40 



THE AMERICAX BEE-KEEPER 



February, 



chosen by bee-keepers as one amon? 

 their number qualified to fill the posi- 

 tion of general manager. Perhaps his 

 election proclaims the. advent of a new 

 and more useful era in the Associa- 

 tion's history, as foreseen by Mr. Simp- 

 son, and discussed elsewhere in this 

 number of the American Bee-Keeper. 



LOADING THE TEXT WITH ADS. 



A Michigan reader writes that our 

 remarks in regard to the publishers' 

 habit of not stufBng the text of these 

 columns with advertisements of their 

 bee-keepers' supplies, are exactly as he 

 has always seen it, and that it is a 

 feature which our subscribers should 

 appreciate. 



Another subscriber in one of the 

 West India islands, writes: "I do not 

 agree with you in the matter of The 

 Falconer Company's advertising, in 

 The American Bea-Keeper. I think 

 they should have at least a whole page 

 in each issue. They turn out the best 

 supplies in the world, and should not 

 be so modest about it." Evidently our 

 southern correspondent has misunder- 

 stood our meaning. Advertising in the 

 advertising columns is appropriate and 

 legitimate. We quite agree with him 

 that it would doubtless be an advantage 

 to the Falconer Company, as well as of 

 interest to our readers if more frequent 

 announcements of this kind were in- 

 serted in our advertising columns, and 

 we have called their attention to the 

 matter. It was not to this class of ad- 

 vertising to which we had reference, 

 however; but the very prevalent habit 

 of so editing manuscript that the par- 

 ticular attention of the reader is drawn 

 to certain articles, with the evident 

 purpose of eliciting his interest and 

 efifecting sales. 



Modesty, no doubt, may be carried to 

 extremes; yet it is a virtue no less ad- 

 mirable in the business world than in 

 social life. Publicity is a prerequisite 

 to business success, but there are legi- 

 timate methods ©f acquiring notoriety, 

 and the infusion of personal references 

 into the text of a trade journal is not 

 one of them. This practice of booming 

 their own goods through the columns 

 or what purports to be a trade journal, 

 and thus transforming it into a house 



organ, in the narrowest sense, is re- 

 sponsible for the recent action of Third 

 Assistant Postmaster-General Madden 

 in attempting to deprive all month'y and 

 semi-monthly publications of the sec- 

 ond-class postage rate, which, if enact- 

 ed, will result in the necessity of the ad- 

 vertising schemes having to pay full 

 price for the "whistle," after all. It 

 will further, cause the innocent to suf- 

 fer equally with the guilty. The public 

 appear to more patiently endure the 

 imposition than our Uncle Sam. 



Gen. Manager Burnett, of the Jamai- 

 ca Bee-Keepers' Association, writes 

 that his society is in a very flourishing 

 condition; and the list of its members, 

 with which he has favored us. attest 

 its rapid growth. We note also that 

 while the local price of honey has been 

 from i8 to 25 cents a gallon, the asso- 

 ciation has advanced, in some instances, 

 the latter figure to its members; and 

 when account sales have arrived from 

 the European markets, where the as- 

 sociation representative keeps hustling 

 fnr business, an additional "shilling" 

 has come to the producer — thus giving 

 him 50 cents per gallon. Verily, the 

 bee-keeping world is awakening. The 

 old-time interest in merely "social" 

 g'atherings of bee-keepers, is giving 

 place to business meetings and substan- 

 tial, hard thinking, as to means by 

 which honey production may become a 

 more reliable source of livelihood. It 

 is well that things have taken this turn. 



The Progressive Bee-Keper has put 

 on several new editors lately, and yet 

 it seems the force is unable to grind 

 out enough original mater to fill its 

 columns, or to see that proper credit 

 is given the American Bec-Keeper for 

 the editorial items taken bodily from 

 our pages. There is evidently some 

 chance yet for even the "Progresive" 

 to progress, just a little. 



King Oscar of Sweden has conferred 

 the royal Order of Vasa upon Dr. John 

 A. Enander. of Chicago, the oldest edi- 

 tor of a Swedish newspaper in this 

 countrv. 



Pierpont Morgan is undoubtedly the 

 most fascinating figure before the w^orld 

 today. "Mr. Morgan, His Advisers 



