AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



785 



to find out how they can make these 

 things for us. They are our friends. 

 There has been a feeling that we don't 

 want anybody here but bee-keepers. I 

 think that we want to have our friends 

 with us, and sometimes they suggest 

 things to us that we want to know. I 

 think this ill-feeling should be done 

 away with. I don't want to feel that my 

 friends can't go where I am. We want 

 to talk together and consult together, 

 and I would like to see this antagonism 

 done away with. 



Pres. Abbott — I don't know whether it 

 would be in order for me to make a 

 speech that I have been wanting to 

 make in regard to supply-dealers. A 

 supply-dealer has a right to be, and if he 

 has a right to be, he has a right to be at 

 the convention. If he has a right to ex- 

 ist, he has a right to be at the conven- 

 tion. There are a great many people 

 who think they have said the thing 

 when they say, " I want to get rid of the 

 middle-men." That word moves glibly 

 ofif of their tongue. They have the idea 

 that no one is a producer except the 

 man who takes out his big knife and 

 whittles a stick in some shape. The 

 man who takes a stick and turns out a 

 rolling-pin is a producer, and any man 

 who has anything to do with that rolling- 

 pin until it reaches the consumer is a 

 producer also. Here is a man who pro- 

 duces rolling-pins. He lives in Canada. 

 I want a rolling-pin, and I live in St. 

 Joseph, Mo. He might produce thous- 

 ands and thousands of them, but they 

 would do me no good. I could not afford 

 to pay my fare and go up there and buy 

 one, and the result necessarily would 

 be that I would never get a rolling-pin. 

 Do you see the point? I claim that 

 every one is a producer who gratifies a 

 desire, and every one gratifies a desire 

 who furnishes to the man who has the 

 desire the thing he wants at the time he 

 wants it, in the condition he wants it, 

 and in the quantity he wants it ; and a 

 man who takes rolling-pins under his 

 arm and carries them down to St. Joseph 

 and lays them down on this table, and 

 leaves them there until the people's 

 wants are all supplied, is just as much 

 of a producer as the man who turns 

 them out of the wood, and it is all bosh 

 about these people not being producers ! 

 I was a drummer a good many years 

 ago, and one day I was walking along 

 the road, and a farmer came along with 

 a team, and 1 asked him for a ride. 

 After I got in the wagon we fell to talk- 

 ing about different things, and at last it 

 got to middle-men, and he said, "We 

 are going to get rid of those middle- 



men." He did not know he had one 

 right in his wagon, and I did not tell 

 him, because I hated to walk. I do not 

 say this to show what I have done, or to 

 puff myself up in the least, but I do say 

 that because of my having been a sup- 

 ply-dealer in St. Joseph, I have done 

 more to educate the people in regard to 

 honey than any other man, and it is 

 true of every supply-dealer who sticks 

 to the business in any community. I do 

 wish that this cry about middle-men 

 would stop, as it is all foolishness. 



Mr. Holtermann — Who is, after all, as 

 much interested in the success of the 

 bee-keeper as any ? Not success just for 

 the moment, but permanent success. It 

 is the man who is in the supply busi- 

 ness. Isn't he as much interested as 

 any other person in the world. If he is 

 level-headed he will work heart and soul 

 for the success of the bee-keeper and for 

 his interests, and in that way develop 

 the industry. 



Mr. Root — There are some good men 

 among the commission-men in St. Joseph, 

 and I rather think there are some who 

 deal in honey. I think it no more than 

 fair that the North American Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association should invite these men 

 up here to talk. When we get ac- 

 quainted with these people sometimes 

 we find that they are not so bad after 

 all. We have met a good many good 

 people here, and we are going home with 

 a great deal more faith than we had 

 when we left home. There are quite a 

 good number of good people in Missouri. 



Pres. Abbott — There is not a honey- 

 man in the commission business in this 

 city. There are three or four men who 

 handle honey, but there is not a man en- 

 gaged in handling it that knows any- 

 thing about it. I speak advisedly. Just 

 to illustrate how much these men know 

 about honey, I will tell you something. 

 Three or four years ago I got a letter 

 from one of them, and he knows as 

 much about honey as any man here in 

 the city in the commission business. He 

 said in the letter : " I hear that you 

 have a honey-extractor, and I would like 

 to have you call at my place of business." 

 I called at his place of business, and he 

 asked me if I had a honey-extractor, and 

 I said, " Yes, I have." He said that he 

 had some honey in cans that he could 

 not get out, as it had gone to sugar. He 

 said that he bought it of an old farmer 

 and paid him $50 for the whole lot, and 

 he said, " I will be out just $50 unless I 

 can extract it. Will you do it for me, 

 and what will you charge ?" It was 

 there in the cans, comb and honey, and 

 it had all candied perfectly solid. I said, 



