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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 1, 1903. 



of California ?" The explanation given was that in Cali- 

 fornia they do things in big ways. The State is a world of 

 its own. But that word " National " applied to the Califor- 

 nia Honey-Producers' Association means more than that. 

 It is a handle to hold onto, it is a coupling to couple onto. 

 When you start your association, start an association hav- 

 ing a place by which it can be attached — coupled onto other 

 associations, and we can be coupled together as one train. 



I am not going to comment upon what Mr. Reed has 

 said about this orange growers' association. They have 

 worked a good work ; they have succeeded splendidly. By 

 local organization, local associations all united for a defi- 

 nite purpose and working together, they have wrought this 

 result. There are matters of detail that we may incorpor- 

 ate into our association or not, as we please, but the thing 

 is to organize, and have a place by which we expect to be- 

 come a part of the National organization. The California 

 National Honey-Producers' Association we expect will reach 

 out into Arizona. Here is Mr. Ivy, he will have an associa- 

 tion ; and then we expect to reach out over to Mr. Harris, 

 in Colorado, and I am sure he will be glad to couple on. 

 Then there is Texas doing a noble work. We will go across 

 the continent, spread out, and then we will take in all the 

 honey-producers of this great land, but we can not slop 

 there. We must reach out and take in Cuba. The Cuban 

 question is one that we are " up against," and we must have 

 that in our association. It does not matter about distance. 

 Distance is nothing to-day with our rapid transportation 

 and rapid communication. So, when we have these local 

 organizations, and then means by which we can take care 

 of the goods, there is no impossibility about it — not at all ! 



Now, regarding the selling agency, just a word. Any 

 local associations to-day have to place their goods upon 

 the market somewhere. They do not keep them. Now, my 

 own experience lately : I have a crop of honey in Southern 

 California to sell. We are holding it for better prices. We 

 expect this, for the people around here who have not or- 

 ganized are selling to the commission men, and we, who 

 have organized, will reap the benefit of the market. You, 

 who are not organized, will see later on what you are los- 

 ing, as you have in times past. But we have to market our 

 honey. We have to sell it somewhere. We have a broker 

 in Chicago, Boston, or New York. These brokers receive a 

 commission for handling our goods. Now, the orange peo- 

 ple may have salesmen, and their expenses will be about 

 the same as that of the broker. What we want is a central 

 selling agency that may direct the selling of these goods, 

 and then a man in New York, who has been accustomed to 

 sending to him, can simply place his order with the central 

 selling agency for a car-load of Central California honey. 

 We can deal with the selling agency, and then it is safe. 

 We can not always tell what our brokers will do, but when 

 we have our selling agency, there will be confidence estab- 

 lished, so that any man will be willing to trust his goods to 

 that selling agency. 



Prof. Cook — I am glad that Mr. Abbott does disagree 

 with me, because there wouldn't be any fun if we all saw 

 these things alike. You have heard the old story : Tom 

 and Bill both enlisted in the army. Tom said, " I always 

 did like war; I was a single man, and so I enlisted." Bill 

 said, " I was a married man, and I like peace, and so I en- 

 listed !" But we want to work together, and start right out. 

 We have to convert the whole country — not like California 

 and Colorado. We want to take in the whole country, and 

 can do it. Another story : Two men leaned over the wharf 

 to catch the fish. When the fish began to pull on the lines, 

 one said, " I can't swim ; I am drowning !" The other said, 

 " I can't swim, and I am downing, too ; but lam not mak- 

 ing such a blamed fuss about it." I hope you will all go 

 home and make such a fuss that the whole country will 

 hear it, and that we will have such an organization of the 

 whole country as you have had in Colorado so' successfully 

 for the past three years, and such as the Citrus Fruit Ex- 

 change has had so successfully in Southern California for 

 the past six years. This is going to be a great work, but I 

 think the time of the real fun in life is getting under a big 

 load and raising it — under a great problem and then make 

 it move. 



Mr. Abbott — This discussion seems to be drifting in the 

 way of unionism. The unions always get things in their 

 own hands, and then it means, "Go the way they do, or 

 die 1" This morning we seem to have been served notice 

 that the other side can not be discussed. I want to say that 

 I am first, last, and all the time opposed to turning over 

 this National Bee-Keepers' Association to any kind of an 

 association that simply means the dollar. The world is all 

 striped over with the dollar-mark. If there is not a dollar- 



mark to measure the value of a thing, it has no value ! I 

 believe in keeping the National Association free from the 

 dollar-mark. I do not believe in sending it out on a mission 

 of money. It has a better mission in the world, and I hope 

 to see it fulfill that mission. If you purpose to put it on a 

 basis of commerce, you will simply go to the wall. 



A few years ago, Mr. Root said I helped to make the 

 National! Association. At the first meeting we ever had 

 this question was up, and it has been talked more or less 

 ever since, that we would have a great Central Honey Ex- 

 change, and sell our honey at our price. All the citrus fruit 

 is produced in a little space in California. You have about 

 SO percent of the citrus fruit-growers in this Citrus Fruit 

 Exchange. When can you get SO percent of the honey-pro- 

 ducers into such an exchange ? You can not get SO percent 

 of them into an organization in a thousand years ! Then 

 you and I will be dead and gone, and will not care so much 

 for the Almighty Dollar as we do now. 



This is a day when we try to minify the individual — a 

 day of socialism, when men have nothing to do but theorize. 

 The atmosphere is charged with it all through from Mis- 

 souri up to where the waves surge against your shores. But 

 there are high moral principles that lived before these 

 things were, and they will live after these things are gone, 

 and the only thing I have to suggest is that all these 

 " isms " are self-destructive. If they were not, I believe all 

 these combinations would force upon us the bloodiest war 

 that ever has been known. We have had some of these 

 combinations, which have called out every man in the town 

 belonging to their union, simply because one man claimed 

 the right to support his wife and little babies. What did 

 the walking delegate say 7 " We have killed other towns, 

 and we can kill this !" This is the other side of the ques- 

 tion, and it is a serious side. It means danger to the people 

 of this country, and it means serious danger. It is not a 

 question of efficiency ; it is not a question of ability ; it is 

 simply a question of compelling men to belong to the union 

 whether inferior laborers or not, and when I employ a man 

 to set up my paper, I dare not ask him whether he is a good 

 printer or not. The only question is, " Do you belong to 

 the union ?" This is the spirit you are falling in with, and 

 when you have gotten through you are just where you com- 

 menced. I do not want to disagree with all of you, but I 

 want to say, Be careful ; the Almighty Dollar is not all 

 there is in it. We do not want a commercial organization, 

 bound by commercial rules, said to be governed by honest 

 men. Do you know, dishonest men sometimes get into 

 strange places ? Did you read about the minister that ran 

 away with the missionary money — $70,000 — and went away 

 to die in disrepute ? They thought honest men were hand- 

 ling that money. All of these things are to be considered. 

 This is the other side of it, and I just want to leave this 

 word of warning : When you turn the National Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association over to an organization to sell honey, you 

 will simply put it where it will lose its power in the world. 



Jas. U. Harris — I see Mr. Abbott has to be "shown." 

 I feel astounded to see that any man would come on the 

 floor of this convention and try to throw anything in the 

 way of the horny hand of toil. Everything that is brought 

 forward in the way of wealth is done by the laboring man. 

 The capitalist of this country is organized. You may have 

 bad, you may have good, in all these organizations. You 

 have bad, and you have good in your churches. But, for 

 heaven's sake, when we go to work like the honey-producers 

 of Colorado, and the fruit-producers of California, let each 

 and every man put his shoulder to the wheel and help along. 

 The time has come when the farmer, the merchant, the bee- 

 man, and all others have to protect their babies and their 

 homes on the lines that have been argued here this morn- 

 ing. Let me say that we are not going to turn this insti- 

 tution into any financial institution at all. The honey-pro- 

 ducers' association of the United States will be distinct and 

 separate from this organization. But it is a stepping-stone 

 to help every person who engages in this industry to get 

 what is right, and what is just for his product. 



C. P. Dadant — I do not believe, when ws organize, that 

 it is possible to separate ourselves from the Almighty Dol- 

 lar ? Organization, association, is the order of mankind. 

 There are very few not organized in some way or other. I 

 belong to the National Bee-Keepers' Association. Most 

 men belong to some secret association, some life insurance 

 company. When a man insures his life, he insures it so his 

 wife and little ones will have something when he dies. Is 

 that wrong? But that is an organization with the 

 Almighty Dollar in view. But I do not believe we can get 

 our association in that shape yet. 



Dr. Miller — I wrote a letter to my wife this morning. 



