554 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



eight of them having voted for his successor— in fact, 

 nine of the twelve, if my vote should be counted— that 

 ended the matter so far as the board was concerned. 

 A deliberative bodv may review a vote; but any sane 

 man knows that a vote" by ballot is final, if any one 

 receives a majority of the votes cast. It seems from 

 the statement of the acting Chairman, that the Board 

 has decided that it has a right to act on Mr. Secor's 

 resignation. If so, then I am General Manager. This 

 is all I care to say at present. 

 St. Joseph, Mo. Emerson T. Abbott. 



In the statement made by Mr. Abbott to 

 the public there are two propositions: First, 

 the Board of Directors of the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association has the right to receive 

 the resignation of Mr. Secor and elect his 

 successor; or, second, it does not have such 

 right. Let us consider the first proposi- 

 tion. I was appointed acting Chairman of 

 the Board of Directors by Mr. E. T. Ab- 

 bott, who was then Chairman, to put the 

 vote on the selection of a new General Man- 

 ager, Mr. Secor, the old Manager, having 

 sent in his resignation to Mr. Hutchinson. 

 I did so, and the result of that vote on the 

 part of the Board showed six votes for E. 

 T. Abbott, one vote for E. M, Abbott, and 

 one for W. Z. Hutchinson. 



I was in doubt whether I could declare 

 this an election or not. I finally turned the 

 matter over to Mr. Abbott who was Chair- 

 man of the Board, saying that I thought 

 that E. M. Abbott was intended for E. T. 

 Abbott, and could be so construed as the 

 "intent of the voter." Mr. Abbott then is- 

 sued a circular letter to the Board declar- 

 ing an election for himself as General Man- 

 ager, and at the same time announcing that 

 he had resigned as Chairman of the Board. 

 I was then appointed by him as acting 

 Chairman until a permanent Chairman had 

 been elected. 



Subsequent developments showed that 

 the Board was very much dissatisfied with 

 the procedure. The contention was that 

 E. M. Abbott was not E. T. Abbott, and 

 that there were only six votes — not a major- 

 ity. I was criticised for not declaring the 

 vote myself instead of turning it over to an 

 interested party. In the mean time it de- 

 veloped that the resignation of Mr. Secor 

 had not been accepted either by the Execu- 

 tive Committee or the Board of Directors. 

 Some thought that Mr. Secor should have 

 sent his resignation to the Chairman of the 

 Board. To avoid complication Mr. Secor 

 then sent his resignation to me. This I 

 placed before the Board with the result that 

 every member voted not to accept. It was 

 further contended that because this resig- 

 nation had not been accepted Secor was 

 legally General Manager at the very time 

 we ivere trying to elect his successor, and 

 that therefore the procedure was irregular 

 and the election void. At the time of sub- 

 mitting this resignation I also stated that 

 an appeal had been made from Mr. Ab- 

 bott's decision to the effect that he was 

 elected General Manager, and inquired 

 w+iether that decision should be sustained. 

 To this there were 10 negative votes and one 

 affirniritive. I then announced to the Board 

 that Mr. Abbott's decision (,or mine, if Mr. 



A. prefers to have it so) was overruled, and 

 declared Mr. Secor General Manager. 



Let us take the other horn of the dilemma, 

 or the second proposition, viz., the Board 

 did not have the power to accept Mr. Se- 

 cor's resignation and elect his successor. 

 Mr. Secor tendered his resignation the sec- 

 ond time to the Board of Directors, and the 

 Board txnanimously declined to entertain it. 

 Mr. Secor has notified the Board that he 

 will continue in office till his successor is 

 elected and qualified. This avoids all 

 complications ; and if the Board can not fill 

 a vacancy caused by voluntary resignation, 

 then it has done the proper thing by refus- 

 ing to entertain a resignation it could not 

 accept (if Mr. Abbott is correct), and leave 

 the man in office who was elected at the 

 last regular election, when every member 

 of the Association had a chance to vote. 

 If Mr. Abbott's claim is correct, then the 

 only thing that can be done is to leave 

 the matter as it is, and wait till the next 

 general election — only six months away. 



My understanding of the matter is that 

 Mr. Secor's resignation is not " before the 

 membership." It has been returned to Mr. 

 Secor marked "not accepted." He has 

 been unanimously requested by the Board, 

 to whom he is responsible and from whom 

 he receives instructions, to fill out his unex- 

 pired term, and this he has consented to do. 



For the complication that has arisen I 

 do not wish to shift all the blame on Mr. 

 Abbott by any means. Among other things 

 I should have made it my business to see 

 that the resignation of Secor was accepted 

 before I called for a vote for his successor, 

 and then I should have declared the vote 

 myself. While it is easy to see what anight 

 have been done it is not always easy to rec- 

 tify past mistakes. 



To go into all of the details of this would 

 require a good-sized volume, and I forbear. 

 It is a matter of deep regret that Mr. Ab- 

 bott, an able and capable man, should so 

 persistently go against the Board of Di- 

 rectors. If he had quietly acquiesced in 

 the first place it is my opinion he would 

 have been finally elected General Manager 

 by the Board. I will conclude by saying 

 that this business has been the most disa- 

 greeable of any I have undertaken. 



E. R. Root, 

 Former Acting Chairman of the Board of 



Directors. 



Later. — Reference is made to the effect 

 that a "disgruntled" member from New 

 York advised Mr. Secor not to turn the 

 funds over that were in his hands. I have 

 since written to the person in question, and 

 I have ascertained from him that he did not 

 voluntarily offer an}'^ advice; but when Mr. 

 Secor wrote to every member of the Board, 

 including the "disgruntled" member, ask- 

 ing whether he should turn the funds over, 

 this member, as did seven others, making 

 eight in all, advised against it. Mr. Secor, 

 therefore, is not to be blamed for following 

 the advice and inctrnction.s of the majority 

 of the Board of Direciuis. 



