ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



27 



Foul Brood Legislation. 



The President asked me (the late Mr. 

 Smith was chairman of the committee, 

 considered such by virtue of his office,) 

 if I would act as charman because he 

 was going to Texas, and he left it that 

 way; and Mr. Becker and I were the 

 only two of the committee that went 

 before the Legislature; we got the 

 Bills drafted, by typewriter, and. our 

 Senator ad\iised us to put them only 

 in the hands of a member of the Sen- 

 ate, and let them pass through the 

 Senate ; that they would go before the 

 House with more force than if they 

 were offered in both houses at the 

 same time. We had done that the 

 term before, and it went through the 

 House and was defeated there, and it 

 seemed to get them into a kind of fight- 

 ing position; when the iBill came from 

 the Senate, they were ready to defeat 

 it, and in that way we did not get any- 

 thing done; we acted upon the advice 

 of Senator Hay, who had offered our 

 Bill in the Senate. The Bills, both of 

 them, went through the Senate all 

 right; the Appropriation Bill went 

 through the House all right. When it 

 came to the Foul Brood Bill we were 

 notified by a good many of the mem- 

 bers of the Appropriation Committee 

 that that was not the committee it 

 ought to have gone before; we don't 

 know why. They said that letters had 

 been sent to them, showing them that 

 there were some bee-keepers that op- 

 posed that Bill. They asked us why 

 we were not unanimous, and we told 

 them the best we could about the fight 

 that occurred two years ago with those 

 men in the northern part of the State, 

 who had always been opposed to it, 

 and that they had attacked the com- 

 mittee who had asked for this Bill on 

 the ground that they were manufac- 

 turers and sellers of apiarian imple- 

 ments, and that they were doing this 

 for the sake of destroying the bee- 

 hives that they might be enabled to 

 furnish more bee-hives. At that time 

 we went before the Senate Committee, 

 Agricultural Committee, and this whole 

 thing came up in opposition to it at 

 that meeting, and after we had been 

 heard by the Committee the chairrjian 

 (who was Senator Dunlap) said that 

 he had a letter in his possession that 

 he wanted to read before any action 

 was taken on that Bill, and hfe pro- 

 posed that they defer action until a 

 week from that day. When Mr. Dadant 



and il guessed and told the Senator 

 who the party was who wrote the 

 letter, he thought perhaps we knew 

 something about it, he listened to what 

 we said. We wrote letters, then, to 

 Mr. York and to Dr. Miller, and others, 

 and that committee was just flooded 

 with letters, so that when next week 

 came round, we went there ready for 

 them and I asked the Chairman if that 

 Bill would be considered or acted upon, 

 and he said: "No, but you may rest 

 easy; that letter will never be read 

 and we will report the Bill out all 

 right." In that letter he attacked the 

 committee as being manufacturers and 

 sellers of apiarian implements (al- 

 though Mr. Dadant was a member of 

 the committee — he was not one of the 

 Executive Committee). They had got 

 wind of it that Mr. Dadant was on the 

 committee, I suppose, and they ac- 

 cused the whole committee of being 

 interested in the manufacture and sale 

 of bee-hives. A petition, this last time, 

 came before the Appropriation Com- 

 mittee in the House; in that letter they 

 had even stated names — C. P. Dadant, 

 and also mentioned A. I. Root and 

 other parties that were interested in 

 the manufacture and sale of bee-hives 

 — as being the chief promoters of that 

 Bill, and it did not make a bit of dif- 

 ference what we said to that com- 

 mittee, we could not get that out of 

 their heads. They read the signers' 

 names off — we demanded it — and we 

 got it because we guessed the irv-rlter 

 of that letter; they had all signed the 

 petition that the law be not allowed. 

 That is why I recommendea what I 

 did in my report. The only thing that 

 the bee-keepers now can do for 

 the meeting next year, is to get up 

 a proper petition, and to get all the 

 signers they can to it, to see whether 

 we can outnumber them or not. i be- 

 lieve that is the only way we will ever 

 get that Bill through. I do not think 

 of anything more, and if any wants 

 to know any more than I have told, 

 they will have to ask questions. 



Mr. Becker — Mr. Chairman, you will 

 remember a year ago I spoke of how 

 hard it would be to get anything from 

 the present Legislature, as there were 

 so many factors in both parties. Your 

 committee met the Legislature; we 

 put our Bill in the hands of Senator 

 Hay, of this District, and he did good 

 work for us. It went through the 

 Senate, but the session was prolonged, 

 and there was nothing done by the 



>^-- ;.'.~:-^V/-.i-;.. 



