EDITORIAL 



"Why There is a Fcmn Problem." industrial and labor policies are continued. . . We can- 



"There are sermons in stones, books in tlie run- not increase employment without increasing production of 



ning brooks, tongues in trees, and whole volumes industry and lowering the cost of its commodities and the 



of enlightenment in the following table of figures, services of workers to a point where there is sufficient 



submitted by a member of the North Dakota legis- purchasing power to buy them. 



lature. The column on the left shows the pur- '^ "v..f^ -.l l l i ,. ■ j 4. ■ -..i 11 



chasing power of a carload of wheat in I9IO. The l f f l .f.^^""" ""'"n^^' P"""P^'' °f ^''^ 



column on the right shows the value of the same as embodied in the AAA of 1938 will have to be continued. 



amount of wheat, in terms of things the farmer ^"^ ^^^ °f ^938 is not based upon, nor does it support, 



must buy, in 1938: <*« economy of scarcity. The 1938 law expressly limits the 



Sale price of durum wheat, 1910, 1,660 bushels powers of its administrators to do anything to control sur- 



at 70 cents per bushel, |l,l62. pluses by reducing production beyond the amount that 



Sale price of durum wheat, 1938, 1,660 bushels will provide the American people and our export outlets 



at 60 cents per bushel, $996. ^r^h an adequate supply of farm products on a basis of fair 



Purchases— 1910 1938 balance with the prices of industrial products and the wages 



1 Drill" ^ "^ J25 2T0 prevailing in the United States." 



1 Wagon and grain tank 100 150 " 



1 Mower .._ _ 50 100 The One-Room School j 



Harniesfor is horses 1:1:11:11:1 85 150 A GREAT imny people inchiding some college 



Gang plow 65 125 j lL professors have been making critical and de- 



1 Harrow _ 18 30 /^^^ / precatory remarks about the one-room country 



1 Cultivator 35 75 school in Illinois. None of the articles, editorials or sur- 



16,000 feet of lumber sufficient to veys we have seen present any evidence to prove that a 



build barn 48x22, 12 feet to eaves 480 800 one-room school is necessarily bad or that the average of 



Average tax on quarter seaion of land 25 125 boys and girls graduated from good one-room schools are 



unable later to hold their own scholastically and otherwise 



^J°^' ; , ; - ; $1,158 $2,265 ^ifj, graduates of city elementary schools. We suspect that 



Observe that the farmer of 1910 could sell h.s there has been too much assumption and conjecture, too 



wheat, buy the equipment listed above, and be left ,,_^, , , . ^- ^- 1 ^ '^ ,-r A 1 



with a small balance "'■"^ careful investigation by those unqualifiedly condem- 



But the farmer of' 1938 — who, despite billions '"S ^^e one-room country school, 

 in subsidies, received less for his wheat even in Some years ago, we visited and studied the work and 



terms of dollars and cents — found his actual results obtained by a substantial number of country schools 



buying power diminished by nearly 60 per cent. in Illinois, including several rural consolidated schools, in 



Having surrendered the entire proceeds from the preparation for a series of feature articles published in 



sale of his wheat, he would still have found it Prairie Farmer. The study revealed that there are many 



necessary to contract a debt of $1,269 in order to one-room schools having 25 to 30 or more pupils, with a 



buy the things that his predecessor bought. n^at, comfortable building equipped with excellent facili- 



Th.s IS the problem. The solution .s not in ^-^^ ^^^ teaching, and with a high grade, well-paid teacher, 



subsidies. They have been tried. Regulation, r ^1 11 j ,. • u 



,.,. J—....- u I U..J frequently a college graduate, in charge, 



restriction and regimentation have also been tried. t. ', , °, ° , ii°i i-i 



All have failed. The mountain still refuses to go , I" ^^^ schools we observed that boys and girls not 



to Mohammed. But if we can't lift farm prices, only were getting instruction from a well-educated, com- 



can we possibly get other prices — prices of the petent teacher but they had the advantage of plenty of 



things the farmer buys — down to a fairer level? room for recreation and proximity to their homes on the 



Well, some dispute it, but at least no one may say farm. Moreover the school was the center of a happy com- 



that this method has failed. It is the one method munity life, the pride of parents as well as the teacher, 

 we have not had the courage to try.'— Chicago The investigation also disclosed one-room schools 



Daily News, Feb. 2, 39. where there were only a handful of children, not enough 



^-^^ to operate a good school, and sometimes with an immature, 



y>». HE above might well be termed the "Editorial of poorly prepared or under-paid teacher struggling along 



^^Y^ the Year" for it is something of an achievement with these obvious handicaps. 



V_/ to have a great metropolitan daily, first recognize The conclusions drawn were that it is perfectly pos- 



that there is a farm problem, and then concede that some- sible to have a good one-room school given sufficient pu- 



thing should be doiie about it. pils, reasonable income from taxes, and a community of 



As to the solution of the problem, industry and labor interested parents. It was learned, too, that a better school 



can, if they will, do much to remove the price disparity, as usually resulted where two or three districts, none of 



the News points out. which had enough pupils to maintain a good school, pooled 



In his annual address to the recent lAA convention, their interests, consolidated and built a two-room school. 

 President Earl C. Smith covered this point when he said: The resolution on schools adopted by the board of 



"National legislation has been helpful in partly restoring delegates at the 24th lAA annual convention (see page 13) 



the exchange value of farm products. It has not yet estab- clearly expresses the majority opinion of farm people on 



lished or maintained parity prices nor can it do so if present this question. I 



^ L A. A. RECORD 



