Dec. 4, 1902. 



THE AMERICAN BEE .lOURNAL. 



775 



they may deem sutTicient, and fill any vacancy which may 

 occur." Article VII, on X'acancies, will be amended as fol- 

 lows: "Any orticer who wishes to resign shall present 

 that matter to the K.xccutive Committee for their action." 

 This is not a matter for discussion. I propose to oiler these 

 to be presented to the members of the National Association 

 at the next election, in December. 



Pres. Hutchinson — I sec there is a very fine exhibit in 

 the alcove, and some of us Western or Eastern people have 

 been asked to pass our opinion upon it afterdinner. Messrs. 

 Koot, Hutchinson, Dadant, Hershiser, and Mrs. Uooth are 

 the committee. 



Dr. Miller — This matter that has been presented by Mr. 

 Abbott is an important one, and I believe good will come 

 from it, but it is necessary for us to have time to think it 

 over, and that is one reason why it is given to day. The 

 electing of one or more members of the Board of Directors 

 from one State is, in general, an objectionable thing, they 

 should be over the whole country. Here comes, however, 

 what might be objectionable also in that. The representa- 

 tion should be somewhat in accordance with the numbers. 

 If a State has a very large number of members, and another 

 State has almost no members, there would seem to be an 

 element of unfairness in allowing one Director to have such 

 a very small representation ; and if there is no other way 

 of getting at it, I would give notice that an amendment 

 would be offered, " That no State shall have a Director 

 unless such State shall have Si) members of the Association 

 within its bounds." I have not had time to think about it, 

 only it would seem to me fairness would require something 

 cf that kind. 



Dr. Mason — I could give a little idea by stating how 

 many States have 50 members and over. 



Dr. Miller — Mr. Abbott says to take that as part of his 

 notice. 



Dr. Mason — California, 136 ; Illinois, 12+ ; New York, 

 146 ; Wisconsin, 88 ; Colorado, 51 ; there is no other one 

 that has SO. 



Mr. Abbott — I am perfectly willing to put that in. 

 There has not been a change suggested but what I am will- 

 ing to embody in my notice, and I don't know but what I 

 will embody a good deal more. 



Dr. Miller — After Dr. Mason's statement I should judge 

 2S would be a better number than 50. 



Mr. Marks — I wish to say in regard to Dr. Miller's 

 motion, that you are limiting the number of Directors to a 

 State to one. As far as the State of New York is concerned, 

 I might say that that is a reflection upon us ; we have had 

 the largest number of members in this organization ever 

 since it was started. There is no time since it was organ- 

 ized, since I have been able to get hold of the list of mem- 

 bers, but what we have had from one-fifth to one-sixth of 

 the members in this Association, and since it was organized 

 we never had a Director in this organization up to two years 

 ago, and now some of you are finding fault because we have 

 got, you say, more than we are entitled to. Perhaps we 

 have ; I won't denj' that perhaps we are not entitled to any, 

 but when you strike at a State that has had from one-fifth 

 to one-sixth of its members, and which up to two years ago 

 never had a Director in the Association, you are hitting a 

 pretty hard blow. You are limiting the number to 2S. Let 

 them go out and get other members ; it is members that 

 make this organization. Come in here with your 50 mem- 

 bers, and you are entitled to a Director. You can get them. 

 It is members we want ; it is members that are going to 

 make this organization. If you want to increase the mem- 

 bership of this Association you have to get some inducement 

 to do it ; don't let a man come in here and be a Director of 

 this Association for life with perhaps a dozen members in 

 his State. 



Dr. Miller — I believe that I have, perhaps as early as 

 any one, made some objection in this direction, and it has 

 certainly not been with any thought of striking at New 

 York. Now, to come right down to it, the thing has stood 

 a little in this way : The Directors have been elected year 

 after year, and whoever has been in when the election 

 <;omes — there have been no nominations, and they have a 

 kind of a life tenure of office. I have been a Director — not 

 ever since I was born — but ever since the Association was 

 born, and unless I die I don't see any other way of getting 

 out of the thing as yet. There are two of us in Illinois, 

 and when I have any objection to it I am striking just as 

 much at Illinois as at New York ; and there are two in one 

 family in Ohio. Those things, in some way, I would like 

 to see arranged so that we could have some kind of an un- 

 derstanding, and not have the thing run on with the appear- 

 ance of being in the ring. It looks like that to outsiders, 



that we have got there, and the thing is fixed so that we 

 can stay there, and you can't help yourself. Unles* you get 

 some other rigging on, I am going to stay a Director as 

 long as I live. 



Mr. Taylor — Mr. Abbott gives notice of an amendment, 

 that no Stale shall have more than one Director, and I sug- 

 gest that he add, " And that no Director shall hold the 

 olTice for more than two terms consecutively." 



Mr. Abbott T will take that. 



Mr. York —I think Mr. Marks is wrong in saying that 

 his State had no representation until two years ago. If I 

 remember correctly, Mr. Doolittle had always been on the 

 Board of the National Bee-Keepers" Union, which was 

 merged into this Association. Another thing, the whole 

 South has no Director whatever. If we put this limit of 25 

 members, they will get a hustle on and come in. Another 

 thing, you can't have more than 12 Directors, so there 

 might be 20 States that would have 50 members each, but 

 they couldn't all have Directors, only 12 of them. I think 

 we ought to do something for the South ; we have no Direc- 

 tor there. 



Mr. Taylor — It seems to me, in this discussion, we are 

 doing the work that must be done a year hence. We have 

 notice of these amendments, and the form in which they go 

 in to-day does not bind the Association to adopt them ; if 

 it adopts them in the form in which they now stand, 

 amendments can be made, and they can be disposed of in a 

 way that the Association sees fit at the next annual meet- 

 ing. The necessity for this notice, and the importance of 

 it, is that it gives all the members of the Association notice 

 of the subject-matter that is to cOrae up and be amended in 

 the Constitution, and every member has a year in which to 

 consider it and he can come — 



Mr. Abbott — It is only till tlie coming December. 



Mr. Taylor — I supposed it was at the annual meeting. 



Pres. Hutchinson — No, it is at the next election, in 

 December. 



Mr. Taylor — Then it is very important that these should 

 be gotten in form. 



Mr. Harris — To cover this ground I move that a com- 

 mittee of five be appointed by the chair to take this matter 

 up, look into it most thoroughly, and report at the next an- 

 nual convention for their adoption or rejection. 



Mr. Darby — I second that. 



J. P. Ivy — I hope the motion will not prevail. 



Mr. Abbott — I simply say that I do not waive my rights. 

 I have given the notice, and I can't have it put off for a 

 year. This amendment is going to be sent to the member- 

 ship in December, no question about that. I am waiting, 

 but you can't make any motion to cut that off because — 



Mr. Ivy — I hope this motion will not prevail ; if it does 

 it practically does away with the whole Constitution. The 

 Constitution says that any member has a right to propose 

 an amendment at any of the annual meetings, and it is the 

 duty of the person proposing that amendment to reduce it 

 to writing and hand it to the Secretary, and there is no need 

 of us discussing this proposition. If Mr. Abbott has an 

 amendment he wishes to place in the Constitution, it is his 

 privilege ; if I, being a member from Arizona, have an 

 amendment I wish to submit, it is my privilege to do so. 

 There is only a small handful of the members of this Asso- 

 ciation here to-day that are permitted to vote upon this, 

 and I contend, under our Constitution as it was adopted 

 originally, it was intended to submit these amendments to 

 the whole of the voters of this Association, not to the mem- 

 bers who are present, and I hope the amendment will not 

 prevail, and that Mr. Abbott will reduce his amendment to 

 writing and hand it to the secretary and let it be submitted 

 to the voters of the National Bee-Keepers' Association. 



A. C. Van Golder — I move we adjourn. 



Dr. Mason — I second the motion. 



C. P. Dadant— This matter should be put before the 

 members right away —put the amendments before them so 

 that our members may read and judge of this, ll'e are not 

 going to decide this ; the inefitbers must decide it, and we 

 must try and be peaceable, and be kind to one another, and 

 bring the matter forward in a way that will be intelligible 

 to everybody. 



Mr. Harris — With the consent of my seconder, I would 

 like to add this, to be harmonious, that a committee be ap- 

 pointed by the chair to look into this matter, and see what 

 it is going to do in regard to our Constitution and By-Laws, 

 report this afternoon, and then let the discussion come up. 

 That is only fair and right, that they may go into the ques- 

 tion in the proper way. 



Mr. Taylor — I don't understand how it can be proper 

 for a committee to act upon these notices. A member has 



