THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



145 



made in advance of election. I believe 

 that the ballot, the actual power of elec- 

 ting;; these officers, should remain ris^ht 

 where it is — in the hands of all of the 

 tnembers — but, so long as no one knows 

 how, or for whom, his neij^hbor will vole, 

 each officer will simply succeed himself. 

 It has been sugijested that nominations 

 be made throuj^h the bee journals, but, 

 what is everybody's business is nobody's 

 business, and it would not, or might not, 

 be done. The most feasible plan, to my 

 mind, that has yet been suggested, is that 

 candidates be nominated at the annual 

 convention. Against this plan it has 

 been urged that a nomination by the con- 

 vention would virtually be an election. 

 If only one candidate were named, it 

 would; but let us nominate two candi- 

 dates. Usually, there would be no ob- 

 jection to the nomination of the man 

 whose office was about to expire, and 

 then nominate another man, and let the 

 votes at the annual election decide be- 

 tween the two. It is true that a large 

 local element is usually in attendance at 

 each annual convention, but the leaders 

 are also always present, and the likeli- 

 hood of an undesirable man being nomin- 

 ated is not very great. I think that this 

 plan is at least worthv of a trial. If it 

 does not prove desirable it can be modi- 

 fied or dropped. A trial of sovie plan is 

 more desirable than to go on as we are 

 doing with this sort of endless chain 

 method. This question is bound to come 

 up at the Denver meeting, and let us dis- 

 cuss it in advance of the meeting. What 

 objections do you see to this plan ? Let's 

 have them first. 



^«r«*^*^«^rf« 



A BUTTON FOR THK MEMBERS OF THE 

 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 



At nearly every convention of the na- 

 tional Association of Bee Keepers there 

 has been a badge with which to decorate 

 the members. Sometimes these badges 

 have not been very expensive; at others 

 they have been quite elaborate affairs of 

 gold leaf, silk and tassels. Sometimes 



they have been paid for out of the funds 

 of the Association, and sometimes they 

 have been gotten up and paid for by the 

 local bee-keepers where the convention 

 has been held. From first to last quite a 

 sum of mone}' has been spent in this way 

 — certainly more than |;ioo. After the 

 convention is over, what becomes of them? 

 I suppose they are carried home and tuck- 

 ed away in some out of the way place. 

 I have alwa3's given mine to the children 

 to play with. When the next convention 

 comes around, new badges must be 

 bought. The old ones will not answer, 

 as the reading on them does not fit the 

 occasion. Once there was a little bit of 

 use in getting a new badge each 3'ear. 

 If a man did not pay his dues, he receiv- 

 ed no badge. He did not like to be an 

 odd one in the crowd. He might be a 

 little stingy, and like to hang on to his 

 dollar, but he usually parted with it for 

 the sake of appearing like other folks. 

 Members would say: '"Where is your 

 badge Bro. Blank?" and he couldn't 

 stand that. In this way the badges may 

 have brought in all they cost. Now 

 there are weightier and more selfish rea- 

 sons for joining the Association. If for 

 no other reason, many join for the sake 

 of the protection afforded them. They 

 join, not because some one may notice it 

 if they tion't, but because they can see 

 some tangible advantage in joining. 

 This old advantage of a badge is gone, yet 

 bee-keepers ought to wear some emblem. 

 They ought to wear them when going to 

 a convention. They would be the cause 

 of man}' pleasant meetings. When going 

 up to the convention last winter at Pe- 

 toskey, I fell into conversation with a bee 

 keeper, and, pretty soon, another man 

 Ijegan edging up. and, finally, he said 

 "Are you men going to the convention ?" 

 "Yes." "I thought so, for I heard you 

 talking bees." Pretty soon another join- 

 ed our group because /;^ heard us "talk- 

 ing bees." Suppose that two of us had 

 not happened to be acquainted, we would 

 all have ridden many miles in the same 

 car and not exchanged a word. On the 



