ILLINOIS STATE BEE KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



203 



largely. It is well known that people 

 in this part of the country from the 

 Mississippi River east and from the 

 Ohio River north are good hands to 

 attend Conventions, and a good many 

 of us have gone to a great many con- 

 ventions. I have not * missed more 

 than one or two in the last fifteen 

 or twenty years. One year we went 

 i clear across the continent to Los 

 Angeles — a carload of us, and there 

 was more than a carload — some went 

 without going in the car - -some 

 walked. All these people came from 

 east of the Mississippi, but how many 

 peaple have we got from beyond the 

 Rocky Mountains or beyond the Mis- 

 sissippi River that come east to these 

 Conventions? How many people • 

 have we here from Texas and south 

 of the Ohio River? I think it is a 

 good deal better for such who go to the 

 conventions every year not to be called 

 upon to go so far. It would be 

 different if these people came up and 

 visited us, but we don't want the 

 visiting to be all one sided. 



Mr. Muth — Mr. President, the Broth- 

 er's point is well taken. However, I 

 want to say to you for the Brothers 

 down south that I know a gentleman, 

 and I believe Mr. Root met him, who 

 is not 32 years old, and he has raised 

 70,000 pounds of comb honey this 

 year, -and he is not the only one. 

 There are many of them down south; 

 and these old tagers, like the gentle- 

 man who spoke, and a couple more 

 there, ought to go down south to get 

 acquainted with these kind of fel- 

 lows. While Detroit is the best City 

 to hold a Convention in that I have 

 ever seen, and while I know that 

 Buffalo is a fine city, still, you have 

 got to do a little missionary work to 

 get those fellows to come closer to 

 you. There are any number of bee- 

 keepers down there that do not raise 

 fifty or two hundred or a thousand 

 pounds, but they raise carloads of 

 honey. They don't feel like coming 

 up to Buffalo; they have got to put 

 on too many fine clothes to go shop- 

 ping. 



Mr. Hershiser — ^With reference to 



the man that raises 70,000 pounds of 



honey, I think that is so much more 



a good excuse why he should be here. 



" (Applause.) 



Mr. France — For .the good of the 

 Convention, I will say there has been 

 forwarded to me invitations also for 



other places besides those mentioned 

 here for the Committee to consider 

 later on, and the miost of these have 

 come from western points. When we 

 met in California there was a large 

 gathering, almost the equal of this 

 one, and midway between there and 

 here they are expecting to have a big 

 gathering next year. Salt Lake City 

 has an invitation in, and Kansas City 

 has one in, and Nashville, Tenn., also 

 had an invitation in some time ago. 

 We would like an expression of the 

 members. The Grand Army meeting 

 is going to meet in the west next 

 year, and there will' undoubtedly be a 

 special rate. 



The President — The Executive (Com- 

 mittee will have, that under considera- 

 tion. 



Mr. York — This matter of the selec- 

 tion of the next meeting place is in 

 the hands of the Executive Commit- 

 tee. We don't just like to be told 

 where to go every time. It seems 

 to me after going to, San Antonio we 

 should have had representatives here 

 from Texas and other States; it was 

 a long trip down there. It is too one- 

 sided. I tbink there is only one repre- 

 sentative here from California, and 

 he happened to be here visiting. It 

 seems to me it is not fair. If they 

 want us to meet in their parts of the 

 country they ought to be here. We can- 

 not go visiting their way all the time, 

 and neither can we go east or west 

 all the time. It seems to me we 

 ought to go to different parts of the 

 country where more bee-keepers are. 

 We never have been to St. Paul or 

 Minneapolis; we have never been at 

 Des Moines, Iowa, or Kansas City; 

 and it is also true we get larger at- 

 tendances when we stay about this 

 latitude east and west. If we go fur- 

 ther south or away west we do not 

 get the attendance we do here. It 

 seems to me the Convention ought 

 to keep within three or four hundred 

 miles of this latitude. 



The President — I fully endorse what 

 Mr. York has said. We went to San 

 Antonio, Texas, and they gave us a 

 hot time down ' there, but there was 

 not over half the attendance there 

 that there is here now. 



Mr. Holekamp — ^It is desirable 

 wherever we go that we get low rates. 

 We went to San Antonio from St. 

 Louis for less money than it costs 

 us to come here. A good many of us 



