530 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



interested in national pure-food legislation- 

 have been most shamefully ignored, and that 

 "special interests," such as the whisky 

 traffic, the glucose, pickle, ketchup, can- 

 ning, and patent-medicine lines of business 

 have had most careful consideration from 

 the dignified Senators. Pure- food legisla- 

 tion has been up in our national Congress 

 for upward of twenty years; but in each and 

 every case it has been blocked in the Senate 

 for some unexplainable reason. The various 

 bills are allowed to pass the House; but 

 when they come up before the upper House 

 they have generally been killed in committee 

 because some special interest would suffer. 

 Mr. Lowry says, "It is difficult to assign 

 reasons why some of these men [referring 

 to the Senators] have opposed a measure 

 which every one, except those to be pun- 

 ished, acknowledge to be both desirable and 

 necessary. ' ' 



One slogan of the opposition is this: " If 

 you undertake to make all people perfectly 

 honest in their dealings, you have a very 

 large job on your hands," which practically 

 means, if you can't help yourself sit down 

 and be imposed upon all your natural life. 

 Then the opposition defends the ' ' misbrand- 

 ing and the adulteration of foods with so- 

 called harmless substitutes on the ground 

 that it puts certain products which, in their 

 pure state, are dear, within the reach of the 

 poor man." But, does it? If that same 

 poor man could know that he was paying 

 two or three prices for an abominable sub- 

 stitute under a misbranded name, before 

 Saying down his hard-earned money, would 

 e do it? The statement is made, too, that, 

 unless preservatives can be used, many val- 

 uable food products would go to waste which 

 might otherwise be made available for hu- 

 man consumption. If it can be proven that 

 these preservatives are harmless— absolute- 

 ly so (something that has never yet been 

 done, and probably never will be), then 

 there might be some show of reason in this 

 line of argument. 



Mr. Lowry' s article all J;hrough comes 

 down heavily on the United States Senate, 

 and singles out certain ones of the Senators 

 representing some of our great common- 

 wealths who have stood out persistently 

 against any legislation of this character; 

 very fortunately, this question of pure-food 

 legislation is like Banquo's ghost— it will 

 not down. The people are getting stirred 

 up, and some day they will have a reckoning 

 with some of these Senators unless they 

 withdraw their opposition. But in spite of 

 all this comes the encouraging news that 

 three-fourths of the States of this Union 

 have passed pure-food laws. The "special 

 interests " are already beginning to squirm. 

 They are beginning to see the beginning of 

 the end. 



Just now we need a national pure-food 

 law that will prevent the importation of 

 misbranded and adulterated foods from one 

 State into another. When that is done, and 

 the other fourth of the States without pure- 

 food laws are protected, the bee-keepers of 



the country will see a decided change for 

 the better. When the general public can 

 know to a certainty that honey labeled as 

 such in the bottle and in the section is abso- 

 lutely pure and genuine (because it would 

 be impossible for any thing else to be sold) , 

 then we may expect the business of the 

 bee-keeper, and all other producers of pure 

 food as well, to be much more profitable 

 than now. 



THE NEW HONEY- PRODUCERS' LEAGUE. 



While some have felt that there was un- 

 due haste in the organization of this new 

 movement for the bettering of prices on 

 honey (and to an outsider it looks that way), 

 yet the conditions were such that there was 

 not time to do any thing but to start some- 

 thing going, and that instanter, then later 

 on make the necesary modifications after a 

 little trial experience had shown what was 

 wisest and best.* The criticism has been 

 made, also, that the new movement ought 

 to have been under the auspices of the Na- 

 tional Bee-keepers' Association. But the 

 promoters of the League, who gave this 

 particular thought, say that the constitution 

 of the National as it now exists would not 

 permit of so large a call for funds. How- 

 ever this may be, it is not time to swap 

 horses in the middle of the stream, or, to 

 vary the figure, discuss whether we ought 

 to have ridden this horse or that. 



While I had nothing to do with the organ- 

 ization of the new movement, I felt that, 

 though it did not suit me exactly in some re- 

 spects, it was good enough to push forward, 

 and then later on rectify whatever might 

 not be to our liking. 



Referring to the National, I see nothing 

 in the way of having the League amalgam- 

 ated with the old organization. This might 

 be discussed at the coming meeting at San 

 Antonio, and a committee be appointed to 

 perfect a plan of union which could be rati- 

 fied as soon as the necessary change could 

 be made in the constitution. The new Na- 

 tional then might have two departments- 

 one of publicity and of education, as now 

 undertaken by the League; the other to 

 continue on with the present work already 

 carried on by the National Association as 

 now organized. 



At all events, brethren, let us get togeth- 

 er and push both organizations; and if it 

 seems wise to amalgamate them, do so at 

 the proper time later on. But let us be do- 

 ing something. I have talked with one or 

 two officers of the League in regard to this 

 possible amalgamation, and they see no dif- 

 ficulty in the way. 



Already the League has been doing some 

 splendid work, the details of which it is, 

 perhaps, not wise to make public at this 

 time. 



* Perhaps it oueht to be said that it would be simply 

 impossible to project an entirely new organization to do 

 new work, and have it perfect at the start, even if 

 months and months were taken. Better a working 

 something-, even if a little crude, which can be reorgan- 

 ized after a little experience has shown what can and 

 what can not be done. 



