Oct. 4, 1906 



S41 



American T*ee Journal 



tion the agent that it must go as second-class. I refer him to 

 the joint inspection bureau at Indianapolis. Mr. Barr, who is a 

 high authority on freight rates, says, that many bee-keepers 

 make a mistake in shipping comb honey with the glass ex- 

 posed. That was advocated several years ago. The freight- 

 handlers can understand what they are shipping. If you have 

 to put in a claim for broken honey, that is where the difficulty 

 will come in. 



Mr. Stewart — I ship considerable honey, and there should 

 be different classifications for shipping comb honey. If you 

 want to get the best classification you want to box your 

 honey and bill it "Comb honey in cases boxed." It will then 

 go as second-class freight, whereas, if it goes without box- 

 ing, it will go as first-class. Look into the billing of honeys 

 and you will find in the Eastern Classification different classi- 

 fications. It makes all the difference in the world whether it 

 is boxed or not. 



Mr. Holtermann — In the direction of giving instructions 

 as to the best method of shipping different lines of goods, 

 the bee-papers could do something. We have a Railway 

 Commission to bring our cases before, and their decision is 

 final. They can force the railroad companies to give us a 

 reduced rate if they think it just and right. I was on a 

 committee on that question and we decided the bee-papers 

 could help. 



DEFENDING MEMBERS. 



"Shall the National Association defend its members 

 when spite is at the foundation, and the bees are simply 

 made an excuse for persecution?" 



Mr. McEvoy — Where there is reasonable ground, I think 

 the association should defend him. 



On motion of Mr. Kluck, seconded by Mr. Niver, the 

 convention adjourned. 



Third Day — Evening Session. 



At 7 :30 p. m. Pres. Dadant called the convention to or- 

 der and said : "I wish to thank the convention for the cour- 

 tesy shown me. I have found the members much easier to 

 manage than I expected. I did my part. I think you will all 

 appreciate the fact that although I am not a very good par- 

 liamentarian, I tried to do the best I could. I started with 

 some trepidation, feeling I would not be up to the task, but 

 behavior of the members has been such that it has made it 

 easy and comfortable for me. So I thank you all." [Ap- 

 plause.] 



Mr. Putnam then read a paper entitled, 



IN WHAT WAY CAN BEE-KEEPERS SECURE THEIR 

 SUPPLIES AT LOWER PRICES? 



Coming in contact, as I do, with many thousands of bee- 

 keepers, I am amazed at the indifference displayed by the 

 99 out of loo who are attempting to make a part of their 

 living out of bee-keeping. It is variously estimated that 

 from 400 to 700 thousand people in the United States are to 

 some extent engaged in bee-keeping. Of that vast army 

 scarcely 2,000 can be coaxed, entreated or bribed to join a 

 bee-keepers' association of any kind. I have heard our Gen- 

 eral Manager talk for hours to a gathering of bee-keepers, 

 detailing the benefits to be derived from organzation, and 

 had it not been for the determination of one or two who had 

 originated the movement, the organization could not have 

 been effected. 



The first step in the way of lower prices, then, in my 

 opinion, is to awaken interest — to induce the bee-keepers 

 themselves to co-operate. But let us see. What are the 

 conditions? We find that the catalogs read very much alike. 

 Without sections and starters the i^-story 8-frame hive, 

 nailed and painted, $2.45; nailed only, $2.20; I in flat, $1.85; 

 5 in flat at $1.70; 10 in flat at $1.55; 25 in flat at $1.45 each. 

 The foregoing are supposed to be for retail amounts. The 

 wholesale range is from 25 to 200 hives on a descending 

 scale — 50 hives at $1.35; 100 at $1.25; 200 at 1.15 each; and 

 finally the carload price of $1.02 each. 



Some dealers put a Chinese puzzle before their quota- 

 tions, and if you are an adept at rebus deciphering you will 

 make out that A E 5 2 S 8 describes the same articles as 

 mentioned above. One dealer says, "What's the use of all 

 these tables of complicated figures? I will make a flat rate, 

 ^ne hive $1.85, and give the customer a discount of 25 to 

 nercent, according to the amount purchased." 



Now there is a discount for early cash orders commencing 

 with 10 percent in September and decreasing as the dull 

 months pass by, until finally in March the net price is reached. 

 Some dealers quote a scale of prices 10 cents per hive lower 

 than above quoted, beginning with one hive at $1.75 and end- 

 ing with 92 cents as a carload price. These are printed prices 

 and the wise bee-keeper knows that all he has to do to get 

 a less price is to write to half a dozen dealers or manufac- 

 turers and tell them he will give his order to the lowest bid- 

 der, and he will get as many different quotations as he does 

 replies. How do I know? Only last month a reputable firm 

 which turns out $30,000 to $40,000 worth of bee-hives and 

 supplies a year, and which publishes prices at the highest 

 rates, named me a price of 85 cents per 8-frame i^-story 

 hive, and $2.98 for No. 1 sections. 



Only last year, at our St. Louis meeting, I was asked 

 for prices by one of our leading members. I quoted him 

 92 cents for an 8-frame i^-story hive, and had the sand 

 taken completely out of me by his firm and positive assurance 

 that my prices were away too high — that he could do very- 

 much better down home in York State. 



Where is the bee-hive trust? Where is the combina- 

 tion among manufacturers when such a state of affairs ex- 

 ists? Like that other ghost that haunts the path of the 

 poor, deluded bee-keeper — the artificial comb-honey lie — the 

 trust does not exist, or exists- only in the imagination of some 

 demagog who is bent on deception and fraud. Nevertheless, 

 the vast army of bee-keepers are paying the long price for 

 their supplies and receiving the short price for their honey; 

 but they are the bee-keepers who do not take a bee-paper, 

 and who do not belong to an organization of bee-keepers ; 

 they are the people who wait until the last moment, and 

 rush to the nearest bee-keeper or dealer for a hive into which 

 to hive the bees that swarmed before the bee-keeper thought 

 of procuring a hive. 



The vast amount of ignorance in connection with bee- 

 keeping may be illustrated by the true story of the darky 

 boy employed at a dairy, who came to me one September 

 evening about 25 years ago with the news that "Our bees 

 didn't have anything else to do so they thought they would 

 go swarming — yes, mister, they be hanging on a limb waitin' 

 for dat hive." Needless to say he consented to pay $2.50 

 for a bee-hive— which, by the way, he never did. And this 

 brings me to an important part of my argument. 



THE CREDIT SYSTEM. 



The present, credit system is responsible for a large part 

 of the increase in price. When the elder Root established 

 the mail-order, cash-with-the-order system of supplying this 

 class of goods, it was a cash system. To-day the middle 

 man buys for credit— not 30 or 60 days, but on long time. 

 He will pay the manufacturer for the supplies when he has 

 sold them. Allow me to quote from page 10 of "Collateral 

 on Merchandise Accounts" under the heading of 



"PROTECTION OF PROFITS — RISK IN CREDIT." 



"Profit is the ultimate object of all commercial enter- 

 prise, and a reliable conserver of profits is therefore of in- 

 calculable value to general business. As long as goods are 

 sold on credit, the risk of loss through insolvency of custom- 

 ers is constantly impending. The gravity of this ri;k is 

 appreciated when one considers how little a dispenser of 

 mercantile credit positively knows about the actual financial 

 condition of each of his customers, and the inside facts of 

 their business. And think of how many accounts are out- 

 standing all the time, each involving risk of loss through 

 the incompetence, inexperience, lack of capital, unwise cred- 

 its, neglect, extravagance, competition, crop failures, strikes, 

 money markets and speculation, which may cause the in- 

 solvency of customers. It is not surprising that the losses 

 through insolvency exceed the losses by fire in the United 

 States." 



The above refers to general business. The merchants 

 referred to are those of regular trade— dry goods, groceries, 

 hardware, etc.— all of which are rated and reported by Dun 

 and Bradstreet, with whose assistance it would seem that a 

 comparatively close estimate could be made of a man's finan- 

 cial standing. Nine out of 10 of the people who ask for 

 credit as distributors of bee-hives are men without commer- 

 cial rating. How much more difficult must be the task of 

 the dispenser of bee-hive credits. As the risk increases, 



