Oct. 25, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



677 



nvention Proceedings. ^ 



Report of the Proceeding's of the 31st Annual 



Convention of the National Bee-Keepers' 



Association, held at Chicag-o, 111., 



Aug-. 28, 29 and 30, 1900. 



BY DR. A. B. MASON, SBC. 



(Coatiuued from page 662.) 



SECOND DAY— Afternoon Session. 



The afternoon session was called to order by Pres. 

 Root, after which Miss Ethel Acklin sang a song, entitled, 

 " My First Music Lesson." 



Pres. Root — The next thing we have on the program is 

 a paper by Mr. Herman F. Moore, on 



BEE-KEEPERS' RIGHTS AND THEIR PROTECTION BY 

 LAW. 



As an axiom it may be stated that apiarists have as 

 many rights as ordinary citizens, and as many more as 

 they can discover in the constitution of the United States 

 and the common law. 



In the statutes of the United States, and of the different 

 States, very few laws are found favoring bee-keeping in 

 particular over any other occupation. Lawmakers try to 

 make the laws cover all possible cases of a particular kind, 

 hence are most general in their terms of command or pro- 

 hibition. 



Bee-keepers have, in common with others, a right to 

 "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," or business in 

 their own peculiar way, subject always to the equal rights 

 of others. This " rights of others " has been the stumbling- 

 block in the way of many of our fraternity. The legal 

 construction of " rights of others" has made all the litiga- 

 tion, from the beginning, on all matters. 



There is in the minds of many people who don't keep 

 bees, and know nothing of their habits, an insane fear of a 

 bee-sting, for themselves or their children. A bee-keeper 



'Si**^**''***''*'^'^ 



Merman F. Moore. 



settles in their vicinity, and perhaps^ makes no effort to be 

 agreeable, or to show his pets, and their; harmless little 

 ways. A child, a cow, or a horse, is stung, and the neigh- 

 bor instantly puts on hisnwar-paint, and vows the banish- 

 ment of all bees and bee-keepers from his neighborhood. 

 Even during this month one of our members has been 

 brought into court, charged with maintaining a nuisance. 

 On this the Illinois law says : 



" It is a public nuisance to throw a dead body in'a pub- 

 lic place or water, to corrupt a river or lake, etc.; to ob- 

 struct navigable waters; to obstruct highways, etc.; to 

 make explosives within 20 rods of a building ; to advertise 

 on fences, etc.; to carry on any trade, employment or man- 

 ufacture, which, by offensive smells or otherwise, is offen- 



sive or dangerous to the health of individuals or of the 

 public." 



As bees are ordinarily kept, I am of the opinion that no 

 action would lie under any of these different heads against 

 a bee-keeper. 



But suppose a bee-keeper was so ignorant, or careless 

 or malicious as to drop honey about the apiary in a time 

 of scarcity, or handle his bees in such a way as to cause 

 robbing and continual stinging of people and animals pass- 

 ing by, it seems very probable that such a case could be 

 abated under this last clause of the public-nuisance law. 

 T The next phase of the matter is private nuisances. This 

 is where only a private individual is annoyed or injured, 

 and not the general public. This is an entirely separate 

 head under our laws. 



rz} The attempt, as usually prosecuted, has been to show 

 that bee-keeping, ipso facto, was a nuisance, and to be 

 abated as a matter of course. In such cases the bee-keepers 

 have been almost uniformly victorious, for the general rule 

 is, a private nuisance is a matter of fact for the jury to 

 decide. 



Bee-keeping of itself is not necessarily a nuisance, but 

 may become such by an objectionable method of managing 

 bees. So may keeping hogs, dogs, horses, cows, etc., be or 

 become a nuisance by an objectionable or offensive manner 

 of caring for them, or nearness to those who may be an- 

 noyed or injured by them. 



The principal case upon which bee-keepers rely is en- 

 titled, "City of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, against Z. A. 

 Clark," in the supreme court of Arkansas, June 22, 1889. 

 The city of Arkadelphia past an ordinance forbidding bee- 

 keeping within the city limits, and arrested Mr. Clark for 

 keeping bees, declared a nuisance by the ordinance. The 

 supreme court said, among other things, " Bees mayjlbe- 

 come a nuisance in a city, but whether they are so or not is 

 a question to be judicially determined in each case." 



In some of the States laws have been past prohibiting 

 the spraying of fruit-trees in bloom. The poison solution 

 kills the bees working on the bloom, and experiments seem 

 to prove that the enemy is not destroyed by spraying at 

 that time. The interests of bee-keepers and fruit-growers 

 are almost identical, and the time will come when their 

 community of interest will be recognized by the laws of all 

 our States. 



It must be borne in mind that all our States are inde- 

 pendent of each other in making laws. If bee-keepers are 

 to be protected just laws must be made in all the States. 

 The only bearing the Arkansas case has in Illinois is that 

 courts generally respect the decisions of sister States about 

 any matter not adjudicated there. But they have no bind- 

 ing force. 



As to foul-brood laws, the same may be said — the good 

 law they have in Wisconsin does not help us in Illinois. 

 Bee-keepers must look after their own interests as jealously 

 as other occupations guard theirs. If the thousands of bee- 

 keepers in Illinois had been united on the question of our 

 need of a foul-brood law, the much-needed law would now 

 be on the statute-books. 



One of the most important rights that bee-keepers in- 

 sist on, is to be paid for honey shipt to dealers and commis- 

 sion merchants in our large cities. Bee-keepers in common 

 with other farmers have tempted the city sharks by being 

 such an easy prey. You must be methodical ; have your 

 bargain in writing ; save the envelop covering your cor- 

 respondence ; look up the standing of a purchaser in Dun 

 or Bradstreet ; write a personal letter to a banker enclosing 

 a stampt envelop for reply, asking about the party. 



If you sell on commission, it is larceny not to account. 

 If you sell to the dealer direct, he can say collections are 

 bad, or go into bankruptcy. If by the correspondence and 

 other evidence you can make out a fraud, one of the best 

 ways to prosecute is for using the mails to defraud, and 

 Uncle Sam is very prompt and severe in such cases ; but 

 that doesn't get your honey back, or the money for it. 



It seems as if the one precaution of asking a banker for 

 the name of a reliable dealer would almost entirely prevent 

 losses. 



Bear well in mind that the laws protect best those who 

 don't go to law. To illustrate : Big corporations pay big 

 fees to lawyers to keep them out of trouble, out of court. 

 Don't dash in recklessly, and then hire an expensive lawyer 

 to get you out of trouble. Rather pay in advance for some 

 good advice on any given doubtful point. 



Don't imagine that there is any such thing as law made 

 easy for the people in one; small volume. You might just 

 as well expect bee-keepingcmade easy in six short lessons 

 of one hour each. 



