1518 
Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 30, 1922 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMRE'S BA TER 
A National Weekly Journal ('or Country and Suburban Home* 
Establish'd iSSO 
I'nbllcbrd nri-Ulj by tbr Knml riiblinliinr Compau), SSil *0lb Street. >>" lork 
HkKbkRT W. t' oujkgwooI'. Pretiilent and Editor, 
.toil'; .1 DTLLOT, Ttvnsurer and tb neiui Mnaager. 
Wg F Dillon. Secretary. Mr*. K. T.-Roxle. Atswcmte Editor. 
h. H. Murphy, Circulation Manager. _ 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLL AR A YEAR 
To foreign eountrii-fi in the Olivers** t Postal Vnion. $2.W. Pouiil in money 
order, express order, personal cheek or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates. 11 00 per agate line—T words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany t ransient orders. 
•A SQUARE DEAL" 
We br ieve that every advertisement In thi* paper is Nu ked by n i cspon- 
fiblt- iR’i^oH. Wi u«5c pverv ijinifcibk; invciiottonUnd julmii tin* itovi'rdHinff or 
reliable house* onlv. But'tu make doubly Hire. \\v will make irr>n<l any lo*s 
ft, paid -ubscilbvr* HiiK(ain«‘d by trusting any ilelilMintu r.wludler )cn-spon- 
Hide advertisers oi* mislead l n« ndvcrttoementM iu our ooluitw*. ami any 
hiHi swindler will l»o publiely expo-*ed. We *re also often railed upon 
t« adi 1151 dld'eivilOP* oi miFtakc* between our Mibsonbers and honest. 
m sponsible ... whether advertiser?- or not. We willingly Jw Om; ffood 
offices to t-hib end but oich cam* should not be uonlused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers- against rogues bill we. will not be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of tin- complaint must be sent to us within one month of the time of 
til. tinuMiction. nnd to identify it. you should mention Ims Rural New- 
YoBKBR when writing the advertiser._ 
T HE passing of the year comes to be :i solemn 
tiling to those of us who must realize that we 
have passed the ridge and are walking down the 
sunset side of life. We feel inclined to send some 
message of hope and cheer to our friends, and as 
the years pass on we are sometimes puzzled to know 
what to say. The writer of these lines has been 
with The R. N.-Y. for 37 years, and with each re¬ 
curring New Year’s Day he has helped prepare a 
message for our people. That is a long time in the 
1 istory of it paper, and today the mind goes hack to 
the first beginning. We can remember a lonely young 
man. a stranger in this great city, struggling against 
discouragements, yet hopeful that the world would 
surely become a better place to live in. As bis part 
of a New Year’s message he wrote a little poem. 
It was printed in an obscure part of the paper. Now, 
rfter all these years, we cannot think of a greeting 
which more fully expresses the feeling with which 
we approach the new year. So we repeat the poem: 
THE NEW YEAR’S WORK 
Another year has gone, and Father Time 
lias put within his^pigeon-hole with care 
Another manuscript, and prose and rhyme, 
Roth good and had, are sadly jangled there. 
And now we take an Angel’s feather pure. 
And with our awkward hands we make a pen 
To write the new year’s tangled record—sure 
That all our writing will confront us when 
The wing of years shall blow the dust away. 
And from Time’s pigeon-hole the Master’s hand 
Shall take Our manuscript all stained and gray 
And read it so that all may understand. 
Then write with care, my brothers, through the years. 
Lest all your work be blotted out with tears. 
Tell us how to stimulate greater interest in out¬ 
growing and nut-eating. Most nuts are equal, if not 
superior, to meat in their content of protein, and cer¬ 
tainly superior in vitamines. They are better than 
meat as a diet for most humans, yet the general public 
will not believe the statement, llow can we make nut¬ 
eating more popular? t. n. k. 
W ELL, for one thing you must cheapen the 
price of good nuts. Most of them cost so 
much that (be average man thinks be cannot afford 
to buy them. In order to prove that nuts are fully 
equal to meat, you must go and get a record. We 
suggest the following experiment.: Ho up to New¬ 
foundland or the Labrador coast and find a big fish¬ 
erman for your experiment. They breed a race of 
giants in that country, so bitten by the frost and so 
tanned by the wind and sun that they are as im¬ 
pervious to pain as the salt fish they handle. You 
cannot hurt them. Find some man <i ft. 4 in. or 
more, hard as a nail and active as a cat. Bring him 
to the latitude of New York in Winter and feed him 
a full ration in which nuts are suhslitutod for meat. 
Then challenge the present fistic champion. Dempsey, 
and turn this big nut-eater loose upon him—and 
make it clear that he did the job on n dirt of oats’ 
The result would he such a demand for nuts as train¬ 
ing food that the world could not supply the demand. 
This may not seem to you a very dignified proceed¬ 
ing, but it would a create a demand for nuts by 
taking them out of tbe lady-like class. Tliis advice 
doesn't cost you a cent: but if it were successfully 
carried out—well, “there’s millions in it.” 
T HERE have been several questions about tbe 
responsibility of the school district officials in 
cases of :m accident while transporting children. 
Suppose the children are collected and transported 
in an auto bus at tbe expense of the district, the 
money being raised by taxation. Suppose under such 
conditions there should be an accident due to a 
collision, or at. a railroad crossing, and one or more 
of.the children are injured or even killed. Who 
would he held responsible? That question seems to 
have arisen in the minds of many. In order to get a 
i‘nliug, we. sent it to the New York State Department 
of Education, and here is the answer: 
It is our understanding of the law that where one 
school district contracts with another district for the 
instruction of its pupils and provides transportation 
for such pupils in accordance with the provisions of 
the education law. the district is not liable for accidents 
that may happen to children while being convoyed, 
piovided the trustees have used due diligence and care 
in selecting the conveyance and in employing a person 
to drive the same who is con)potent to perform such 
service. If lIu* conveyance is owned by the district. 
Mich district, may deem it desirable to carry insurance 
to the end that the insurance company may he substi¬ 
tuted for the district in case claim is made for damages 
due to alleged negligence. Where the contractor fur¬ 
nishes conveyance, he frequently insists upon procuring 
liability insurance and charging the premium against 
the district as part of his compensation. 
It is my opinion, in case an accident happens due 
to the negligence of the contractor, that such contractor 
is responsible, and not the school district, assuming, of 
course, that the trustees of the district have used due 
care in connection with the contract for conveyance 
and the selection of the driver. irwin Esmond. 
I want to write you in praise <>f your editorial on 
page 144X. in regard to reckless driving of automobiles. 
I say amen to every word you said in regard to jailing 
those wealthy drivers. Yours, for half the road. 
Maryland. W. A. GREENE. 
HAT'S all we ask for—half the road. No man . 
is entitled to all of the road, although some of 
these reek less wretehes seem to think they have 
bought and paid for it. The usual fine means no 
punishment at all for them. Many of them never 
earned an honest dollar, hut grandfather and father 
toiled that they need not spin. A jail sentence that 
really is a sentence is what they need. Prison fare 
and hard labor for a couple of weeks will teach 
them greater respect for law and the common rights 
of others than all the fines you can plaster upon 
them. .Tail the road swifts. 
jk 
"That the light of any woman to become a natural¬ 
ized citizen of the United Stales shall not be denied or 
abridged because of her sex or because she is a married 
woman.” 
HAT is the principle of a new law which estab¬ 
lishes what is called "a new hill of rights for 
women.” For many years the law was interpreted 
so that a man and liis wife were considered a unit. 
The citizenship of the wife followed that of the 
husband. That was a development from the time 
when woman was considered her husband’s chattel. 
Tims, when an American woman married an alien 
she lost her citizenship in this country. When her 
alien husband was naturalized the wife became an 
American without further effort on her part. The 
new law changes both proceedings. Now an 
American woman does not lose her citizenship by 
reason of her marriage, unless she makes formal 
renunciation of it before a court, or unless she "re¬ 
sides continuously for two years in a foreign state 
of which her husband is a citizen or subject, or for 
five years continuously outside the United States." 
Hereafter alien women cannot “marry Uncle Sam 
through their husbands.” They must file petitions 
of their own. and prove that they are eligible. It is 
said that under the old law a good many undesirable 
alien women have been granted citizenship with 
their husbands. IVe print this statement because 
we have received dozens of questions from women 
who have married aliens, or whose husbands have 
not been naturalized. 
* 
AN you give any good reason why a Canadian 
fanner should have cheaper or more convenient 
electric power and light service than a farmer on 
this side of an imaginary line which runs through 
lake and river? It will stump you to give such a 
reason, yet the article on first page this week shows 
that, the Canadian (Government is doing more than 
ours to distribute (he current. With all the power 
lost in the water tumbling uselessly down our hills 
and out of our ponds and hikes, probably <»0 per cent 
of our country people still use kerosene oil for lights. 
If our water powers could lie utilized and distributed 
at cost, the great majority of the people could lie 
supplied with light and beat and power. Tbe wires 
would reach out to them like friendly hands to give 
them more and more of the gifts which humanity 
ever craves. This is one of the tilings which the 
State must do in tile future if the rural districts 
are to be maintained as they should lie, The Cana¬ 
dians are ahead of us in this development. 
❖ 
I T is a common tiling with certain people to bewail 
the degeneracy of our modern young folks. This 
“generation," we are told, is wild, flippant and in¬ 
different, and it would be quite easy to find instances 
which seem to prove the statement. It might be 
well for some of those who are loudest in their com¬ 
plaints to stop and see if they can place tbe re¬ 
sponsibility for this apparent explosion of youthful 
morals. In commenting on a particularly scandalous 
performance at a recent school party, the New York 
Times says: 
The young people of these times are much what young 
people always were—eager to follow far all paths that 
are left opou to them. The difference is in their elders 
-in their strange, foolish notions that discipline is 
tyranny and control an instill to developing personality. 
Discipline can be tyranny, of course, and control an 
instill ; as often as not. in ‘Mlie good old days,” they 
were—but there is a golden mean. Only common sense 
is needed for tbe finding of it. and the parents who let 
their children run wild are no belter—if anything are 
worst-—than those who tortured their children with 
constant repressions and mistook submission to slavery 
for virtue. 
Bin always, always, it is either the ignorance, the 
incompetence or the indifference—most often the ignor¬ 
ance, probably—of parents that is responsible for any 
real badness of which boys and girls are guilty. 
Our experience in frying to handle more than two 
dozen youngsters, at various times, convinces us of 
the truth and wisdom of that statement. With few 
exceptions our children will be just about what we 
are in character and self-control. In the years to 
come they will thank us more for our strict disci¬ 
pline than for the laxity and license which so many 
parents offer their children. Thousands of our peo¬ 
ple are now arousing to the necessity of a more pro¬ 
gressive or radical policy in public matters, and the 
future will see some of these things worked out. 
Yet they may he worse than useless unless the par¬ 
ents of today can leave to their country children 
sobered by fair discipline and seasoned by sVlf- 
coutrol. 
* 
A T the annual meeting of the Farm Bureau Fed¬ 
eration J. R. Howard refused to be a candidate 
for re-election as president. Oscar E. Bradfute was 
elected to succeed Mr. Howard. He has been vice- 
president of the organization since it started. Mr. 
Howard declined to serve longer because be lias be¬ 
come convinced that wirepulling and political 
maneuvering are dominating the organization and 
interfering with its usefulness. 
* 
N his message to Congress President Harding 
advocated an amendment to the constitution pro¬ 
hibiting any further issue of tax-exempt securities. 
Congress has now taken the matter up. and there is 
a hot debate over tbe proposition. The result of 
sueli an amendment would be that all Federal, state, 
county or municipal bondholders would be obliged 
to pay the usual taxes on the amount of their hold¬ 
ings. It would not affect those already issued, but 
would prevent new issues after the amendment was 
adopted. As it is now all or most of such securities 
escape taxation. Those who invest in them do not 
pay their share of public expenses. There lias been 
a strong demand for such an amendment for years. 
It will be strenuously opposed by the bondholders 
and the bond sellers. M'any of the former are in¬ 
vesting their money in this way, so as to escape 
taxation and also conceal their income. A good 
many municipalities are bonding themselves into 
bankruptcy. These bonds are sold freely because 
they are tax-exempt, which gives them an advantage 
over other investments. If the bonds were not ex¬ 
empt they could not he sold freely or at par. and 
without question many towns and cities are selling 
too many bonds for their own good. There is some 
opposition from the Southern Congressmen, who 
think that such an amendment would infringe upon 
state rights, as they hold that State or municipality 
has a right to decide its own finances. The single 
tax advocates also appear to oppose such an amend¬ 
ment. on the theory that it calls public attention 
from their system of taxation. We believe the pres¬ 
ent system of exempting such bonds is unjust and 
uneconomic, since it places a heavier burden upon 
other classes of property, and creates a special privi¬ 
lege. It will require a two-thirds vote of Congress 
to put the amendment up to tbe various States, and 
it seems doubtful at this time if such a majority 
can he obtained. 
Brevities 
The toy pistol in the bands of u child is a nuisance. 
Ever thaw a frozen underground pipe by digging 
holes in the soil above it and burning fires on the pipe? 
It sometimes happens that a young preacher, in ask¬ 
ing for an opinion on his sermon, will be told “the 
text was good.” 
Advice to men past 30: Live as if you expected to 
be on earth for 30 years and, with all your plans, be 
prepared to go tomorrow. 
No use for the big horse? (General Pershing says 
(hat if the country could have had more horses and 
mules during the war, wo might have done much better 
than we did. 
Mr. J. S. Berk a no. the ox-team express man. says 
he got one post card with 13 different postmarks on it. 
He says this proves that his oxen travel faster than 
the United States until! 
Here is a new one: A reader in the South says that 
when he started his farm was so poor that he couldn't 
raise an umbrella on it when it rained. Perhaps he 
means the price of an umbrella. 
