124 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Juhj 



DEFENDING OUR RIGHTS. 



Notwithstanding the good work that 

 has been done of late in defense of the 

 bee-keepers' rights by the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Union, cases are con- 

 stantly coming up whereby bee-keepers 

 are subject to great annoyance and 

 often expense, as a result of some real 

 or imaginary grievance of neighbors. 



Publishers of apicultural journals, to 

 a greater extent than any other class, 

 have these instances brought to their 

 notice by these ''victims of spleen," 

 who seek counsel and assistance in 

 their hours of trouble. "We venture to 

 say that there is not an editor in the 

 whole country who does not, in such 

 cases, regret his inability to render sub- 

 stantial aid. They can advise, of 

 course: but the best advice of which 

 we know is this: "Get into the Union, 

 dear brother, and your future difficul- 

 ties will be taken in hand by thg ablest 

 legal talent in the land, backed by an 

 adequate fund, which will insure jus- 

 tice to your rights and interests. And 

 in the event of your good fortune to es- 

 cape further trouble in this line, it will 

 be a source of satisfaction to know that 

 you are assisting others to hold their 

 rights against the unjust accusations 

 of misguided and ignorant persons. 



Trouble is brewing for a bee-keeper 

 in Northampton county. Pa., as we 

 learn by a letter just received. He has 

 kept bees for fifteen years without a 

 thought of any unpleasantness; but, 

 like hundreds of others, his hour has 

 come; and, we regret sincerely to state, 

 he has no claim upon the Union's pro- 

 tection. 



UNITED STATES BEE-KEEPERS' 

 UNION. 

 It is with more than ordinary pleas- 

 ure that The American Bee-Keeper 

 places before its readers this month a 

 collection of portraits of those who at 

 present hold office in America's great- 

 est bee-keeping organization — the 

 United States Bee-Keepers' Union. 



The future of bee-keeping in the 

 United States will be exactly what wt- 

 make it, and it really seems to us that 

 we cannot too highly esteem the op- 

 portunity afforded by the Union to join 

 hands in one grand effort tending to 

 the uplifting of our industry. The gen- 

 eral manager well says the enter piise 

 is too great to be attempted by any in- 

 dividual, but, by association with such 

 able representative men as those at 

 present in office, who are serving from 

 purely fraternal motives, and without 

 other compensation than the pleasure 

 of thus assisting the cause of American 

 bee-keeping, how simple the matter be- 

 comes, and how easily the long-hoped- 

 for results may be achieved. 



From all that has appeared in the 

 platforms of other societies as being 

 most desirable and important to pro- 

 mote the general interests of our in- 

 dustry, the U. S. B. K. U. has been 

 evolved; and today as never before we, 

 as bee-keepers, are privileged to as- 

 sert with becoming dignity and effect- 

 ive force, our claims to recognition 

 among the great and growing indus- 

 tries of the nation. 



We have no inclination to question 

 the claim made by all associations, to 

 have some special field of usefulness, 

 beneficial in some degree to the inter- 

 ests of their members, socially or 

 financially; yet we think it doubtful if, 

 prior to the advent of this modern and 

 progressive association, any American 

 bee-keepers' organization has had as 

 its basis, a constitution of sufficient 

 breadth and so far-reaching in its 

 scope of useful and important work as 

 to render its support an obligatory 

 duty. 



The constitution was published in 

 The Bee-Keeper for October, 1897, and 

 copies of the same may be had by ad- 

 dressing the secretary, Dr. A. B. Mason, 

 Station B, Toledo, Ohio. 



Now is the time to subscribe for The 

 Bee Keeper. 



