Feb. 7, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



87 



were more largelj' attended than ours, and they did not al- 

 low any one to enter their meeting's till he had paid his 

 fee, of one or two dollars, as the case might be, and still 

 had a membership of 200 or 300. 



Mr. Becker — Una year, when the white clover honey- 

 flow was good, I had one colony that gathered 16,'2 pounds 

 of honey in one day, and the same colony in the fall gath- 

 ered 14 pounds from heartsease. 



A paper by George W. York was read as follows: 



PURE FOOD LEQISLATION. 



This is a large subject. It means much at both ends. 

 First, it will take much hard work to secure it ; and, second, 

 it will take much more and harder work to enforce it after 

 it is secured. 



Illinois succeeded in the passage of what was, thought 

 to be a good pure-food law at the last session of its legisla- 

 ture. Some attempt has been made to enforce it in Chi- 

 cago, but so far we believe without much effect. 



As to the question of the need of pure-food legislation, 

 only the adulterator or swindler would object. The very 

 health and life of the people depend upon their getting pure 

 food. There is also a moral aspect to the case. The sale 

 of impure food is a deception and a fraud practiced upon 

 the purchaser or consumer. It is getting money under false 

 pretense, and a pretense of the verj- falsest and most dan- 

 gerous kind. The state should protect the lives of those 

 who help make up the State ; especially should it step in 

 and insist that helpless women and children shall be pre- 

 vented from being imposed upon and defrauded by those 

 who pretend to be their friends. 



I think that if the law contemplated the prosecution 

 and punishment of the manufacturer or wholesaler of the 

 goods instead of the retailer, better results would be ob- 

 tained. This would of course necessitate the labeling of 

 practically all goods offered in the open market. But this 

 could be done, and the retailer could be required to reveal 

 the source of his supply, if found adulterated. 



Another very important requirement to the successful 

 results of pure-food legislation is honest officials — officers 

 who know no better than to enforce laws just as they find 

 them, without fear or favor. No law ever enforced itself, 

 and never will. The reason, almost invariably, why prohi- 

 bition doesn't prohibit is because of officials who don't offi- 

 ciate honestly and fearlessly. I believe, however, that the 

 present pure-food commission of Illinois are all right, but 

 that the fatal weakness is in the law itself. 



But so long as the " dear people " persist in electing as 

 their State lawmakers, saloon-keepers, pothouse politicians, 

 gamblers and frauds, just so long may they expect to have 

 weak laws — laws that fail at the most crucial time, because 

 the}' were enacted with that intention. The people must 

 act honestly and decently themselves in the selection of 

 their lawmakers and public officers, then, and not until 

 then, need they expect that good laws will be furnisht and 

 properly enforced. 



It would be one of the simplest things in the world to 

 drive practically all the adulterated honey out of the Chi- 

 cago market, or any other market, for that matter, if it 

 were gone about in genuine earnestness and with determin- 

 ation to accomplish the thing. There should be a pro- 

 vision in the law permitting the confiscation of all the adul- 

 terated food on the market. A few raids backt up with a 

 law having such "teeth " in it would soon end the adulter- 

 ating business. There wouldn't be anv profit in it ; and 

 any business that is unprofitable in dollars and cents will 

 soon be left to take care of itself, and that means speedy 

 death. 



The people should itiiili' in demanding the enactment of 

 strong adulteration laws. If present legislatures refuse to 

 comply with such demand, then proceed to elect men that 

 will give heed to the people's will. Having secured suit- 

 able laws, elect only such men to office as will understand 

 that their retention in office depends upon their executing 

 the will of the people as exprest in the laws. Pretty sud- 

 denly after such things have come to pass there won't be 

 much adulterated stuff to be found. Even frauds don't en- 

 joy frequent and close contact with so good a thing as a 

 good, strong law — one with cross-cut saw teeth that cut 

 both coming and going. GEORGE W. York. 



The election of officers for 1901 resulted as follows: 

 President, J. Q. Smith, of Lincoln ; 1st vice-president. 

 George Poindexter ; 2d vice-president, C. P. Dadant ; .^d 

 vice-president, S. N. Black; 4th vice-president, J. M. Titter- 

 ington ; 5th vice-president. George W. York; secretary, Ja-,. 

 A. Stone, R.D.R. 4, Springfield; and treasurer, Chas. Becker. 



On motion the temporary premium list committee was 

 made permanent. 



The convention then adjourned sine die. 



Jas. a. Stone, ^ec. 



I * The Afterthought. * | 



The "Old Reliable" seen thru New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



BEES GNAWING COMB FOUNDATION. 



It is a vexatious thing to have bees gnaw foundation 

 after it is put in— half inch of foundation, then a big hole, 

 then the lower half of the foundation pretty much all 

 right, except with nothing to hold it in place. Presumably 

 Mr. Doolittle is right, that flat-bottomed foundation is 

 gnawed much the worse ; and that is a serious short-com- 

 ing. Still, it may be rather the thinness than the shape 

 that tempts them. When they are fixing the bottoms the}' 

 don't tear things down, and when they tear down they are 

 not fixing the bottoms — not even thinking whether bottoms 

 suit them or not. I don't think bees ever nibble up founda- 

 tion at the same time when it is being prepared to put 

 honey in, or that they ever throw the fragments away, as 

 one might expect. Incapable of entertaining more than 

 one idea at a time, and anxious not to be idle, they rasp it 

 up to mix with propolis and daub things with. My bees 

 won't even spare the half inch at the top when only start- 

 ers are put in. 



And prepare your queenless hive to keep your drones, 

 while you have plenty. For if Doolittle can't practically 

 make bees rear more in the fall it isn't likely that you can. 

 Hand-picking of drones I am rather suspicious of. May be 

 it's all right. Almost certainly it's no harm. One can't 

 get rid of the idea, however, that the really valuable in- 

 heritances (prospective) which drones carry about them 

 inevitably must be totally invisible — or mostly so. Page 7. 



THE GREED OF GREAT CORPORATIONS. 



I think we have been shown few examples of the ro?;- 

 Z^;;/// with which great corporations regard what common 

 citizens think, and must think, of their ways, to exceed the 

 one given on page 9. Freight to San Francisco charged 

 when the goods never went there, and were never intended 

 to go there, and then freight back again added in — a regu- 

 lar add-insult-to-injury kind of clean steal. I'm not sure 

 we are going to have overcharges corrected right away, 

 for when there is a desire to overcharge, some less flamboy- 

 ant way to do it than that can easily be found : but I'll ven- 

 ture to prophesy that the twentieth century will not be very 

 many years old before corporations decide that it paj's to 

 keep their outrages a little out of sight of the people when 

 they can just as well as not. Presumably the evil habit 

 complained of grew up in the first place by small packages 

 being actually sent that way — nobody on the thru trains 

 knowing what the lockt cars contained in the line of small 

 items. 



CHUNK HONEY IN PAII.S. 



That chunk honey on page 19 was too big a lot. and had 

 "got too far from Cinada." People used to sections are 

 not likely to evolute backward and buy the old-fogy style. 

 But in back-county towns, where folks have never bought 

 sections, and don't want to begin, there small lots in bulk 

 would be all right. I doubt if it's best to solder it up in 

 tin, however. Empty candy-pail, or something in the line 

 of a big pail with close-fitting cover, would look to me more 

 like the thing, even if it had to go 50 miles by zcagon. In- 

 deed, with modern goods the freight and breakage of half 

 a ton of honey might easily pay for lots of wagoning. 



HEXA(;ON.\I. AI'IAKV A BACK NUMBER. 



I weep over Mr. Doolittle giving the weight of his name 

 and example to the hexagonal style of placing hives. Out 

 of date for one thing, and, for another thing, not much to 

 recommend it in the first place, but the fantastic resem- 

 blance of the hexagon to the honey-comb. The fact that 

 we are bee-keepers does not make us long to be paid for our 

 crop in hexagonal money. Hexagon not even as good as 

 the rank-and-file, and the latter barely escapes being a dis- 



