AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



185 



Canada withdraws from the North 

 American Bee-Keepers' Association. 

 Secretary Couse has sent us the follow- 

 ing, which was adopted by the Ontario 

 Association as the report of the Com- 

 mittee on Affiliation : 



To the President and Members of the 

 Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association : 

 Your committee to whom was referred 

 the relation of Canadian bee-keepers to 

 the North American Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation beg leave to report : 



That the North American Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association (as its name implies) 

 was originally founded on an interna- 

 tional basis, the United States and Can- 

 ada being parties to and partners in the 

 organization. For upward of twenty 

 years, and until a very recent period, 

 this international character has been 

 maintained, notwithstanding the mani- 

 festation of a disposition on the part of 

 some United States bee-keepers to regard 

 and speak of it as a national institution. 

 This feeling took definite and formal 

 shape at the annual meeting held at 

 Keokuk, Iowa, last year, when a pro- 

 posal to incorporate the Association 

 under the State laws of Illinois was 

 made and agreed to. 



The delegates from this Association, 

 present at the meeting, met the propo- 

 sal with earnest remonstrance, emphatic 

 protest, and firm opposition ; but in 

 spite of their efforts a committee was 

 appointed to incorporate the body, with 

 headquarters at Chicago. One of your 

 delegates was named as a member of 

 that committee ; but from what subse- 

 quently transpired he was led to believe 

 that those with whom he was associated 

 cared little for his opinion on the subject. 

 Moreover, we have reasons for believ- 

 ing that the official report of the Keokuk 

 meeting, in the matter of the protests 

 made by your representatives there, is 

 largely characterized by a suppresslo 

 veri ; that communications sent by them 

 to two leading bee-papers in the United 

 States, discussing the subject, were not 

 published, and that the great mass of 

 bee-keepers within the jurisdiction of 

 the Association, were denied the infor- 

 mation necessary to a full and proper 

 consideration of the matter, and of the 

 means of arriving at a discreet and just 

 decision as to the effect of incorporation 

 if carried out as proposed. 



A few weeks ago it was announced in 

 the American Bee Journal that incor- 

 poration had been effected. No particu- 

 lars were then given. At the annual 



meeting held a month ago in Albany, N. 

 Y., the report of the Incorporation Com- 

 mittee (which report had never been 

 submitted to your representative on the 

 committee, and who was present at the 

 meeting) was presented and adopted. In 

 brevity and naivete it is an official curi- 

 osity. No information is vouchsafed as 

 to the terms and conditions of incorpora- 

 tion. The bald statement is, "The 

 Association is incorporated under the 

 State laws of Illinois;" that "the fees 

 are paid, and the certificate in the hands 

 of the Secretary." Not a word is said 

 as to its probable effect in the other 

 States of the Union, or here in Canada ; 

 but it embraces the important announce- 

 ment that the incorporators are the 

 " life-members resident in the United 

 States." The life-members resident in 

 Canada are quietly ignored. 



Before the final adoption of this re- 

 port, one of your representatives at the 

 Albany meeting asked whether "incor- 

 poration, as now effected, did not local- 

 ize the jurisdiction of the Association, 

 and make it an Illinois institution," and 

 was answered that the Association was 

 "now local, but its influence ivould be 

 national." Wlien he put the question in 

 another form, he was told, " It was 

 necessary to incorporate under a State 

 law, but the organization would be na- 

 tional in its character. 



Your committee is not in a position to 

 express an opinion on the future influ- 

 ence of the Association, or to closely 

 scrutinize its character ; nor is it within 

 its province to inquire what particular 

 relationship it bears to the bee-keepers 

 of the United States resident outside the 

 limits of Illinois ; but it has come to the 

 conclusion that Canada has no rights 

 under the new state of things, and that 

 it was not intended she should. This is 

 amply clear from the fact that her life- 

 members are not among the incorpora- 

 tors, and that the widest character and 

 influence claimed for it, by its promoters 

 are " national " and not international. 



Your committee considers that the 

 changed nature of the Association is not 

 a mere innovation, but a complete revo- 

 lution in the groundwork and nature of 

 the insitution, as it was heretofore con- 

 stituted. Before, it was broad and 

 international ; now it is local, with but 

 a declared national influence, and your 

 committee look upon this change of 

 organization as a gross violation of an 

 existing compact, deliberately carried 

 into effect in the face of the vigorous 

 protests of your representatives. 



Your committee are unanimously of 

 the opinion that the only course open to 



