342 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



SUITABLE SUBJECTS FOR BEE JOURNALS 



How Far are "Outside" Topics 

 Allowable? 



At St. Louis I sat down near two 

 bee-keepers who were having' an earn- 

 est discussion. The first sentence that 

 caught my ear was as follows: 



•'I tell 3'ou we don't care what his 

 views are on the temperance question, 

 and he has no right using space in his 

 paper to air his views on the subject. 

 We buy his paper for what it can tell 

 us about bees, and not to learn its 

 editor's views on temperance." 



The other man replied: "I don't 

 agree with j'ou. When a man owns 

 and publishes a paper, he has a rig-ht 

 to put into it what he pleases, and if 

 we don't like it, we needn't take his 

 paper." 



"He has and he hasn't. As owner 

 he has a rig-ht to run his paper as he 

 pleases, but the subscriber has some 

 rights, and when he sends his dollar 

 for a bee journal, he doesn't want 

 pages and pages used in discussing 

 temperance, religion, gardening and 

 automobiling, etc." 



I expected that he would include 

 photography in the list, but he didn't, 

 but then, he hadn't seen this issue of 

 the Review. 



These remarks of my bee-keeping 

 friends called to mind an editorial on 

 a somewhat similar subject that ap- 

 peared in the American Bee-Keeperfor 

 September. I consider it worthy of 

 publication. It reads as follows: — 



The fact, long established and un- 

 questioned, that the bee-keeping fra- 

 ternity is composed very largel3' of 

 broad-minded, deep-thinking, liberal 

 and courteous gentlemen, is, we are 

 sure, well founded. It is not so very 

 recently, however, that we made the 

 discovery that there are some who are 

 just the least bit peculiar. Though 

 the ratio is, undoubtedly, low, the 

 writer is not so sure that we haven't a 

 slight sprinkling- of cranks whose hob- 



bies run counter and criss-crcss, in 

 divers ways. Probably there is no 

 other point at w^hich these freak no- 

 tions and pet hobbies collide so fre- 

 quentl}^ as in the sanctum of the editor 

 of a bee journal. 



Every enthusiast, or nearly so, 

 craves publicity for the theories and 

 notions which he so tenaciously ad- 

 heres to. May be they are sacred 

 truths; that's not for us to determine, 

 unless the subject relates directly to 

 bees or bee culture. This journal cuts 

 out "'kindred topics," "home depart- 

 ments," and all other side-shows. 

 We are running- a bee journal, solelj'^ 

 and exclusively; and yet certain cor- 

 respondents think unkindly of us be- 

 cause political convictions which 

 weigh heavily upon their minds are 

 not found available. Another who 

 takes a deep interest in religious work 

 persists in infusing his personal beliefs 

 and deductions into his contributions 

 to a bee paper, and calls us narrow- 

 minded because our mission is not 

 the promulgation of relig-ious doc- 

 trine. Then, there's the fellow who 

 can't write a paragraph without strain- 

 ing himself to deliver a thrust at those 

 who have espoused Christianity, and 

 mingles his bee talk with sneers and 

 belittling insinuations; and then he is 

 mad clear through because it does not 

 appear in print in the Bee-Keeper. He 

 then feels it his duty to enlig-hten the 

 editor, at great length, upon the subject 

 of journalistic ethics, and particularly 

 to define the limit of the editorial 

 prerogative. In fact to fully explain 

 why it is that The Bee-Keeper is not 

 more important and more widely cir- 

 culated. The "reason" is, of course, 

 because we don't know how to run a 

 paper and haven't sense enough to ab- 

 sorb the excellent advice of our emi- 

 nently competent correspondent. 



Now, we had no intentien of taking 

 so much siiace to speak of this matter; 

 but in as much as we are all concerned 

 in the subject matter of The Bee- 

 Keeper, it may be well to exhaust the 

 question before concluding, which may 

 be briefly done. 



Every publication has its peculiar 

 style — its likes and dislikes. Our pre- 

 ference, first, last and all the time, is 

 for articles the publication of which 

 will interest or instruct bee-keepers, 

 separate and apart from all "home," 

 religious, political, medical or other 

 foreign subjects. We want to discuss 

 bees. We are alwa3's in need of good 

 articles of this kind; but if the readej- 



