ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



35 



State of Illinois, I would try to form 

 the acquaintance of your Governor, 

 and have a talk with him. Say to 

 himi that, while there is an appropria- 

 tion for the purpose of exterminating 

 foul brood in the State of Illinois, we 

 want to make the law more effective, 

 and clothe your bee-inspector with 

 power to enter on the premises of 

 any man in the State of Illinois', and 

 inspect same at any time he may see 

 proper; and if the disease is found, 

 to adopt such a method of treatment 

 as bis judgment may prescribe; and 

 if you can get your Governor now to 

 say something about that in his mes- 

 sage, it will go a long ways toward 

 influencing your Representatives and 

 ■Senators to enact a proper law. 



I have had two terms in our Kansas 

 Legislature, and know that when you 

 can get a Legislature to understand 

 that wliat you ask for is necessary, 

 you are very apt to get it; they will 

 interest themselves in it when they 

 are satisfied it is not going to do any- 

 body any harm, and that it is some- 

 thing that is necessary for the good 

 of the public. Another thing, they 

 are very much afraid of grafters. Now, 

 I will give the language that was used 

 by one of our Senators. He said: 

 "Who ever "heard of such a thing as 

 passing a law to go around picking 

 dead bees out of bee-combs?" 



governor Folk, of Missouri, was as 

 bad as any; he vetoed a very good 

 Bill. I scored him right to his face for 

 it. I said to him: "You have thrown 

 a stumbling block right in the face 

 and eyes of an industry that is worthy 

 your consideration (for this reason, if 

 for no other), that you know nothing 

 about it. If you knew anything about 

 it, you never wouild have vetoed that 

 Bill." 



These Governors are our hired men, 

 and we must come to them and tell 

 them what we want, and the need of 

 it, so that they will have knowledge of 

 it and understand it. 



The next time the Legislature met, 

 and a Bill came to him, Gov. Folk ap- 

 proved it. 



I understand your Gov'ernor here is 

 in sympathy with the bee-keepers of 

 the State. Send a committee to him, 

 and have him, if possible, say some- 

 thing in his message. Then every one 

 of you write to your Representatives 

 and Senators; go to them; see them in 

 person; they are your servants; they 



will do what you tell them to do, if 

 they are given a good and suflacient 

 reason for it. Give them a good and 

 sufficient reason for wanting a law of 

 that kind. There is a way to get at 

 these men who are opposing foul brood 

 legislation; I believe that they can be 

 approached in the right way; don't get 

 mad, and stay mad very long; that 

 doesn't do any good. 



I stirred up a Pension Commissioner 

 at Washington when he said I was get- 

 ting all the pension I deserved. I 

 asked for an increase in my pension; 

 he wrote me inside of three weeks 

 from the time of my examination that 

 I was getting all I was entitled to un- 

 der the law. Said I, "General Black, 

 that is not a fact. There are men on 

 the pension roll getting all the way 

 from $1 to $100, and you are one of 

 the $100 men. The law says you are a 

 wreck, yet you can. run the U. S. Pen- 

 sion Office, and yet you say $8 is 

 enough for me, and you say I am get- 

 ting all I am entitled to. I will not 

 stand for it; I demand an appeal to the 

 Secretary of the Interior, or a re- 

 hearing." And I got it; I had a re- 

 examination, and my pension was 

 raised to $24. That is what can be 

 accomplished if you go after a thing in 

 earnest. 



You want to get the facts about foul 

 brood before your representatives; it 

 is the duty of every one of you to con- 

 sider yourself a committee of one to 

 see your representative and tell him 

 what you want, and that you Must 

 Have It. 



Show him the amount of capital in- 

 vested in bee-keeping in the State of 

 Illinois, and the number of bee-keep- 

 ers there are in the State of lUinoisj 

 you are away ahead of any other State 

 in the Union; New York and Cali- 

 fornia are behind you. You have got 

 intelligence enough, if you will wake 

 yourselves up; stir these fellows up all 

 over the State; tell them to go and 

 see their Senators and their Repre- 

 sentatives, and tell them what amount 

 of money there is invested in bee- 

 keeping, and what it will amount to 

 in a few years; and then what, if 

 foul brood is allowed to run rampant, 

 uncontrolled, what it must mean to , 

 the bee-keepers; and that if we have 

 such a protective measure passed as 

 we are seeking, giving our inspector 

 power to go on the premises of men 

 and inspect his bees, that it will mean 



