234 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



suppose goods advance. In this case I do think 

 that every dealer should make at least some 

 sort of biief explanation, even if it be a class of 

 goods that is going up and down in value al- 

 most constantly. But yet a good many do not 

 do this, relying upon their notice that certain 

 goods are liable to advance without notice. At 

 the present time we are having considerable 

 jangle because alsike is 89.00 a bushel instead 

 of the price printed in our circulars last fall. 

 We write our custoiners, again and again, that 

 we gave notice of the advance in our January 

 Gleanixos: but quite a number stubbornly in- 

 sist that they got the price out of our catalogue 

 — $7.50, and "some say they will not pay any 

 more. You may suggest that we should have 

 written to them of the advance before filling 

 the order. But suppose the proper season for 

 sowing the seed is at hand, and the man wants 

 it right off. Then delays become expensive. 

 Now, if it were possible for me to write a pleas- 

 ant letter, explaining with every such order 

 when goods advance, I could almost always 

 prevent hard feelings. But, dear friends, it is 

 absolutely beyond my strength or powei-. 



Every few days I come to the verge of 

 overwork, and sometimes this overwork is in 

 consequence of trying to pacify some offended 

 customer in a matter of less than a dollar — 

 sometimes, in fact, only a few cents. He will 

 have it that we are greedy and grasping, and 

 that "A. I. Root's religion is only a shrewd 

 t^cherae to get hold of the dollars," as you ex- 

 press it. I have made all this explanation to 

 let you see how impossible it is for me to dic- 

 tate all these letters in regard to business. 



Now in regai'd to the postscript I have given 

 above. I presume tliat, if I had written that 

 clause, I should have made it something like 

 this: 



"My good friends, at this date, Jan. 1. it is 

 hard for us to tell exactly what we can do. We 

 do not dare, at present, to give the close ligui-es 

 we may be able to give a little later when we 

 see how our supply of basswood turns out. If 

 our good friends at the convention do not in- 

 sist on having exact figures right off now. we 

 should be glad to hear from you a little later: 

 and if you do not think it out of the way. we 

 shouldlike to have you tell us what bids you 

 get. before you close the bargain with any 

 one." 



Well, the above is Ui substance ju.st what Mr. 

 Calvert wrote you. only it is told in my usual 

 familiar way, instead of in a brief, business- 

 like way as he puts it. 



But, dear friend, luy spirit moves me. I must say I am com- 

 pletely surpiised at your lionesty— so much so that I said to 

 my wife. " Well, this man is surely honest enough. Certainly 

 not one in a hundred -nould give a man the lienertt ui a lower 

 price AFTER the goods had been sent and tht- liiil maiU- out.'' 

 Of course, in the seven years I have been dealing with you I 

 have alwaj's found you to be square and honest, but I did not 

 expect it to go as far as that. Julius Johannsex. 



IttPort Clinton. O.. March 2. 



~Fei-iuips you may wlsii to kuow what lias brouglit 

 fortli such extravag-aiit expressions. Well, it was 

 simply sometluiig- tiiat our friend Mr. Calvert (tlie 

 vei\v mail wiio wrote the tetter to tlie a.ssociatioii» 

 wrote just as lie does almost every day. An esti- 

 mate had been given for some g-oods, tlie price 

 agreed upon. orUer made, and the goods sliipped. 

 But a decline in prices (a weeli later) made it possi- 

 ble to make friend Jtjhannsen's bill a little less; so 

 Mr. Calvert, iu a ueiglib;)rly and Cliristian spirit, 

 wrote as follows: 



Fribkd J. :— .\swe are g.^ttiiiGr better prices on Planet Jr. 

 implements, we credit you with an cctra discount of 10 per 

 cent on $16.65. the amount charged you for goods which went 

 forward from Philadelphia on the 21st of February. Amount 

 of credit, II 65. A. I Root. 



Medina, O., Feb. 28. 



Now, tliis is the way we are trying to do business, 

 dear friends— not because it will prove to be a big 

 advertisement to us, but because we love Christ Je- 

 sus, and try to live in tfie spii-it of our opening text. 



Yes, I know "that, as our business increases, 

 these Home Papers are going to be criticised and 

 assailed. I feel that it is all the more because 

 there is springing up all over our land a dispo- 

 sition to feel hostile toward those who handle 

 capital, and who have the attendant power 

 and influence that almost always accompany 

 capital. Here in our own town a bitter spirit 

 often comes up against me because I do not 

 employ certain people to the exclusion of others. 

 Of course, these friends do not look from my 

 standpoint, and they do not know the full cir- 

 cumstances of the case. I can illustrate this 

 by a little circumstance that happened only 

 yesterday. On account of a lack of seasoned 

 basswood we were obliged to suspend, for the 

 time being, several hands. One of these came 

 to me and said something like this: 



•' Mr. Root, will you think it impertinent if I 

 ask you why you stop some of your older hands, 

 and keep others who are no better workmen, 

 and who have come later? Have I done any 

 thing to merit your disapproval, or is there any 

 way in which I can better serve you than I 

 have been doing?" 



I assured him that he had not offended me, 

 and I had no complaint to make at all. But I 

 told him the individual we were talking about 

 was a stone-mason by trade, who, during a 

 great part of the summer, when we were at 

 work on our new building, refused to have his 

 wages advanced. As you well know, stone- 

 masons command a higher price than people of 

 many occupations who have work all the year 

 round. One day when I urged the matter, and 

 told him he ought to accept more pay for the 

 work he was doing, he replied sometliing like 

 this: 



" ]\Ir. Root, you put yourself out of the way 

 to give me something to do at a season of the 

 year, and at a time when I could find no work, 

 and when I was needy. You have been giving 

 me work every day in the year, whether it 

 stormed or not: and now that you want some- 

 thing done right in my line, and I see a chance 

 of doing you a favor, just as you did me, I am 

 going to do it. You need not say any thing 

 more about it. I shall not take any more pay. 

 In fact. I rather enjoy showing you that I can 

 remember a favor."' 



Now. friends, you see I had most excellent 

 reasons for doing just as I did: and yet the out- 

 side world looking on. knew nothing of this; 

 and ev(>n if I had the time, it was not my busi- 

 ness to explain all my motives for action. In 

 this conflict of capital and labor. I get glimpses 

 of just this very state of affairs. My friends 

 who are lawy«i's or bankers, or men who have 

 money to let or factories to run. are criticised 

 and called unjust. They are also accused of 

 being open to bribes: and people say nothing 

 can be done except by wire-pulling and •' get- 

 ting inside of the ring," etc. And yet. when 

 the truth comes out they have reasons for their 

 conduct much like the simple circumstance I 

 have given above. 



I am afraid, dear brother, that my California 

 friends are disposed to be uncharitable when 

 they say that Mr. Calvert "s postscript " looked 

 underhanded and dishonorable;" neither can I 

 see that they were right in thinking it looked 

 " grasping." and that we "wished to sell all the 

 supplies used in the world.'" A little reflection, 

 it seems to me, should show them that this is 

 not true. Although we have been the pioneers, al- 

 most, in many things pertaining to bee culture, 

 we have no patents on any thing. In fact, if 

 any of you want to start an opposition business 

 to our own, and should write and tell us so, you 

 would get a prompt reply, to the effect that we 

 would give you all the assistance in our power. 

 Y^ou can come here to .our establishment, and 



