ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



211 



the office, to do its managing. (Ap- 

 plause.) 



The President — Has anyone any 

 suggestions to offer relative to the 



i National Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 whereby its influence may be made to 

 reach further and do still better 



/ work? 



Mr. Morgan — I would like to have 

 Mr. France say something in regard 

 to the time of holding the Annuals, if 

 he does not think they could be held 

 at a little better season than the pres- 

 ent time? 



Mr. France — "We find that the best 

 time for the Annual Meeting is con- 

 siderably later in the year than this. 

 Usually, our best attendance comes 

 immediately after the bees are placed 

 in Avinter quarters, but, in order to 

 have large gatherings, we find that the 

 railroad rates and hotel rates cut 

 quite a figure. We have followed the 

 Grand Army several times to get the 

 railroad rate, and each time, as we 

 have in coming here, we have found 

 the city overcrowded, and the hotel 

 rates enough more than usual to 

 more than make up the difference on 

 the railroad mileage, so that, as a part 

 of the Board, I shall hesitate, indeed, 

 on those conditions for future meet- 

 ings. 



The President — I desire to empha- 

 size what our General Manager has 



, said relative to the time of the meet- 

 ing and the conditions under which 

 we meet. I say, without fear of suc- 

 cessful contradiction, that these Grand 

 Armj^ times of meetings, and these 

 meetings in times of Pairs, are not 

 true as regards the membership or 

 less expense to those who attend 

 these meetings. The meeting of one 

 year ago had no reduced fares. I felt 

 w^e paid pretty good sized hotel bills. 

 The meeting was at least three times 

 as large as this one, and we had a 

 most excellent meeting, although not 

 any better than this one, that I know 

 of, from the standpoint of value upon 

 the subjects discussed. I think, per- 

 haps, there was a little ' more shaking 

 up, and we' didn't have really as pleas- 

 ant a place to meet in as this. The 

 hall provided for us would, perhaps, 

 seat about three thousand people, and 

 w^e did not need that much room for 

 the four hundred who were there. 

 But, I fel as our General Manager 

 does, that we had better lay aside 

 these conditions that we are being de- 

 ceived in, and in which we think we 



must follow the Grand Armyi or meet 

 at some of the State Pair tfmes, or 

 some other thing that is really a coun- 

 ter attraction. I believe, when we gro 

 to a National Association meeting, no 

 matter when or where it shall be, that 

 that National Association is enough 

 for us with the calibres we carry at 

 any one time. If we want to go to 

 our own or somebody else's State 

 Pair, or the World's Pair, or a Na- 

 tional gathering of some other kind, 

 we had better go there and make a 

 spacialty of that, but when we go to 

 the National meeting, let us make a 

 specialty of that, and that only. I feel 

 we had better lay aside these counter 

 attractions and try to live up to our 

 views of our National Association, and 

 in doing that I believe we will en- 

 hance its value to us, and not only to 

 us, but to the Nation at large; hence, 

 I feel, and 'I think that the Board of 

 Directors feel very largely, that we 

 must specialize upon this meeting of 

 our National Association and let the 

 National Association and its meetings 

 be the specialty. (Applause.) We will 

 be very glad to hear other thoughts in 

 regard to this matter. We are here 

 in the interests of the National Asso- 

 ciation. Let us see what we can do 

 for it in these closing minutes. 



Mr. Darby — I agree with you, in the 

 niain, most heartily, but I don't know 

 a^ it would be wise to make this radi- 

 cal departure and just have this Soci- 

 ety in view altogether in the future, 

 for there may be some time some at- 

 traction that would be the means of 

 bringing out a lot of old members who 

 have hecome somewhat accustomed 

 to the annual discussions, which are 

 pretty much over the same ground, 

 and old subjects re-hashed over and 

 over. • Some times some of those men 

 may become a little bit tired, and 

 there may be some attraction outside 

 of that where they might come out 

 and take on a new lease of life in be- 

 half of the Association work. So I 

 think that while at present, and may 

 be in the near future, it would be well 

 to follow this plan, possibly there 

 might come a time when there would 

 be some large attraction in which we 

 would all be interested in visiting 

 some certain place, or in which we 

 might get a larger attendance of old- 

 time members. 



The President — Let us make the 

 National Association that attraction, ' 



A.ai._jp . j«^ ■ 



