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THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



natural course by the power of monopo- 

 lies. After eloquently giving an apt il- 

 lustration of what a monopoly is, he cites 

 as instances the Glass Trust, the Nail 

 Trust, the Oil Trust, the Match Trust, 

 the Screw Trust, the Sugar trust and 

 others; and mentions the enormous capi- 

 talization of these companies. He takes 

 a vastly , popular view of the matter; so 

 popular that he did not deem it necessary 

 to offer any evidence that Trusts in gen- 

 eral, or any one of them in particular, is 

 a monopoly. He relied, as he safely 

 might, upon the crowd holding up both 

 hands in his support. Perhaps this view 

 of Trusts is popular because it furnishes 

 people a scape-goat that is at hand all 

 the year around. However, though it is 

 a tempting thing, it is a pernicious thing 

 to get into the habit of charging one's 

 circumstances and failures to some one 

 else. So it may be worth while to call 

 attention to what I think is a fact, that 

 Trusts are not properly chargeable with 

 any of the ills of bee-keepers. 



A monopoly is the exclusive possession 

 of anything, as a commodity or market. 

 There may be a Trust that has some such 

 exclusive possession, but I do not know 

 of one. In some cases competition may 

 be smothered to some extent, but it is 

 open to all the rest of the world. Trusts 

 generally are monopolies in the sense that 

 the A. I. Root Company is a monopolj'. 

 Competition is open, alike in both cases, 

 but in each case competition is difficult. 

 Why i* Ch iefly beca use the i odi modi ties are 

 in each case sold at such a low price. 

 Doolittle relates that in '74 he sold his 

 honey at 28)2 cents; say, two and a half 

 times what it would bring now. I judge 

 the prices of necessaries, on the average, 

 have been reduced at least in a like pro- 

 portion. Nails are i^ cents, or less, a 

 pound; good illuminating oil, at this dis- 

 tance from its source, 8 or 9 cents a gallon ; 

 and matches almost nothing, notwith- 

 standing the Trusts. At all events, I 

 am surprised that the price of honey has 

 not been reduced more than it has been. 

 Look at its history for the last twenty 



five years. It has been a time of expan- 

 sion; I may say of forced expansion. 

 Manufactories of supplies have sprang 

 up; numerous apicultural journals have 

 been started; and many works on bee- 

 keeping published. As was natural, the 

 people financially interested in these 

 things were anxious to increase their 

 clientelage, and so preached the doctrine 

 that nectar was going to waste ever}^- 

 where in our blessed country; that it 

 ought to be saved, and that the country 

 ought to be stocked with bees to save it; 

 that, in fact, almost every body in the 

 country ought to keep a few colonies of 

 bees, for their product was clear gain. 

 Conventions were instituted, and, won- 

 derful to tell, all bee-keepers, from the 

 goodness of their hearts or the simplicity 

 of their heads, turned in joyfully to in- 

 crease competition in their owi business. 

 Of course, the nail maker was not hur- 

 rahing for more competitors; neither was 

 the maker of bee-supplies, nor the api- 

 cultural publisher. "The profits on sup- 

 plies were very close, and it would be 

 nothing less than suicidal to attempt to 

 publish a new bee journal." Then, hon- 

 ey is in no sense a necessity, '•'here has 

 never been an urgent demand for it. 

 Under such an increased production the 

 onl}' wonder is that the price is s^ high 

 as it is. 



Then, bee-keepers labor under another 

 great disadvantage. Their conventions 

 and Unions, as compared with Trusts en- 

 gaged in the production of nmnufactured 

 articles, afford them no advantage in 

 economy of production. It is this point 

 of economy of production and distribu- 

 tion that makes companies with great 

 aggregations of wealth. Trusts, if you 

 will, are nece.ssary in this age. We 

 nuist have the cheapest possible distribu- 

 tion. We cannot flourish without them; 

 and can get them only through enor- 

 mously strong companies. The fact that 

 Trusts so operate as sometimes to drive 

 weaker companies out of business, incon- 

 testibly attests the fact that they are put- 

 ting goods upon the market at a lower 



