80 



SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



ceive that this would never have happened 

 if there was no gage or basis to work on, 

 such as the prices suggested by the price 

 committee. A few of us led the way to- 

 ward th'ose prices; the others knew we 

 were leading toward those prices and 

 followed in the rear. As a result, local 

 prices Sj;e higher than we had reason to 

 expect. 



The effect on the wholesale market I do 

 not know much about, but am sure that 

 the pjices suggested by the committee had 

 more weight than any market quotations 

 could possibly have had. Many of the 

 larger producers held for this price, and 

 they knew that Jiundreds of others were 

 also holding for the same figuie; like the 

 hand of a clock or compass, it pointed the 

 way. The bujers in turn knew why the 

 producers all held for the same figure; this 

 enabled the buyers to allow a certain figure 

 as bujang price or cost price, and to use 

 that as a standard, and at the same time 

 it took away much of the uncertainty of 

 buying at different prices. A readjustment 

 of their selling price was all that was 

 necessary to meet the conditions. 



There is absolutely no reason why the 

 buyer and seller should not meet on an 

 equal basis — no more see-saw uig about the 

 price. 



The cash value of the price committee 

 was several hundred dollars to me. but 

 that I do not value as much as I do the 

 value of coming out of the dark into the 

 light, knowing what to do and why to do it. 



I believe the work of the price cooi- 

 inittee should be extended to cover the 

 entire United States; it can be done with 

 paper, ink and postage stamps and a few 

 intelligent men as leaders, backed up by 

 at least one man from each county to 

 report the crop of honey, etc. It takes 

 work and money to do this, and the work 

 should be paid for just as well as the paper, 

 ink and stamps. To get the money we 

 must get the support; to get the support, 

 we must have something to offer and -let 

 the bee-keepers know what we have to 

 offer; it costs money to advertise and it 

 pays to advertise if you have something 

 worth while to offer. 



Therefore, to get the support to carry 

 on this work w-e must raise money to tell 

 the bee-keepers what we have to offer and 

 convince them that they will get full value 

 for their mone}' and a square deal at all 

 times. If it costs five cents per letter to 

 be sent to prospects asking for support, 

 one dollar would pay for twenty letters. 

 Out of every twenty letters to prospects, 

 I should expect two dollars cash in return; 

 and if the two dollars were again spent for 



prospects and the support doubled on every 

 cycle, we could have every bee-keeper in 

 the United States worthy of the name as a 

 paid up member. If the results after a 

 fair trial do not show a gain, it would be 

 because there were no bee-keepers in the 

 country, onlj- bee-owners. 



This Association has started this work 

 through the individual efforts of our Secre- 

 tary, Mr. John C. Bui!. I am anxious to 

 learn from him what the results were. 



Secretary Bull- — He has asked me what 

 the results are; I didn't know there were 

 anj^ till he told me (laughter) . How could 

 I know? I sent the list out, that's all I 

 knew about it. All I do know is when I 

 got out the notices in the journals, and 

 • I think it was in June or July, asking for 

 the names of bee-keepers so I could make 

 up a mailing list, I stated w^e would send 

 them free to the four states mentiohed 

 around Chicago. Outside of those states 

 you will have to send me ten cents. The 

 bee-keepers sent me all the w^ay from ten 

 to twenty-five cents. If the bee-keepers 

 can afford to send twenty-five cents for 

 that, I think we better send it to all the 

 bee-keepers. We have got to have the 

 money to pay for that postage, printing 

 and work "We have got enough bee- 

 keepers in the four states that we ought 

 to have five hundred or one thousand 

 members. You give me a thousand dollars 

 to work on, and I can send out several 

 thousand letters. 



The President — You have heard the re- 

 port, and Mr. Hassinger's paj)er; have you 

 any suggestions as to what we shall do? 

 Is it practicable for us to dig up the 

 money to extend this work in the future? 

 Has anyone a suggestion as to how we 

 shall do' it? 



Mr. Hassinger — Mr. President, before 

 that is answered. I would like to have Mr. 

 Bull tell us just what it did cost to send 

 out those letters; that is, the postage and 

 paper ^nd the printing, and also an esti- 

 mate of the amount of work that was 

 required to do that. There is no man can 

 do that without being paid for it, so if we 

 can get some basis to work from, and see 

 what we can do, we can arrive at some 

 decision in the matter. 



The Secretary — All that I know I have 

 told you about the work. Of course, I 

 didn't keep any track of my time. The 

 printing and postage alone came to about 

 two and a half cents a letter. The work, I 

 hired part of it done ; I did what I could and 

 hired what I couldn't do. It would come 

 probably around four cents a letter, maybe 

 less, maybe more. It depends on how 

 much yoi^ can get the work done for. The 



