June 11, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



373 



[ Convention ProceeclinSs| 



Chicago-Northwestern Convention. 



Report of the Chicago-Northwestern Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Convention, held in Chicago, 

 Dec. 3 and 4, 1902. 



BY OUR OWN SHORTHAND REPORTER. 



(Continued from pape 2''3.1 

 SECOND DAY— Morning Session. 

 The convention was called to order by Pres. York, at 

 9:30 o'clock. 



The first number on the program was the following 

 address by Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, on 



COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATION AMONG BEE-KEEPERS 



Nothing is truer than the fact that times and conditions 

 change. Regarding the conditions and peoples of this con- 

 tinent in ages past, we have little else than conjecture ; but 

 so far as the present race is concerned there came, first, dis- 

 covery, then settlement — the clearing away of the forests 

 and the building of homes. Nearly all that was accom- 

 plished was the result of individual eflfort ; and mainly with 

 the bare hands unaided by machinery. Next came labor- 

 saving machinery, and the beginning of organization in the 

 shape of factories. At first there was much opposition to 

 machines — they robbed men of an opportunity to labor. 

 But then, as now, opposition to progress is useless. 



The wagon-maker who made wagons by hand, sawing 

 out the felloes, and shaving out the spokes, found it simply 

 impossible to compete with the factory with its system of 

 specialty, organization and machinery. The individual 

 wagon-makers may have protested against organization, 

 just as some of us now protest against the great organiza- 

 tions called " Trusts," and it is probably true that it incon- 

 venienced them temporarily, and caused them to seek other 

 employment, but the great mass of people who use wagons 

 were benefited ; and so were the individual wagon-makers 

 benefited by this same process being introduced into the 

 production of nearly everything they were compelled to buy. 



This country has now reached what might be called the 

 age of organization, and the industry that fails to catch the 

 spirit of the times, and act accordingly, will eventually find 

 itself in the position of the man who would now attempt to 

 make wagons by hand. Organization begets organization, 

 in fact, compels it. When the mine owners organize, the 

 laborers must do likewise or be crushed. There is more 

 than one industry in this country that would have been 

 crushed out of existence had not the men who were engaged 

 in it organized. 



The best illustration of which I ever heard regarding 

 the efi'ect and value of organization was the act of an old 

 man whose large family of boys failed to live and work in 

 harmony. He gathered up a handful of sticks equal in 

 number to his number of boys, and tying them up in a 

 bundle gathered the boys in a group, and said he would like 

 to know if he had a son strong enough to break the bundle 

 of sticks. Each in his turn put the bundle over his knee, 

 and strained with all his might to break the united strength 

 of the sticks. All to no purpose. The father then untied 

 the bundle, and handed a stick to each boy, saying : " Let's 

 see if any of you are stout enough to break one stick." One 

 contemptuous jerk of the stick across his knee was the em- 

 phatic answer of each boy. 



It is not necessary to repeat the sermon that the old 

 man proceeded to preach to his sons, but it is well that we 

 take the lesson to heart. 



As we are now selling our product we are competing 

 one with another. We don't exhibit the business sense of 

 even that despised class of people—the saloon-keepers. 

 They never cut prices. With them, so I have read and have 

 been told, the price of a glass of beer is always 5 cents. 

 With us the price of a pound of honey is that at which our 

 poorest or most unfortunate member is compelled to sell, as 

 he must have the money. 



I doubt if there is a bee-keeper in this country — one who 



has given the matter serious thought — who does not believe 

 that the time has come for National commercial organiza- 

 tion. It seems as though it were time wasted to discuss its 

 desirability — that we are ready to talk about the how. On 

 this point we should gather wisdom from the past. How 

 have other organizations been born, grown, and brought 

 up? Most of the great industrial organizations have re- 

 sulted from the amalgamation of smaller organizations; 

 and they in their turn were made up of individuals. First, 

 there was the individual wagon-maker, then the individual 

 factory, so to speak, then organization of the factories into 

 one immense combination or trust. 



Such organizations of life insurance companies begin 

 with a strong central office from which agents or organizers 

 are sent out to establish branches. One method is that of 

 gathering together small organizations, and uniting them 

 under one great head ; the other is the opposite — that of a 

 central society spreading out and starting branches. 



Which plan is the most feasible for bee-keepers ? Col- 

 orado has an organization. California is working to estab- 

 lish one. Canada has in contemplation a similar move. 

 Shall California and Canada succeed, and New York and 

 Texas follow suit, and then shall these already successful 

 organizations be united, or shall some strong central society 

 like our present National Association, reach out and estab- 

 lish branches ? 



Right here it might be well to say that our National 

 Association, as now organized, is not fitted to take up the 

 commercial feature of organization, but its influence and 

 machinery can be used to assist in the starting and foster- 

 ing of a commercial branch or organization. 



Some have opposed organization on the ground that it 

 would be a trust. If it is an " organization " or an " ex- 

 change," it is all right, but they want nothing to do with a 

 trust. Let us not be deceived by a jugglery with names. 

 An organization, or an exchange, or a trust — it matters not 

 what it is called — is a combination, or joining together of 

 individuals, or firms, as corporations, for the benefit of its 

 members. It is not necessary, nor desirable, that such 

 benefit shall work hardships or injuries to the public. It 

 may lessen cost of supplies, prevent the lowering of prices 

 from forced sales by poor men, save freight charges by 

 gathering car-load lots, and prevent gluts by means of sta- 

 tistics and proper distribution. It can do all this without 

 raising the retail price of honey. 



The great question at present is : "How shall we do 

 it ?" Let us discuss it. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Pres. York — The paper is now before us for discus- 

 sion — "Commercial Organization Among Bee-Keepers." 

 What have we to say ? This matter was touched on in the 

 President's address yesterday, so it may as well be discussed 

 this morning. Has any one any questions to ask, or any- 

 thing to say on this subject ? 



Dr. Miller — Mr. Hutchinson spent a great deal of time 

 going over the ground to try to make us believe that or- ' 

 ganization was a good thing, a desirable thing, and then 

 he wound up at that part in saying that there was no use in 

 wasting time doing just what he had been doing, and I feel 

 a good deal of force in that, and at the same time I think it 

 the part of wisdom, for we haven't as a body of bee-keepers 

 gotten right down to having that fact put right down in our 

 minds, that what we need is organization. The first thing 

 is a demand for the thing before you get it, and he has 

 helped some little in making that demand, and then he 

 wound up just in the right place by saying that we don't 

 know just how we are going to do it. No, I don't know 

 how. Some of you that do, tell us. 



Mr. Hutchinson — My idea is, that we will have to form 

 a stock company and limit the shares to the number of colo- 

 nies each individual owns. Form a large stock company 

 and then have somebody handle the honey for us so as to 

 get an equal price for our goods. Of course, money has to 

 be on hand in order to do business. We can't do business 

 without money. We would have to have shares of stock 

 and get money in hand, and then get some good man. 



A Member— We have bees here in Chicago. Mr. York 

 has built up a great business in honey here. We have 

 opposition here. I was out here a couple of months ago 

 trying to sell honey, and I noticed he had some beautiful 

 honey which he had raised from the bottom of the car into 

 the wagon. It was his own honey— " York's Honey " — and 

 selling all the way from 18 to 21 cents a section. It is beau- 

 tiful honey, of course. Now, of course, the middle men, on 

 an average, get the biggest profit. Sell to a commission 



