ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



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last winter. He in connection with 

 Mr. Stone, our Secretary, undertook to 

 incorporate tiie National. Mr. Stone 

 had a friend here, a prominent lawyer, 

 and got up papers of incorporation, also 

 a set of By-Laws and a Constitution, 

 and they incorporated here in Illinois. 

 Knowing what they had done at the 

 Convention in St. Louis the year be- 

 fore, I, as the delegate from this So- 

 ciety to Denver, took precautions so 

 they would not get ahead of us at Den- 

 ver; I wrote to Mr. Stone for a copy 

 of the incorporation papers and the 

 By-Laws and Constitution; so I went 

 to Denver prepared. 



The meeting was called to order; 

 Mr. "Williams was the Secretary; and 

 things proceeded on pretty smoothly 

 until the question of incorporation 

 came up; then Mr. Williams objected 

 to incorporating the Society at all; he 

 said that "they had no right to incor- 

 porate; that the old Constitution would 

 still exist, even though they did incor- 

 porate. 



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But there was a set of delegates 

 there, consisting of Mr. Gates, Mr. Pel- 

 lett, Mr. Yaeger of Minnesota, myself, 

 and a few others whom I cannot re- 

 member, who were determined to see 

 this Association incorporated, and to 

 see that none of the members of the 

 National were to be held legally re- 

 sponsible for any of their debts, espec- 

 ially as they persisted in going into 

 the supply business. 



Well, I made a motion that the pa- 

 pers of incorporation as filed here in 

 Illinois be accepted as the papers of 

 incorporation for the Association, and 

 that -the new Association absorb the 

 membership of the old Association, and 

 it was objected to by Mr. Williams, but 

 in spite of that it carried. 



Then the next thing on the program 

 was to adopt the Constitution of the 

 new Association. 



Mr. Williams had a copy of the Con- 

 stitution. I believe Mr. Stone sent one 

 to Mr. Townsend, and Mr. Williams got 

 his copy; Mr. Williams took the copy 

 and locked it up in his valise, and 

 locked the Minutes up and was about 

 to leave the room; he thought in that 

 way we would have nothing to go by; 

 and I pulled out my papers of incorpo- 

 ration and the Constitution; we began 

 to work and Mr. Williams came back, 

 and I said to him: "Mr. Williams, if 



you don't unlock your satchel and give 

 us the Minutes of this meeting so far, 

 and last year, I will get out a writ of 

 replevin against you and have those 

 papers here and that will be the last 

 of you." He studied a few minutes and 

 opened up his valise and he got the pa- 

 pers and went to work, and that is 

 the kind of feeling and the fuss we had - 

 all through the meeting; one man tried 

 to block the whole thing, and that one 

 man was undoubtedly retained by Mr. 

 Townsend; so you may imagine all the 

 benefit a Society like that can do to 

 the bee-keepers at large throughout the 

 United States, when that feeling exists. 



After incorporating, and adopting 

 our Constitution and By-Laws, the By- 

 Laws and Constitution provide for no 

 publication of the Review nor for the 

 engaging in the sale of supplies. 



The Executive Committee was auth- 

 orized to receive bids for the Review, 

 and Mr. Williams on behalf of Mr. 

 Townsend made a bid, and Mr. Foster 

 also made a bid, and Mr. Foster's bid 

 was thought to be the better of the two, 

 and the Executive Committee was 

 authorized to sell the Review to Mr. 

 Foster, and did so sell it to him. 



I don't know whether he ever got | 

 hold of the paper, or whether it was .] 

 transferred to him or not. I, as one of 

 the Directors, have never been in- 

 formed, but I got a letter from Mr. 

 Townsend some time ago containing a 

 contract in which the Review was to 

 be sold to him for a certain consider- 

 ation, and he wanted me as one of the 

 Directors to sign the contract trans- 

 ferring the Review to him. 



I told him the Executive Committee 

 had not been authorized to sell the 

 Review to Mr. Foster and until that 

 Executive Committee had reported to 

 the National what their actions had 

 been in the matter it would be folly 

 for any one else to sell to any one, 

 that the sale would be illegal: and 

 that is the way the matter stands. 



I could tell you a great deal more 

 about what took place there but I 

 don't think it is necessary just now. 

 I can say that I am on the fence; I 

 don't know what to do. 



I understand that Mr. Tyrrell, who 

 held a bill against the National for 

 something like $500 unpaid on the Re- 

 view, has transferred all of his inter- 

 est in the Review to Mr. Townsend. ; 



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