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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Dec. 14, 190S 



the Journal, and thus be able to carry out some of your 

 dreams for improvement. Truly an original thought ! 



"Can't put into it more than you can get out of it?" 

 Just about what I thought you'd say. Well, then, you must 

 get more out of it. 



"How?" The simplest thing in the world; ask more 

 for it. Instead of having the subscription price one dollar 

 a year, make it a dollar and a half. 



Now, look here ; before you dismiss that suggestion 

 with a wave of the hand, and the curt reply that you can't 

 get enough subscribers at a dollar, and if you asked a dollar 

 and a half your list would drop so low that sure failure 

 would follow, just give me the floor long enough to make a 

 few remarks. 



Your subscribers are possessed, no doubt, of a consider- 

 able degree of selfishness, as people in general are, and 

 they probably have no desire to pay more money for the 

 simple purpose of having you get more. But even admit- 

 ting their selfishness — and I may say by way of parenthesis 

 that bee-keepers as a class will compare quite favorably 

 with mankind in general in the matter of unselfishness — 

 they are at the same time an intelligent lot, and they under- 

 stand that it is true economy to pay a higher price for a 

 really good article rather than a lower price for something 

 not so good. So a large proportion of them would be will- 

 ing to put more money into the American Bee Journal if 

 they can get the worth of their money. 



Indeed, they would no doubt be willing to pay a good 

 bit more for the said Journal if they were sure it would 

 never be a whit better than it is now — at least many of them 

 would — and the proof lies in the prices that many of them 

 do pay now for other bee-papers. Fifty cents or a dollar a 

 year for a paper that comes once a month. That makes 

 each number cost 4' o cents or S'j cents. Take the smallest 

 amount, 4}6 cents. If they are willing to pay that for 

 another paper, why do they not pay it for yours, each num- 

 ber of which contains as much matter, and at least of as 

 good quality? Simply because you do not ask it. Let us 

 see: If they should pay 4; o cents for each of the 52 num- 

 bers of the American Bee Journal, that would make $2.16 a 

 year. If they are paying to others at that rate, why not to 

 you ? Still more willingly ought they not to be willing to 

 pay a little less than three-fourths of that, making it $1.50 

 a year ? i 



They would do so all the more cheerfully because they 

 understand that any publication that depends for its patron- 

 age upon a special class must necessarily be at a higher 

 price, as witness the price of journals for the different pro- 

 fessions, trade journals, and church jonrnals. Also because 

 there is now an upward tendency of prices in general, and a 

 number of the literary monthlies have raised their prices. 



Please don't understand that in the foregoing I am 

 moved by an unusual amount of altruism. Simply as a 

 business proposition I want more value, and as a matter of 

 common honesty I'm willing to pay the price. 



A Constant Reader. 



Really, there is no getting away from the arguments 

 advanced by " A Constant Reader " in the foregoing. 



He also hits the nail squarely on the head when he says 

 that we are desirous of improving the old American Bee 

 Journal still more. And the only thing that prevents doing 

 it to the extent we would like to do is the " limited bank 

 account." Any one who knows even a little bit about pub- 

 lishing a bee-paper knows it is no bonanza. But we are 

 not looking for bonanzas or riches. What we want is to do 

 a straight, honorable business, and make a fair living at 

 it— and at the same time be a help to others. But if prices 

 of labor and materials continue to increase we will be com- 

 pelled to raise the subscription price of the American Bee 

 Journal, and say nothing about improving it. 



We think it is no egotism for us to say that the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal is the cheapest bee-paper in America to- 

 day, and its contents second to none. We believe the best 

 beekeepers would endorse that statement. Then it ought 

 to have the largest circulation of any of the bee-papers. 

 Why it hasn't is doubtless because it is published at so low 

 a price as to prevent pushing it adequately, and also because 

 it has not some larger side-line of business with which to 



boost it up — such as manufacturing bee-keepers' supplies, 

 as several of the other bee-papers have back of them. 



But we do not wish to raise the subscription price of 

 the American Bee Journal if we can possibly avoid it. No 

 doubt most of our readers would willingly pay the increased 

 price, but whj not, instead, turn in and help increase its 

 list of regular readers sufiBciently, and thus insure its price 

 remaining at one dollar a year? Many charges, or ex- 

 penses, are fixed, whether the circulation be ten thousand 

 or thirty thousand. For instance, the cost of oSice help and 

 rent, typesetting, engravings, etc. — these and some other 

 expenses are just the same on ten thousand copies as on 

 fifty thousand. So if we could greatly increase our number 

 of readers, it would help wonderfully. 



How many will send in at least one tiew subscription 

 with their own renewals for 1906 ? Perhaps some can get 

 several new readers for next year. 



HltsccUoneous 

 Heips •:* 3 terns 



^ 



J 



Result of the National Eleetion.— We have received 

 the following from the chairman of the Board of Directors 

 of the National Bee-Keepers' Association : 



Lapeer, Mich., Dec 4, 1905. 



Friend York : — Below I give you result of the vote for 

 the election of oflScersof the National Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion for the coming year : 



Total vote for President 876. C. P. Dadant has 724, O. 

 L. Hershiser 149 ; Surface, Hutchinson and Harris, 1 each. 



Total vote for Vice-President 810. Geo. E. Hilton has 

 685, Dadant 91, Marks 8 , Green 6, York 4, Hutchinson 4; 

 Laws 2 ; Coley, Holekamp, Stachelhausen, A. C. Miller, 

 Elwood, Rohrig, Mclntyre, Chantry, Putnam and Crane, 1 

 vote each. 



Total vote for Secretary 889. W. Z. Hutchinson has 

 763, Jas. A. Green 111, Geo. E. Hiltou 2; Laws, Stone and 

 York, 1 vote each. 



Total vote for General Manager 878. N. E. France has 

 852, Wm. Rorig 23, Frank Rauchfuss 2, and Hutchinson 1. 



Total vote for Directors 2560. F. Wilcox has 491, C. A. 

 Hatch 490, E. R. Root 466, E. W. Alexander 444, M. H. Men- 

 delson 333, Walter S. Pouder 288, Geo. W. York 6, Dr. J. 

 Rick 3 ; Laws, Kochen, Muth, Hutchinson, A. C. Miller, 2 

 each; and Dittmer, Crane, Hasty, Abbott, Brown, Green, 

 Acklin, Putnam, Weber, Chantry, Coggshall, Hershiser, 

 Moore, West, Voight, Selser, Lathrop, Fouch, Rorig, Stir- 

 face, Wall, Holekamp, Holterman, Mclntyre, Stone, Den- 

 man, Philips, Rauchfuss and Aikin, 1 each. 



C. P. Dadant is elected President ; Geo. E. Hilton, Vice- 

 President ; W. Z. Hutchinson, Secretary ; N. E. France, 

 General Manager ; and F. Wilcox, C. A. Hatch and E. R- 

 Root are Directors. Yours, 



R. L. Taylor, 

 Chairtnan Board of Directors. 



Lightning Bug and Honey-Bee.— H. D. Talladay of 

 Michigan, sends us the following, which is amusing, at 

 least, and will serve to give variety if nothing else ■- 



"But the queerest friendship of this sort that ever came 

 to my knowledge was 'tween a lightnin' bug an' a honey- 

 bee. The fust I noticed of it was one June arternoon, 'long 

 to'rds dusk, when I see a black bug, 'bout half 'n inch long 

 on one of my bee-hives, which, on lookin' closer, I found to 

 be a lightnin' bug or firefly, as some folks calls 'em. 



" Pretty soon a bee lit close by an' crawled to'rds the 

 bug, as I thought to drive it off ; for, you know, bees will 

 pitch into an' kill any intruder that gits into their hives, 

 even a strange bee. Wall, sir, the bee, instidof tryin' to 

 drive it off, atcherly rubbed up against the bug, kinder 

 caressin' like, an' fin'ally dropped a small drop o' honey, 

 which the bug went to eatin', and when he's et all he wanted 

 they both flew away together. 



" Wall, of course, I was surprised, an' I was curious to 



