•P* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
501 
Convention of the Educational Committee 
The first general meeting of the Committee of 
Twenty-one was held in the Brick Church at 
Rochester, N. Y.. on March 10. This committee was 
appointed to make a study of the rural school prob¬ 
lem. and make a report which will serve as a basis 
for discussion. The members represent the various 
farm organizations and educational institutions as 
follows: Dairymen’s League—,10. U. Eastman, sec¬ 
retary: Albert Manning. N. F. Webb. Department 
of Education—F. B. Gilbert. It. I’. Snyder. (5. M. 
Wiley. Farm Bureau Federation—W. G. McIntosh. 
II C. McKenzie, vice-chairman: C. S. Post, II. G. 
Reed. Home Bureau Federation—Mrs. M. E. Arm¬ 
strong. Mrs. A. E. Brigden, Mrs. Edward Young. 
State Grange—George Dunn. Mrs. F. Gates. G. C. 
McNinch. State College of Agriculture—.1. 10. But- 
terworth. 1*. J. Kruse. G. A. Works, chairman. State 
Teachers* Association—.T. 1 >. .Tones. Myrtle 10. Mac¬ 
Donald. W. 10. Pierce. 
The Rochester meeting was called for a general 
conference of all who are interested in rural schools. 
About 500 people attended. A count showed that 
about 90 per cent of them came from country dis¬ 
tricts. while about 75 [ter cent were teachers at the 
I resent time or had taught rural schools in the past, 
it was an exceptionally intelligent and earnest gath¬ 
ering. Men and women were prompt and emphatic 
in expressing their views and criticizing any state¬ 
ment which needed explanation or toning down. The 
spirit of the meeting was tine. While at least 50 
from the audience took part in the discussion and 
stated their opinions freely, if was all in good part, 
without bitterness or trouble. Tbe program was well 
arranged in two parts. A number of educators and 
school officials gave their views. At the close of 
each address the people were invited to express their 
views, and they certainly improved the opportunity. 
George Dunn made an excellent presiding officer, and 
succeeded in bringing out much discussion. After 
this part of the program was completed various 
speakers told what the rural people want in their 
schools. We shall reserve this part of the program 
for a special article. 
The impression prevailed that this committee 
wants to be entirely fair. A majority of its mem¬ 
bers are either farmers or near enough to farm life 
to understand it. We think this committee as a 
whole will do just about what tin* farmers ask them 
to if the farmers can and will give expression to 
their real needs. The trouble is going to come in 
finding out just what is best for the rural schools. 
Most of us have a general idea that something is 
wrong, but if is difficult to say concretely just what 
ought to be done. We get the idea that this com¬ 
mittee* has no cast-iron plan for its work. It seems 
to us more like molding sand ready to be shaped if 
we will provide the pattern. We would not. endorse 
the committee fully and let it go ahead without sug¬ 
gestions. nor would we stand off and criticize it and 
refuse support. We think the fairest way is to accept 
it as a medium through which we can get our story 
before the public: but we must furnish the story 
and print it on that committee by presenting it 
clearly and forcibly to them. This improvement of 
the rural school is one of the biggest questions now 
before us, and The R. N.-Y. offers its services in the 
effort to make the country side of the question clear. 
The meeting was called to order by George Dunn, 
a Grange member of the committee. E. It. Eastman 
explained the organization and purposes of tin* joint. 
M mmitfee. lie said one of the greatest problems in 
this country is securing better prices for fann 
[trodnets. Another is that of working out a better 
program for the education of our boys and girls. 
Dr. Butterworth of Cornell spoke on the rural 
school plant. He asked how many had visited the 
rural schools lately, and about half of the 500 people 
present raised their hands. He took up in detail the 
question of lighting, and called attention to tbe great 
amount of eye strain due to improper location of 
windows. Tie said that in many schools in this 
State there was left less than 20 square rods on the 
school ground, while some States require one acre 
and others two acres. He called attention to the 
need of proper apparatus for the playground and 
suitable equipment for the school-room, mentioning 
maps, blackboards, library and other essentials. He 
suggested that the ash heap always be relegated to 
the rear, and that those conditions la* supplied that 
will protect the children's health and morals. He 
said “Some school buildings in this State are 75 
years old. and a great many are .‘15 to 50 years old. 
The worst •buildings are found in tin* poorest school 
districts. What are we going to do to help such 
districts get better buildingsV" 
In the discussion that followed much was made 
of sanitary toilets. Three or four speakers said they 
were unsatisfactory. District Superintendent C\ W. 
Smith of Orleans said all of his 42 schools except 
two were supplied with sanitary toilets and they 
were satisfactory. A vote taken in the audience 
showed that two-thirds considered them satisfactory. 
One speaker said that where they had proved un¬ 
satisfactory they generally had not been put in right. 
Another said they may have been put in cheaply, but 
the bill didn't show it. One speaker wanted to know 
how school grounds could ho enlarged when farmers 
wouldn’t sell land for the purpose. Superintendent 
Hill of Monroe County said: “Start condemnation 
proceedings.” Superintendent Mullock said that 
many deeds for school lots were not recorded and 
were lost. Superintendent Hill said: "Most of the 
districts have held peaceful possession for 20 years 
or more.” 
The next speaker on the program was W. A. Hol¬ 
comb. Ass ; staiit Director. Examinations and Inspec¬ 
tion Division. New York State Education Depart¬ 
ment. He said "I think that the problem this com¬ 
mittee is trying to handle is one of the most impor¬ 
tant in the State of New York today. The chairman 
of the War Taxation Board in France says that no 
problem of the United States Government today is 
more important than the school problem. 1 want to 
say with emphasis that I believe the country boy 
and girl is entitled to just as good a teacher as any 
in tin* State of New York. Some of you are seeing 
this problem from your own local conditions, and 
perhaps do not have the opportunity to sec it in its 
entirety. I am insisting on the* work of certification 
of teachers. Last year in the first six months I 
issued over 2.000 permits for people to teach, and 
most of them were in rural schools. Of the S.liOO 
rural one-room school teachers of the State 1.500 
have no professional training whatever: 1.600 were 
high school graduates who took a Summer course of 
six weeks. These certificates are not good to teach 
in a village school. What we need first is profes¬ 
sionally trained teachers. I think that a course of 
training should be provided especially for the 
teachers in rural schools. The problem of organi¬ 
zation in the rural school is a hundred times greater 
than that of the village school.” 
A person in the audience said: “We all know that 
trained teachers are needed, but where are we going 
to get them?*’ Mr. Holcomb did not know. He said: 
“I have granted temporary licenses when I knew if 
children had a good mother they would be better off 
at home than they would to attend school with that 
teacher. Teachers are eomingdmek with Hie increase 
of pay. We issued only half as many permits this 
year as we did last.” Much discussion followed. 
District Superintendent W. E. Pierce of Erie County 
discussed file rural curriculum. He told of a con¬ 
solidation of six districts. The district valuation 
originally was $500,000: the consolidated district had 
a valuation of $2,000,000. He showed how the con¬ 
solidated school was able to furnish a greatly en¬ 
riched curriculum. Mr. Pierce compared the curri¬ 
culum in the grades of the consolidated school with 
that in the one-room schools, and showed how they 
varied. Music, drawing and nature study are not 
taught in the latter. He told how classes had to be 
united in some subjects. He alluded to a recent, 
article in Tiik It. N.-Y. entitled “What is Wrong 
with Our Rural Schools.” and found much of value 
in it. 1I<* was optimistic and thought that ultimately 
as a result of (he study of rural schools all country 
hoys and girls will ho afforded advantages equal to 
tin* best. Consolidation was vigorously attacked 
from tin* floor after Mr. Pierce’s address. The chair¬ 
man anil Prof. Works stated that the committee had 
no policy as to consolidation. The general consensus 
of opinion seemed to la* that it must not he compul¬ 
sory. but always voluntary, if at all. 
Prof. George A. Works gave a talk on ‘•The School 
Unit and Taxation for School Purposes." The ques¬ 
tion of making tax rates uniform over a larger unit 
of territory than the common school district was 
thoroughly debated, and a vote showed sentiment 
about evenly divided on the present system or n 
larger unit, like township or county. The large unit 
had a slight plurality. Ray B. Snyder, of the State 
Department staff, assured the meeting of the warm 
support and hearty co-operation of the State Depart¬ 
ment in the rural school study. Judge Gilbert, he 
said, was absent on account of a legislative hearing. 
Superintendent West of Rochester gave the history 
of a rural community in which he spent his early 
life, and told of the remarkable changes in rural 
activities and shifting of population that bad made 
a school shrink to a third or a fourth of it<s former 
size. Such changes required great changes in school 
organization, he thought. 
The Daylight Savers Die Hard 
The daylight savers seems to be what wo may call 
“hard losers.” 4’hey have had every chance to pre¬ 
sent their views and to control the New York Legis¬ 
lature. They were fairly beaten. Gov. Miller gave 
them a special hearing, and they were given the right 
of local option, which is all they could fairly ask 
for. Yet here is the Now York Times voicing those 
sour spirits who would change the clock: 
The discussion of daylight saving that has gone on 
during the last few months has revealed that the Gov¬ 
ernor made his promise hastily and without proper 
knowledge of the facts. He has learned that the de¬ 
mand for a continuance of daylight saving was by no 
means confined to New York City—that at least 90 
per eent of all the Slate's inhabitants wanted it. that 
the antagonism was confined to the small remainder, 
and that even there it was based, not on real injuries 
suffered from advancing the clocks in Summer, but upon 
obstinacy, prejudice and jealousy. 
II is popular for the daylight savers to claim that 
90 per cent of the people were opposed to the repeal. 
They either know nothing about it. or arc putting up 
a great bluff. At the last election two question* 
among others were up squarely before the people of 
New York. One was enforcement of the prohibition 
laws. Gov. Miller favored enforcement, while Gov. 
Smith proposed a “liberal" policy. On “daylight sav¬ 
ing" Gov. Miller was outspoken in favor of repeal, 
while Gov. Smith was on record as vetoing the last 
repeal law. The issue on these questions was clear 
cut and straight, and Gov. Miller won by about SO.000 
majority. That was a definite referendum, and “day¬ 
light saving" lost. If if were voted on once more the 
result would be the same. The daylight savers had 
their chance at the polls and lost. What then are 
they growling about? And here is another angle of 
the question: 
Every State, county, municipal and private institu¬ 
tion in a State where there is a so-called daylight sav¬ 
ing law is put to an increased expense for artificial light 
for many weeks each year, because they must use arti¬ 
ficial light to start the day’s work. Every inmate of an 
orphan asylum or hospital is roused at. dark for many 
weeks, so that the night attendants may have the work 
in order when relieved by the day duty force. 
There is not a scintilla of evidence to support the 
claim that a daylight saving law benefits public health. 
Psychologically it is most condemnnble. as it adds to the 
crowd tendency to deceive itself. Why lessen morale hy 
pretending the time is an hour later than sun time, and 
so lead to subterfuge and self-deception in other direc¬ 
tions? Let the city workers lx* honest and agree to be¬ 
gin the day at seven or eight instead of eight or nine 
O’clock, and neither in the matter of time nor of any¬ 
thing else try to seem to be what they an* not. 
l'UYSICIAN'. 
The Big Farm Question 
•We are buying apples grown in our State, and paying 
$5 per bushel. We are buying oranges or grapefruit, 
grown in Florida or California, direct from the car. on 
a switch, and paying only $2.50 per bushel ; something 
w rung here. 
Our local dealer is charging $2.65 per bushel for seed 
Irish Gobbler potatoes, and is not willing to pay us 60c 
per bushel for eating potatoes. Something wrong here 
again. 
We are ai present selling all our milk in bottles, to 
private trade, and make no butter. We can buy good 
standard grade, always the same quality, nut butter, for 
25c per pound. We could get sometimes local made cow 
butter, of very poor quality at times, never twice alike, 
for from 60c to 75c per pound. Something wrong here 
again. Don’t you think so? We are buying the nut 
butter, and think most of your readers would do the 
same under the circumstances. O. n. helping. 
Virginia. 
R. N.-Y.—You have started investigation of the great¬ 
est problem in American farm life. We all want to 
know “why.” and when we can make our demand for 
information forcible enough we shall find out. As for 
buying the "nut butter.” we cannot agree with you. and 
surely comparatively few dairymen will take such a 
view of the c-ase. We have no quarrel with town people 
who buy butter substitutes. In most cases they do not 
Understand how superior the butter is. For a man who 
sells milk or dairy products to buy the substitutes seems 
to us the most short-sighted polic.v we can think of. If 
we will not patronize our own industry and help in 
crease the market for our goods, what right have we L> 
ask the government or any other agency to help us? 
