Dec. 6, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



773 



>^JiVti&J^J<V>^sl!V>V14K>^J^J^i«^J^i«V>^ 



Convention Proceedings. 



Report of the Proceeding's of the 31st Annual 



Convention of the National Bee-Keepers' 



Association, held at Chicago, 111., 



Aug-. 28, 29 and 30, 1900. 



BY DR. A. B. MASON, SKC. 



{Cotttinued from page 761.) 

 Next on the prog^ram was the following' address by Rev. 

 Emerson T. Abbott, on 



PURE FOOD LEGISLATION. 



I want to say I will not afflict you with any paper. I 

 may afflict you with something worse. Those who talk at 

 random sometimes do worse than those who read papers to 

 you. I hadn't time to prepare any paper on food legisla- 

 tion, and, in fact, I did not deem it necessary. I desire, 

 however, to make a report of what work has been done by 

 our representatives at the National Pure Food Congress, 

 and offer a few suggestions with regard to food legislation. 

 In the first place, I may say that three years ago some 

 gentlemen in Washington, who were purely unselfish and 

 had no personal interests to serve, issued a circular and 

 called together what was known as the National Pure Food 

 Congress, or rather, what afterwards became the National 

 Pure Food Congress. They agreed upon a basis of represen- 

 tion. issued the circulars at their own expense, and invited 

 the people to come there and discuss the food question. 

 Something like 300 people, representing the various pro- 

 ductive industries of the United States, responded to that 

 call, and your general manager and myself were sent as 

 delegates from this society to represent the bee-keepers of 

 the United States. 



We met an exceedingly intelligent and interesting body 

 of gentlemen, and the result was that the bee-keepers at 

 once received prominent recognition in that food congress. 

 The congress was organized, the proper officers were 

 elected, and we mapt out a course of work. We took what 

 was known then as the Brosius Bill, which had been drafted 

 by Mr. Brosius, of Philadelphia, and a committee was ap- 

 pointed consisting of 25, of which I had the pleasure of 

 being a member, to go over that bill. We went over it, item 

 by item, and eliminated everything that we thought was 

 objectionable, and agreed as a whole, and reported the bill 

 back to the congress. The congress discust the bill, and 

 after having made just two verbal changes in it, agreed 

 to it as a whole; they then turned it over to one of the 

 best lawyers in the city of Washington, and he examined it 

 carefully ; then they turned it over to the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture, and he examined it carefully and fully. It was 

 placed in the hands of the committee to be presented 

 to the House of Representatives and also to the 

 Senate. The Pure Food Congress adjourned, and in a year 

 from that time they met again. That wasa year 

 ago last January. Our bill was still being discust, and the 

 subject was still being agitated, but never had yet reacht 

 the point of action. In fact, the committees which had the 

 matter in charge in the House and Senate had never reacht 

 an agreement, and no report had been made. 



Last January we met again. I might say, however, 

 that I was sent as a delegate a year ago in January, and 

 last January I was sent again, this society having only 

 one representative on the floor of the congress ; last January 

 we met again. Previous to last January everything had 

 been harmonious. We had moved along smoothly ; we had 

 been a unit in representing the interests of the pure-food bill, 

 known as the Brosius Bill. But there came up to Washing- 

 ton last year some very wise and intelligent gentlemen ; 

 they were dairymen, they said. One of them lives in Chi- 

 cago ; his name is Knight. He is a dairyman ; he milks his 

 cows by proxy, and he is in the employ of the National 

 Dairy Association, and no doubt gets a fat salary, for he 

 wore good clothes, and had the best around the hotel. 

 There came along with him a Mr. Hoard, from Wisconsin, 

 who, I believe, has been governor, and he is a dairyman ; 

 he milks the dairy people of the United States, and he had 

 something to say. There was also a gentleman by the 

 name of Adams, who is another milker ; he milks the tax- 



payers of the State of Wisconsin, and secures a large sal- 

 ary. There came another gentleman from the State of 

 New York ; he was a milker— by the name of Flanders; he 

 also milks the tax-payers of the State of New York, and he 

 is a dairyman. There also came the honorable food com- 

 missioner of Ohio, who is another dairyman, for he milks 

 the tax-payers of the State of Ohio, and he had the honor of 

 being the president of the Pure Food Congress, and as their 

 wisdom was superior to the combined wisdom of all those 

 men who had come up the previous year and gone over the 

 ground and discust the matter carefully, they wanted a 

 new bill, and so up in Wisconsin, in a little room, Mr. Adams 

 wrote a new bill, absolutely ignoring the Brosius Bill, and 

 embodying some things that were absolutely obnoxious to 

 all members except this little company. 



With this bill in their pocket, and Mr. Babcock, of Wis- 

 consin, to defend it, they came on the floor of the Food Con- 

 gress determined to run it. You know some few sometimes 

 think they run the world. We battled there for three days, 

 pro and con, and made the fight with the chairman against 

 us, and finally we routed the enemy. We had discovered 

 a new difficulty in food legislation that we had never 

 dreamed of before — never occurred to us that we should find 

 enemies in our own camp, or that men would come there 

 with the object of destroying all we had done during these 

 years ; but after the smoke cleared away, and the matter 

 was all over, and we had gathered up the maimed, and the 

 halt and the wounded, and the dead, that had come out of 

 the conflict, we discovered that there was legion of us and 

 exceedingly few of thera, and we carried our point, and the 

 bill known as the Babcock Bill is buried now in oblivion. 

 But what was the result? These gentlemen said. No. If 

 we can't have our way ; if we can't displace the Secretary 

 of Agriculture in the execution of this bill, and have a com- 

 missioner appointed as we want it — for we know that no- 

 body but a commissioner can do it — why, we will not have 

 anything ; we will fight ihe Brosius Bill, and they did. 

 One of their number went over before the Inter-State Com- 

 merce Committee (your speaker was one of the number ap- 

 pointed to address that committee in behalf of the bee-keep- 

 ers), and they had the cheek and gall to stand up there 

 and defend their bill, when they were appointed to urge the 

 interests of the Brosius Bill ; but the Inter-State Commerce 

 Committee saw how things were, and they simply ignored 

 their protest, and the result was the Brosius Bill was imme- 

 diately favorably reported by the House Committee, and is 

 now ready to be taken up for action ; the Senate Commit- 

 tee is ready to report favorably upon it, I am informed. As 

 soon as it can be gotten before the two Houses, we have no 

 doubt but what it will pass, but we will have to meet all 

 along the opposition of these gentlemen. 



Now, then, I will tell you why I have given you this 

 history. You have influence with your congressmen ; the 

 average congressman is a very busy man ; the average 

 congressman hasn't more than average intelligence; he 

 doesn't claim to have, and he can't comprehend everything 

 at once ; he can't read up about everything. You haven't 

 any idea, if you have never been to Washington and seen 

 the congressmen besieged, how many people there are who 

 have schemes and things that they want to push thru con- 

 gress, and want their congressmen to do it for them, and 

 they have not time to investigate all of these subjects. 



Now, the reason I am presenting this matter to you is, 

 that I want you to present the facts. When you get home I 

 want you to go to your congressman, and state to him 

 clearly, what I have stated, and saj-, " Now, it is the Brosius 

 Bill, and no other bill, that we want you to push. The 

 National Bee-Keepers' Association as a unit stands behind 

 the Brosius Bill, and that is the bill the National Pure Food 

 Congress wants pusht, and it covers the ground entirely, 

 and you pay no attention to these little side-issues that will 

 be crowded upon you, for they are simply put in that the 

 bill may be beaten." 



I will tell you the difference between the Brosius Bill 

 and the other pure-food bills. The Brosius Bill recognizes 

 the fact that every man, woman and child has rights ; it 

 also recognizes the fact that any industry that sails under 

 its own colors has a right to exist, provided it can not be 

 proven beyond the possibility of controversy that that in- 

 dustry is injuring the welfare of the human family. It 

 doesn't propose to make any warfare on anybody ; it doesn't 

 propose to say that you shall put a placard up in your res- 

 taurant and say that glucose and honey mixt is served here, 

 butterine is served to the people, or something else is served 

 at clean tables which are not clean tables, and biscuits that 

 have been poorly baked are served along with it. It is sup- 



