THE BEE-KEErERS' REVIEW. 



I was in iloubl whether I couhl declare 

 tliis ail election or not. I finally turned 

 the matter over to Mr. Abbott who was 

 Chairman of the Board, sayins.1,' that I 

 thought that E. M. Abbott was intended 

 for E. T. Abbott and conld be so constru- 

 ed as the "intent of thr voter." Mr. 

 Abbott then issued a circular letter to the 

 Board declariTi»i an election for himself 

 as General Manager, and at the same 

 time aiinounciui; that he had resigned as 

 Chairman of the Hoard. I was then ap- 

 pointed by him as acting Chairman until 

 a permanent Chairman had been elected. 



Subsequent developments showed tliat 

 the Board was very much dissatisfied with 

 the precedure. The contention was that 

 H. M. Abbott was not E. T. Abbott, and 

 that there were onh- six votes — not a ma- 

 jority. J was criticised for not. declaring 

 the vote mvself instead turning it over 

 to an interested part}-. In the meantime 

 it developed that the resignation of IMr. 

 Secor had not been accepted either by 

 the Executive Committee or the Board 

 of Directors. Some thought that Mr. 

 Secor should have sent his resignation to 

 the Chairman of the Board. To 

 avoiil complication Mr. Secor then 

 .sent his resignation tome. This I placed 

 before the Board with the result that every 

 member voted not to accept. It was fur- 

 ther contended that because this resigna- 

 tion had not been accepted Secor was 

 legally General Manager at the very tiuie 

 zee were trying to elect /lis successor, and 

 that therefore the precedure was irregular 

 and the election void. At the time of 

 submitting this resignation I aLso stated 

 that an appeal had been made from Mr. 

 Abbott's decision to the effect that he 

 was elected General Manager, and inquir- 

 ed whether that decision should be sus- 

 tained. To this there were lo negative 

 votes and one affirmative. I then an- 

 nounced to the Board that Mr. Aljbott's 

 decision (or mine, if Mr. A. prefers to 

 have it so) was overruled, and declared 

 Mr. Secor General Manager. 



Let us take the other horn of the dilem- 

 ma, or the second proposition, viz., the 

 Board did not have the power to accept 

 Mr. Secor 's resignation and accept his res- 

 ignation and elect his successor. Mr. 

 Secor tendered his resignation the second 

 time to the Board of Directors, and the 

 Board unanimously declined to entertain 

 it. Mr. Secor has notified the Board that 

 he will continue in ofiice until his succes- 

 sor is elected and qualified. This avoids 

 all complications; and if the Board can 

 not fill a vacancy caused by voluntary 

 resignation, then it has done the proper 

 thing by refusing to entertain a resigna- 



tion it could not accept (if Mr. Alibott is 

 correct ), and leave the man in office who 

 was elected at the last rei^itlar election, 

 when every member of the Association 

 had a chance to vole. If Mr. .\bbotl's 

 claim is correct, then the only thing that 

 can be done is to leave the matter as it is, 

 and wait till tlie next general election — 

 only six months away. 



]My understanding of the matter is that 

 Mr. Secor's resignation is not "before 

 the membership." It has been returned 

 to Mr. Secor marked "not accepted." 

 He has been unanimously requested by 

 the Board to whom he is responsible and 

 from wlioTii he receives instructions, to 

 fill out his unexpired term, and this he 

 has consented to do. 



For the complication that has arisen I 

 do not wish to shift all the blame on Mr. 

 Abbott by any means. Among other 

 things, I should have made it my busi- 

 ness to see that the resignation of INIr. 

 Secor was accepted before I called for a 

 vote for his successor, and then I should 

 have declared the vote mj'self. While it 

 is easy to see what viio/it have been done 

 it is not always eas}' to rectify past mis- 

 takes. 



To go into all the details of this would 

 require a good sized volume, and I forbear. 

 It is a matter of deep regret that Mr. Ab- 

 bott, an able and capable man, should 

 so persistently go against the Board of 

 Directors. If he had quietly acquiesced 

 in the first place it is my opinion he woidd 

 have been finally elected General Mana- 

 ger by the IJoard. I will conclude by 

 saying that this business has been the 

 most disagreeable of any I have under- 

 taken. 



E. R. Root, 

 Former Acting Cliainnan of the Board 

 of Directors. 



In his own paper, the Modern Farmer, 

 Bro. Abbott has the following to say in 

 defense of his position : — 



The editor of the Modern Farmer did 

 not .seek this appointment and only con- 

 sented to take hold of the work when it 

 was made to appear to him that the best 

 interests of the Association would be pro- 

 moted by his accepting the position until 

 the next annual election. Having taken 

 up the work in good faith, the announce- 

 ment being made in all the bee journals, 

 aii<l having resigned his position as Di- 

 rector ami Chairman of the Board, he 

 does not feel that he should be displaced 

 from his po.sition merely to satisf}' the 

 whims of a New York member of the 

 Board. It seems to us to be a very un- 

 wise thing to put the General Manager- 



