Feb. 16, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



99 



National Pure Food and Drug- Congress. 



BY REV. EMERSON T. ABBOTT. 



THE second annual meeting of this Conjfress was held in 

 the city of Washing-ton, D. C, Jan. 19-21. The pro- 

 gram was an interesting- one, and included some of the 

 leading- men of the Nation, among whom was the Secretan,' 

 of Agriculture, and several other members of the House and 

 Senate. The attendance was g-ood, and the delegates rep- 

 resented almost every productive industry in the land. 

 Scores of State and National organizations were repre- 

 sented, and they were nearly a unit in the belief that the 

 passage of the Pure Food Bill as revised by the Congress 

 last year should be urged without any material changes. 

 There were some who thought the Bill could be strength- 

 ened by slight changes in the wording, and a few others, 

 we are sorry to saj', who wore the insignia of delegates, 

 who were anxious to amend the Bill in order that they 

 might kill it, but the Congress promptly sat down on all 

 such movements. 



A markt peculiarity of the Congress was its disposition 

 not to encourage what is known as " class legislation." The 

 bill as drafted a year ago is remarkably clear of anything 

 of this kind, and it semed to be the almost unanimous opin- 



Rc-i'. /;. r. .Ihhoft. 



ion of the Congress that it should be left so. Here is one of 

 the essentially weak points of many pure food laws — they 

 are enacted purely in the financial interest of the producers, 

 and generally of a single class of producers. Now, it seems 

 to the writer that law has nothing to do with increasing the 

 price of the produce of any individual or class of individuals, 

 but it does have something to do with the interests of all of 

 the people, consumers as well as producers. While the law 

 has nothing to do with high or low prices, it does have 

 something to do with preventing fraud and deception. 



The Pure Food and Drug Congress is not asking that 

 any industry be supprest, or even crippled, but it does ask 

 the Government to compel every man to sell his products 

 for what they are, and that he be prevented from perpe- 

 trating any kind of fraud on his customers, as does every 

 man who, prompted by greed and avarice, misbrands any 

 article of commerce, or mixes anv inferior or deleterious 

 article with a food product. All o"f the addresses delivered 

 before the Congress, with one or two exceptions, were along 

 this line, and were keyed to this idea. 



President Blackburn showed himself to be an excellent 

 presiding officer, and, owing to his promptness and decis- 

 ion, a great deal of routine business was transacted, not- 

 withstanding there were a great many addresses on the pro- 

 gram. It was voted to make the organization permanent, 

 a constitution and by-laws were adopted, and officers elected 

 to serve until their successors are chosen. The old officers 

 were all re-elected, it being the opinion of the committee on 

 organization (of which the writer was chairman) that those 

 who had begun the good work would better be left in full 

 charge for the present. 



It will no doubt be of special interest to the bee-keeping 

 friends to know that our industry received its full recogni- 

 tion on the floor of the Congress the same as last year. The 

 editor of the Modern Farmer and Busy Bee, who went as a 

 representative of the United States Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion and the Missouri State Board of Agriculture, was made 

 chairman of two important committees, and was again 

 named as vice-president for the State of Missouri. Mr. 

 Secor was continued vice-president for the State of Iowa ; 

 E. S. Lovesy, for Utah, and, at the suggestion of the writer, 

 Thomas G. Newman was named for vice-president for Cali- 

 fornia. 



It will be seen from this that the bee-keepers will have 

 themselves to blame if they do not have a hand in this im- 

 portant legislation. 



We desire to say, in this connection, that the bee-keepers 

 of the United States are under special obligations to the 

 " Burlington," "Big Four," and the Chesapeake & Ohio 

 railways, for it was through the courtesy of these roads that 

 the delegate of the United States Bee-Keepers' Association 

 was able to attend the Congress, there being only the small 

 appropriation of $15.00 .set apart for this purpose by the 

 Directors of the Association, and this amount would not 

 pay hotel bills and sleeping-car fare, to say nothing about 

 the other necessary incidental expenses. Therefore, we 

 trust our friends will remember this, and show their appre- 

 ciation of the favor by giving the roads mentioned above 

 their patronage when opportunity offers. 



We desire to say before we close that the Pure Food Bill 

 ■was reported favorably by the Senate Committee during the 

 time the Congress was in session. It was ordered printed, 

 and a copy of it can be had by addressing the Senators of 

 your State at Washington, D. C. The House Committee 

 will also make a favorable report on it, we were informed, 

 and the important thing now is for every one who reads 

 this to write his Senators and Representatives from his Dis- 

 trict, and urge the passage of the Bill. 



The Bill has found rather smooth sailing up to the pres- 

 ent time, but it has now come to the danger line ; its ene- 

 mies are organized, and on hand with money and influence 

 to defeat it. It stands in hand for every friend of common 

 honesty, and pure food, drinks and drugs, to be on the alert 

 and up and doing, that we may not lose the ground we have 

 gained in our fight with this the arch enemy of mankind — 

 the adulteration fraud. 



Let us not be lukewarm ; let us not be slow to act ; let 

 us not flatter ourselves that we are not personally inter- 

 ested, for we are. No man who eats or drinks can escape 

 the baneful effects of this adulteration fraud, but if we are 

 not interested for ourselves, it is to be hoped that for the 

 good of humanity, for the good of our wives and children, 

 for the good of generations yet unborn, we will shake off 

 our lethargy, and go forward in our might to remove from 

 the history of our country this cursed blight of fraud, de- 

 ceit and duplicity, and that it may no longer be said that 

 we are the only civilized country on the globe that permits 

 the open and flagrant adulteration of foods, drinks and 

 drugs. — Modern Farmer and Busv Bee. 



Honey and Pollen Producing- Trees. 



BY F. A. SNKLL. 



AMONG the early-blooming trees that are planted for 

 shade and ornament, the soft maple is probably the 

 first to bloom in the Northern States. This tree yields 

 a liberal amount of pollen, and but little honey. When the 

 weather is mild during .soft-maple bloom the bees are found 

 humming the whole day long among the inviting blossoms, 

 are stimulated to activity, brood-rearing is commenced, and 

 the bees are much benefited. 



This tree blooms, .some years, very early, when a cold 

 wave comes on after it has been in bloom two or three days, 

 and the blossoms are frozen, and the yield of pollen and 

 honey thus abruptly ends from this source. Had we years 

 ago planted later-blooming honey-producing trees more ex- 

 tensively, and the soft maple not so much, our bees would 

 have been benefited more. That matter should be more 

 closely considered in the future in ornamenting our homes 

 or home surroundings. 



I have found the hard maple to be a true friend to the 

 honey-bee, and well worthy of being planted by every bee- 

 keeper and others who wish to secure one of our substan- 

 tial trees. The hard maple yields a liberal amount of honey 

 while in bloom, and blooms late enough so the weather is 



