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THE AMERICAIlJ BEE JOURNAL. 



in their commission, cutting prices to 

 " get ahead of their rival commission 

 neighbor." With my knowledge of 

 commission men, this is " slander- 

 ous." I have on my books the names 

 of a score or more commission men of 

 whom I would not listen to reports 

 regarding their bad practices, any 

 sooner than I would to such a report 

 regarding my pastor.a brother church- 

 man, or my nearest neighbor. In 

 fact.I know that they do not cut prices 

 for the sake of making sales. 



Two or three years ago I had honey 

 in the hands of several of these, and 

 to meet what I was very desirous of 

 meeting, I wrote each to cut prices 

 so that my honey might be sold inside 

 of two weeks, so as to give me the 

 cash I needed. What was the result V 

 With a single exception they all re- 

 plied by advancing me a liberal 

 amount on my consignment, and say- 

 ing that they could not cut prices for 

 me, as it would injure the market and 

 cause much loss to others who had 

 placed honey in their hands. To be 

 sure I have found one or two commis- 

 sion men whom I have had to drop 

 from my list ; so I have of neighbors 

 and even bee-keepers, but I wish it 

 understood that I believe commission 

 men as upright as the average of 

 mankind. 



Then we are told that " every im- 

 portant business, almost, has an or- 

 ganization." Has the wheat-grower 

 such an organization '/ the fruit- 

 grower, the butter-maker, or the wool 

 grower ? These are all parallel cases. 

 If they have, why is it that our 

 farmers are selling wheat for less than 

 the cost of production V Why was it 

 that hundreds of bushels of small 

 fruit was sold the past summer so low 

 as not to pay the cost of freight and 

 handling, say nothing of producing ¥ 

 Are we not getting crazy in thinking 

 that we must organize or do some- 

 thing to prevent our being cheated 

 and beaten by those outside the bee- 

 fraternity y 



Once more Mr. B. puts the retail 

 price of honey at from 15 to 25 cents 

 per pound, according to quality, and 

 says that we should supply our home 

 markets first. Does he not know that 

 such prices would exclude our honey 

 from nearly every such market in the 

 land y 



A year ago 1 thought I would try 

 the plan of giving a good, round com- 

 mission to our store-keepers, and see 

 if I could not enlarge the sale of 

 honey in our town. From the quota- 

 tions given in the bee-papers I figured 

 what I thought my honey would net 

 me shipped to commission men, and to 

 this 1 added 20 per cent., as that was 

 the commission I had decided upon as 

 being great enough to induce the 

 local stores to try to push the honey 

 sales. 



I then selected what I thought 

 would be sold at home (taking only 

 the verii choicest, so as to be sure and 

 have all count in the right direction), 

 and shipped the balance, as I had 

 formerly done. The price placed on 

 the home-sold honey was 16 cents, in- 

 stead of Mr. B"s 25 cents, but the re- 

 sult gave only two cases of honey sold. 

 What was the trouble V The store- 



keeper was not to blame, for he used 

 all his persuasive power. A little 

 conversation that I overheard will ex- 

 plain all. It was this : A customer 

 said, " What is the price of honey y" 

 The storekeeper replied, "Sixteen 

 cents. It is nice; let me sell you 

 some." 



'■ What is the price of your best C 

 sugar ?" " Six cents." 



" Put me up 10 pounds of the sugar, 

 for with it and some water I will 

 make 13 pounds of syrup which will 

 do me just as well as honey ; for the 

 prices of labor will not warrant me in 

 any such extravagance as purchasing 

 honey." So said the customer. 



When I got returns for my honey 

 shipped to commission men, most of 

 them had sold it for from 1 to 2 cents 

 above quotations, so that I had lost 

 one cent at least per pound on what 

 had been sold at home, and made a 

 failure besides. 



Again, it is the bee-keepers of the 

 West that are grumbling as to prices 

 this time, while the year before it was 

 we of the East. Why is this V Simply 

 because last year there was a large 

 crop in the West, while the year be- 

 fore the large crop was in the East. 

 Does this not show us that supply and 

 demand is the great regulator of all 

 this, and not organization ? The 

 Bee-Keepers' Union cannot fix the 

 price of honey for the United States, 

 even at the risk of losing that $1.25 

 offered to it by Mr. Fayette Lee, if it 

 will do so. My honey brought \}4 

 cents per pound more in 1886 than in 

 1885, and does any one suppose that I 

 would have the Union fix the 1885 

 price on the honey of 1886 ? No. I 

 hope that bee-keepers will see the 

 folly of such nonsense. 



As to the columns of the bee-papers 

 beiug used as an advertising mediilm 

 for commission men, I did not so un- 

 derstand it. I supposed that was a 

 part of what belonged to me as a 

 snbscriber. No, Mr. Editor, I ob- 

 ject to leaving these reports out, and 

 I am not ashamed to have it known 

 that I do so object ! After the or, 

 ganization,that Mr. Baldridge wishes- 

 is perfected, will he rent a store in 

 some of the many smaller cities of 

 the West, handle and sell all the 

 honey that is sent to him, become re- 

 sponsible for all losses, worry and 

 bother, and pay for the privilege of 

 quoting the prices of honey in the 

 different papers— all for 5 per cent, 

 commission V I trow not. Yet this 

 is all a large proportion of the whole- 

 sale commission men ask. 



I wish to emphasize Mr. Heddon's 

 statement, that '• if we as bee-keepers 

 desire to bring ourselves into bad re- 

 pute we could not do it faster 



than by perfecting this proposed or- 

 ganization," or causing to be enacted 

 legislative laws, both of which, as I 

 understand them, are looking toward 

 that which is not for the good of all 

 concerned, but rather toward selfish- 

 Borodino,© N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Replatins tlie Price of Honey. 



GEO. F. ROBBINS. 



tW The Dnion Bee-Keepers' Association of 

 Western Iowa will hold their next annual meeting 

 at Dexter, Iowa, on Satuday, Apr. 9, 1887, in the 

 Council Room, at ici a.m. All interested in bees or 

 honey are requesteti to be present. 



J. B. Pryor Stc. 



When Mr. Baldridge said that the 

 commission merchants are largely re- 

 sponsible for the low prices of honey, 

 I think he made a statement that he 

 cannot sustain. It may be so, but I 

 more than doubt it. From what I 

 can learh, I judge that the dealers 

 have good reason to lower prices. It 

 is certainly reasonable to suppose that 

 considerably more honey could be sold 

 at from 11 to 12 cents per pound than 

 at 14 to 16 cents. I am not insensible 

 to the effects of competition in lower- 

 ing prices ; but even commission mer- 

 chants will generally get the best 

 prices they can ; and I should say that 

 a man in that business is far better 

 qualified than are producers, to judge 

 how near or at what prices the de- 

 mand will take in the supply. I do 

 not believe that the supply could be 

 disposed of at prices 3 cents higher 

 than those now obtained. 



But there is yet a soberer phase to 

 this whole matter. The question oc- 

 curs, are combinations right y for that 

 is what the idea of a honey-producers' 

 association means. I hate combina- 

 tions. They are the very bulwarks of 

 monopoly, and who does not hate 

 monopolies, except the few who profit 

 directly by them y To be sure, monop- 

 olies generally work to the benefit of 

 the few and to the detriment of the 

 many. It is much easier for 100 

 brewers or fruit-jar manufacturers to 

 combine, than for 100.000 farmers or 

 10,000 bee-keepers. The last two 

 appear to me impossible, it is true. 

 But we are now assuming, for the 

 sake of argument, that such consoli- 

 dation of interests and effort are pos- 

 sible. Would such be any the less 

 monopoly, because engineered in the 

 interest of a greater number y What- 

 ever may be the legitimate benefit of 

 association of interests, they always 

 beget clannishness, and clans are 

 characteristically narrow and selfish. 

 There is a great deal of human na- 

 ture in them, as Mrs. Chaddock would 

 say. 



The producer thinks that the mid- 

 dle man makes all the money ; the 

 middle man says the producer gets it 

 all. The capitalist tells you that his 

 employes are the only ones who make 

 anything ; the employes do not think 

 so, by a long ways. The purchaser 

 thinks a certain price for honey is 

 "awful high;" the apiarist calls it 

 "awful low." So it goes. Now, to 

 be fair with one another, each should 

 place himself, so to speak, in the con- 

 dition of the other, then adjudicate 

 his warring claims. Hence we honey 

 producers may well pause and in- 

 quire if our combinations and arbi- 

 trary prices are right. 



Mr. B. thinks that 20 to 25 cents 

 per pound for nice honey is only a 

 fair price, and 16 to 18 cents is fair for 

 inferior grades. If he were a wage- 

 earner at $2 per day— or less— he would 

 not think so. The laborer with a 

 good appetite, who cannot spread the 

 sumptuous table that his employer 



