This train of thought brings up the question of the status of our
society with the station entomologists as represented by the committee
of the general association. Those of us who had desired a national
association for the various purposes for which such associations are
formed, felt, I believe, if I may speak for them, that the creation of
the different experimental stations rendered such an organization
feasible. Your organization at Toronto and the constitution adopted
and amended at the meeting at Washington all indicate that the chief
object was the advancement of our chosen work and that the strength of
the association would come from the experiment station entomologists.
There was then no other organization of the kind, nor any intimation
that such a one would be founded. Some of us therefore were surprised
to learn from the circular sent out by Prof. Forbes, its chairman,
that the committee appointed by the association of agricultural
colleges and experiment stations, and through which we had hoped to
communicate and co-operate with that association, was not in the
proper sense a committee, but a section which has prepared (and in
fact was required by the executive committee and the rules of the
superior body to prepare) a programme of papers and discussions for
the meeting to be held at the same time and place with our own. I
cannot but feel that this is in some respects a misfortune, and it
will devolve upon you to decide upon several questions of importance
that will materially affect our future existence. That there is not
room for two national organizations having the same objects in view
and meeting at the same time and place goes, I think, without saying;
and if the committee of the general association is to be anything more
than a committee in the proper sense of the word, or if it is to
assume with or without formal constitution the functions of our own
association, then our own must necessarily be crippled, and to do any
good at all must meet at a different time and a different place. A
committee or section, or whatever it may be called, of the general
association with which we meet, would preclude active membership of
any but those who come within the constitution of that body. Our
Canadian friends and many others who have identified themselves with
applied entomology, and do not belong to any of our State or
government institutions, would be debarred from active representation,
however liberal the association may have been in inviting such to
participate, without power to vote in its deliberations. Our own
association has, or should have, no such limitations. Some of us who
are entitled to membership in both bodies may feel indifferent as to
the course finally decided upon, and that it will not make any
difference whether we have an outside and independent organization, as
that of the association of official chemists, or whether we do, as did
the botanists and horticulturists, waive independence in favor of more
direct connection with the general association, provided there is some
way whereby the committees of the general association are given
sufficient latitude and time to properly present their papers and
deliberate; but there are others who feel more sensitive as to their
action and are more immediately influenced by the feelings of the main
body. I hope that whatever action be taken at this meeting, the
general good and the promotion of economic entomology will be kept in
mind and that no sectional or personal feeling will be allowed to
influence our deliberations.