National Association, I must confess 

 that I cannot agree with him in the 

 position he takes, but I cannot help 

 but feel that he is honest in his belief 

 in the matter as it does not seem pos- 

 sible that a man who has worked so 

 hard for the National in the past would 

 attempt to block its progress at this 

 time. I am equally frank to say that 

 the attitude taken iby Mr. France has 

 prevented some things ibeing done this 

 year, for had the fund been available 

 it was my intention to visit some of 

 the leading cities and make arrange- 

 ments for selling agencies for om 

 product' to be established. 



With reference to the change in 

 Constitution, will say that there has, 

 of course, been a great deal of mis- 

 understanding on the part of the mem- 

 bership; some objection has been 

 raised, but there has been a good deal 

 more approval than there has criti- 

 cism. There are some things, however, 

 which should be changed at this meet- 

 ing, and these will have the attention 

 of the delegates later. There has been 

 some opposition on the part of some 

 State Associations with reference to 

 their becoming members, to the Na- 

 tional, but I feel confident that this 

 has been mainly through a misunder- 

 standing of just what we are trying • 

 to do and how we are doing it. I feel 

 that the National laws should be made 

 so they will not conflict in any way 

 with the laws of the various local and 

 State Branches; at the same time these 

 different Branches should conform to 



the rules necessary to successfully con- 

 duct a National organization. Some of 

 the Associations that held out at first 

 , have since become Branches, and I am 

 pleased to say that I have an Associa- 

 tion waiting now, the Northern Cali- 

 fornia Association, that will be re- 

 corded as a Branch in the March num- 

 'ber of the Review, but is waiting the 

 action of the delegates at this meeting 

 to know whether all of their members 

 can be considered Branch members, 

 as per proposed amendment. Section 2, 

 of Article IV., or whether they will 

 be required to do as has one other As- 

 sociation done, organized a separate 

 Association to act as a National 

 Branch, 



During the past y^ar, according to 

 resolutions adopted by the Directors, 

 Lhave listed as National Branches those 

 societies where their officers have 

 agreed to act as National oflicers until 

 their next regular meeting, when the 

 matter could be definitely settled. This 

 was done as members were coming in 

 from these places where Branches had 

 not been established, sending their Na- 

 tional and Branch fees, which made it 

 necessary for me to turn this money 

 over .to some other National Branch 

 instead of to the Branch in their State 

 or Province. This is particularly true 

 of the Ontario Branch, and I wish to 

 mention in this respect that I under- 

 stand I was criticised at the New York 

 State meeting by an Ontario Bee- 

 keeper, and possibly by others for pub- 

 lishing the name of the Ontario Asso- 

 ciation as a National Branch when 

 they had not taken legal action. I 

 offer the above explanation as my rea- 

 sons for doing this, and will, say that 

 during the year I have sent to their 

 Secretary, Mr. P. W. Hodgetts, quite 

 a number of fifty cent memberships 

 that otherwise would not have gone 

 into the treasury of the Ontario Asso- 

 ciation, but would have been turned 

 over to some other Branch. My first 

 letter to the Secretary of the Northern 

 California Association when they wrote 

 me that thej' had voted to become a 

 Branch contained a check for $5.00 for 

 memberships received from that and 

 nearby states not having a Branch, 

 received just a few days prior to get- 

 ting their letter, which I had not yet 

 sent to other Branches. By the above 

 you can see that there has been no in- 

 tention to deceive the public by print- 



