THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



363 



T. for all his sharp little hits at me, in as 

 much as he says he is perfectly willing 

 that the readers of the Review shall use 

 any plan that will give them "ease" and 

 "comfort," and because I believe him to 

 be writing solely for the good of the 

 world, arid not from any "sinister motive." 

 And now, Bro. Hutchinson, I wish to say, 

 without your witholding my name, that 

 I thank you for introducing the "Depart- 

 ment of Criticism," for it is of great 

 worth, and I read it with rather more 

 avidity than I do anything else published 

 in any of the bee papers. This depart- 

 ment gives the Review the lead of the 

 other bee papers in a new direction, and 

 one of profit to us, as it is well for lis 

 sometimes to "see ourselves as others see 

 us." So keep Bro. Taylor "firing away," 

 at Doolittle and others, as he sees the 

 need of doing, only let him do it in the 

 spirit of love toward the one criticised, 

 and bee-keepers in general. 



I see by page 304 of October Review 

 that Bro. Hasty is still firing away at that 

 " wicked act " of facing comb honey. If 

 I have read him aright during the months 

 which have passed since this facing mat- 

 ter came up, the "crime" of facing con- 

 sists in rolibing the buyer and "lowering" 

 the price of honey to the producers. This 

 is in accord with Bro. Snyder's first arti- 

 cle, found in February Gleanings, page 

 83, which was the leader in the matter. 

 vSnyder there asserts that the facing of 

 comb honey "has caused more mischief 

 and done more to 'ower prices than all 

 other evils combined." Thus we have 

 the matter presented like this: It is a 

 "wicked act, mischievious and dishonest" 

 to rob bee-keepers and others, through 

 the facing of honey, and such facing has 

 done more to •lorces pricee ( rob ) than all 

 other evils combined This can be the 

 only meaning presented, when carried to 

 a logical end. In past articles I have 

 proven that the "di.shonest" part set up 

 was a myth, and now I wish to prove the 

 fallacy of Bro. Snyder's assertion. 



How does the lowering of the price of 

 honey rob bee-keepers ? Let us take a 



look at the matter and see if we can find 

 out. Lower prices for honey could not 

 possibly rob bee-keepers, if the price of 

 ALL other things ivas lowered in propor- 

 tion. But it has not. Why .-' Because 

 many of the necessities to bee-keepers 

 are held by monopolies. Let us see how 

 monopoly robs the bee-keeper. Two 

 miners struck a rich vein of gold. The 

 heat was intense, and there was no water. 

 The gold they could not drink. Without 

 drinking they could not live, and without 

 life the gold was of no value. Their vein 

 was worthless until they discovered near 

 by a freak of nature. A brook sprang 

 from the ground, cool and sparkling, and 

 after running a few feet snddenly dis- 

 appeared. The miners were rejoiced. 

 Now they could toil on. In the course 

 of time a stranger came into the valley. 

 They were glad of company; they showed 

 him how fortunate thev had been in dis- 

 covering the brook, and urged him to 

 stake out a claim, for there was gold 

 enough for all. The stranger did not 

 like digging for his own gold. Instead, 

 he staked his claim around the brook. 

 He put a barbed wire fence about it. He 

 erected a stockade and supplied it with 

 men armed with rifles. Then he told the 

 miners that if they wanted water they 

 must bring him half the gold thev dug. 

 They were at his mercy, for he had a 

 monopol}' on one of the necessities of 

 life. No man can get 1 1,000.000 without 

 a similar monopoly; and there are 156 

 trusts and monopolies on the wants and 

 the necessities of bee-keepers to-day; rob- 

 bing them all the while; taking from 

 them through that monopoly "fence" of 

 something for which they give no equiva- 

 lent. The taking from bee-keepers in 

 this way, was what I meant by "unearn- 

 ed incomes" and "unearned charges," as 

 spoken of in the June American Bee 

 Keeper, and which seemed to be a "rid- 

 dle" to Bro. York's "Bee Boiler," friend 

 Hasty, and others. Eveiy bit of gold 

 taken from the miners through that fence 

 and rifles was by way of unearned charges 

 or unearned incomes. Now, if the read- 



