To Bee or Not to Bee

Over the years Congressmen have risen up to denounce a myriad of evils: vice, extravagance and, occasionally, one another. Now it is "honey money." That is how Massachusetts Republican Silvio O. Conte waspishly described payments made by the Department of Agriculture to beekeepers who are compensated $15 a hive for bees inadvertently killed by Government pesticide programs. Conte allowed that $15 did not seem like much, but he pleaded with his colleagues to "look at the size of the claims submitted under the program, and you will get a taste of what a honey of a deal Congress has created."

The trouble is, said Conte, that the claims from various beekeepers were paid without first checking to see if the dead bees expired from "pesticides, old age, arthritis or too much high living." He singled out one apiary in Mayhew, Miss., that he labeled "the queen bee of all recipients in 1972, waxing the taxpayers for $457,000." A spokesman for the apiary admitted that it is hard to tell just how bees die, adding, "The least little thing kills them." But Congressmen have tender hearts. Despite Conte's complaints, the program has been extended another four years.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.