ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



127 



unanimously for laws such as we 

 want." There is tha* word "stringent" 

 in there. We are all in the business 

 for the money we get out of it, and 

 lots of times we get nothing but a 

 little pleasure out of it. We don't 

 want to gouge any one, or be gouged. 

 We don't want to drive any man to the 

 wall or be driven ourselves. We don't 

 want to put anything in this resolu- 

 tion that will show to the Legislature 

 that we want a "stringent" law that 

 will put a star on a man and allow 

 a man to destroy property, and my 

 property, if he wants to. Mr. France 

 is an example, and you all speak of 

 him, and if you can get such a man, 

 it is all right; but we don't want Tom, 

 Dick and Harry to interfere with our 

 bees. 



Mr. Moore: I want to plead with 

 these gentlemen to allow this resolu- 

 tion to go in unanimously. Our civi- 

 lization rests upon the good of the 

 majority. Each one must give up a 

 little of their liberty for the sake of 

 all. That is what our civilization 

 rests upon. Take the administration 

 of the law — these gentlemen are il- 

 logical. They say, "Because this may 

 work out badly, we won't have any- 

 thing." Even the judges on our 

 benches have sometimes been corrupt. 

 Juries have sometimes been corrupt. 

 We won't have any judges then; we 

 won't have any juries. Sheriffs have 

 been corrupt. We won't have any 

 sheriffs. Marriages go wrong. We 

 won't have any marriages. Tou are 

 talking about the results. We won't 

 have anything because it isn't sure to 

 come out right. You are not logical. 

 The people who have offices want to 

 please the public, their tenure of office 

 depends on it; so that the sheriff and 

 the judge who are before the public 

 want to do the best they can, and they 

 are apt to do things honestly, other 

 things being equal. To say you don't 

 want anything because they are some- 

 , times corrupt is not logical. You have 

 got your remedy. A man comes to 

 you and says, "I am going to destroy 

 your bees." You can get an injunc- 

 tion. The man himself can go and 

 get the paper, and go on a fast train 

 or a fast horse, and stop it, and no 

 inspector would attempt to do any- 

 thing if a man said, "I am going to 

 get an injunction." No injustice is 

 going to be done to anybody. In the 

 name of logic, in the name of all the 

 bee-keepers in the country, who are 

 ninety-eight per cent in favor of foul 



brood laws, and in the name of an 

 inspector by the name of France, a 

 good man going about doing good — 

 you won't dare to say to .me, there is 

 no good man in Illinois, and that 

 France is unique — I plead with you to 

 allow this to be unanimous. 



Mr. Baxter: Suppose we vote to re- 

 tain this word "unanimous," and there 

 are three or four votes against it, 

 would it be unanimous? 



President York: No. 



Mr. Baxter: Why nOit call the roll, 

 and, if you can, show to the Legisla- 

 ture that nine-tenths are in favor of 

 it. There is to be no restriction to a 

 man's liberty, or to the use of" his 

 property for the good of the public. 



Mr. Smith: I have no feeling 

 against those men who are opposed to 

 it, and I believe they are honest in 

 their convictions. I was in the service 

 of our country, fighting men who were 

 the enemies of our flag, and I believe 

 they were honest in their convictions, 

 and I can shake hands with them. I 

 just want to illustrate. A man by the 

 naone of Taylor wrote me in June, the 

 height of the honey-flow on white 

 clover, that there was something the 

 matter with his bees. I went over and 

 found 92 colonies out of 102 com- 

 pletely enveloped with foul brood. He 

 "was a poor man, and he used all his 

 means to keep up his hives and keep 

 up his bees, and he sat down and 

 cried. He said: "My whole crop's 

 gone and my bees are gone." I told 

 him: "Don't be discouraged. We will 

 save your bees, and it is early yet, and 

 you can get a crop of honey." "Do 

 you think you can do it?" he said. I 

 stayed with him two days, and we 

 didn't destroy the brood, and let it 

 hatch, and after the brood hatched, I 

 went over it again, and we melted up 

 the combs. Today, there has no foul 

 brood appeared in his apiary, and he 

 had four thousand pounds of fine 

 honey, 106 colonies in good condition. 

 Another man had thirty- seven colonies 

 in the height of the white clover sea- 

 son. I went over and transferred those 

 bees, and he had in" the neighborhood 

 of three thousand pounds of honey, 

 and his bees were saved. We don't 

 want to destroy property. TVe want 

 to save property. I have burnt very 

 few icolonies, and only at the request 

 of the bee-keepers themselves, when 

 the combs were so old and full of moth, 

 and so badly diseased and rotted that 



