Ih*  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
881 
The  School  Bill  and  Its  Discussion 
Part  Y. 
E  are  receiving  many  letters  about  these  ar¬ 
ticles  in  analysis  of  the  school  bill.  Our 
people  all  seem  to  think  that  this  analysis  should  be 
continued,  and  they  are  glad  to  have  the  facts.  On 
page  S33  Ave  printed  a  full  copy  of  Section  128S  of 
the  proposed  school  bill.  One  of  our  readers  sends 
us  the  folloAving  note  in  comment,  and  Ave  think  our 
i-eaders  Avill  get  his  point : 
You  review  Section  12SS  of  the  Downin'g-Hutchinson 
bill,  as  amended  by  the  Senate.  In  Subdivision  2  of  that 
section  the  Senate  amended  the  bill  by  inserting  “on 
petition  of  a  majority  of  the  qualified  electors  of  such 
district.”  This  is  about  as  clear  as  mud.  If  properly 
punctuated  it  might  be  clear.  A  comma  after  “may” 
and  “district”  would  help  some.  If  the  courts  should 
construe  that  this  subdivision  would  preclude  the  power 
of  the  community  board  to  close  a  school  with  an  aver¬ 
age  daily  attendance  of  eight  or  less  except  “on  a  peti¬ 
tion  of  a  majority  of  the  qualified  electors  of  such  dis¬ 
trict”  it  nullifies  the  Avhole  intention  of  the  Commit¬ 
tee  of  Twenty-one  in  this  respect. 
After  several  communities  have  secured  amendments 
to  the  bill  to  protect  their  own  districts,  it  will  resemble 
the  tariff  legislation,  which  protects  the  favored  indus¬ 
tries  of  each  community,  and  the  consumer  pays  the 
bill. 
We  propose  first  to  give  a  full  analysis  of  the  bill 
and  then  take  it  up  section  by  section  for  full  dis¬ 
cussion.  There  is  no  question  about  the  fact  that  a 
vast  majority  of  our  country  people  do  not  under¬ 
stand  this  bill.  In  fact,  Ave  find  a  large  number  of 
them  who  say  they  never  heard  of  it  before. 
Last  week  we  printed  portions  of  the  bill  Avhich 
referred  to  financial  matters.  One  of  the  things 
little  understood  by  many  readers  is  the  provision 
covering  the  outstanding  bonds  and  who  is  to  be¬ 
come  responsible  for  them  on  the  formation  of 
these  community  boards.  Tn  order  to  make  this 
clear,  Ave  print,  the  following,  Section  1302.  of  the 
bill  as  it  appears  in  our  copy : 
Section  1302.  Outstanding  Bonds.  The  bonded  in¬ 
debtedness  of  the  school  districts  in  a  community  dis¬ 
trict  existing  and  outstanding  on  the  31st  day  of  July. 
1024.  shall  be  a  charge  against  the  taxable  property  of 
the  community  district,  and  all  bonds  issued  by  such 
school  districts  on  or  before  such  day,  as  provided  by 
Iuav,  shall  become  the  bonds  of  the  community  district, 
and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  board  of  education  of 
such  district  to  include  in  its  annual  school  tax  budget 
an  amount  sufficient  to  pay  the  principal  and  interest 
of  such  bonds  as  they  become  due. 
It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  the  bonds  outstand¬ 
ing  in  the  smaller  school  districts  will  be  assumed 
by  the  community  district.  That  is,  four  or  five  dis¬ 
tricts  put  together.  As  w e  understand  it,  the  plan 
is  to  try  to  combine  seA’eral  rural  districts  Avith  one 
town  district  wherever  that  is  possible,  and  towns 
up  to  a  population  of  4.500  will  be  included.  As  is 
avcII  known,  many  of  these  towns  haA’e  issued  bonds 
for  the  building  of  high  schools,. and  have  often  in¬ 
curred  a  very  heavy  debt.  Under  the  neAV  Iuav,  this 
debt  will  be  distributed  all  through  the  community 
district  and,  of  course,  the  outlying  rural  districts 
will  he  expected  to  pay  their  share  of  these  bonds. 
As  we  have  pointed  out  before,  under  the  plan  of 
organizing  these  districts  as  outlined  in  this  law. 
we  cannot  see  that  the  taxpayers  and  voters  of  the 
rural  districts  will  have  much,  if  anything,  to  say 
as  to  whether  they  Avill  be  placed  in  connection  Avith 
Hie  tOAvn.  One  objection  urged  against  this  Iuav  last 
Winter  Avas  the  fact  that  before  it  Avas  put  over 
there  should  at  least  be  some  idea  of  hoAV  these  com¬ 
munity  districts  are  to  be  formed,  so  that  farmers 
in  a  rural  district  may  have  at  least  an  idea  how 
they  are  to  be  placed  in  connection  with  the  town 
schools.  That  would  give  our  country  people  a 
chance  to  figure  how  much  of  a  debt  the  community 
district  Avill  be  obliged  to  assume. 
Section  1303  of  the  bill  covers  the  matter  of  sites 
and  buildings.  It  appears  from  this  section  that  the 
community  hoard  may  designate  “whenever,  in  its 
judgment,  it  is  necessary,”  or  when  requested  by  a 
vote  of  a  district  meeting,  a  new  site  for  the  school- 
house  or  to  enlarge  the  present  site  of  an  existing 
sehoolhouse.  The  qualified  electors  of  a  school  dis¬ 
trict  may  adopt  at  an  annual  or  special  school  meet¬ 
ing  a  resolution  requesting  the  community  board  to 
designate  a  neAV  site  or  to  enlarge  the  present  site. 
That  seems  to  be  about  all  the  district  has  to  do  in 
the  matter.  This  proposed  Iuav  states  that  the  com¬ 
munity  board  shall  give  “careful  consideration”  to 
any  such  resolution.  It  may  either  select  or  refuse 
to  select  the  site  described  in  such  resolution.  In 
fact,  under  this  law,  the  community  board  seems  to 
have  absolute  control  of  the  matter,  and  Ave  do  not 
see  that  the  home  district  has  much,  if  any,  say  in 
the  proceedings.  It  is  true  that  if  the  community 
board  decides  upon  a  different  place  for  the  school 
than  that  described  in  the  district  resolution,  a  hear¬ 
ing  is  to  be  given.  This  hearing  must  be  well  ad¬ 
vertised,  and  any  qualified  voter  in  the  community 
district  may  be  heard  at  such  a  hearing,  but  the 
community  board  has  the  final  determination,  and 
under  this  law.  the  school  is  to  be  placed  Avliere  the 
board  determines.  The  laAv  also  covers  the  matter 
of  condemnation  of  sites.  The  district  superintend¬ 
ent  may  make  an  order  condemning  a  site  which 
seems  to  him  inadequate,  unsanitary  or  dangerous. 
Ilis  order  is  submitted  to  the  intermediate  board, 
Avhich,  apparently,  is  to  decide  the  matter.  An 
elaborate  plan  is  laid  out  for  the  repairs  of  school 
buildings,  and  for  permanent  improvements,  and 
these,  too,  are  apparently  put  in  charge  of  a  com¬ 
munity  board,  the  A'oters  of  the  smaller  school  dis¬ 
tricts  seeming  to  have  very  little  to  say  in  the  mat¬ 
ter,  except  that  the  law  says  that  the  community 
board  shall  not  spend  in  any  one  year  for  this  pur¬ 
pose  an  amount  in  excess  of  one-half  of  one  per 
cent  of  the  actual  valuation  of  the  taxable  property 
in  the  community  district,  or  in  any  case,  for  all 
such  purposes,  a  total  amount  in  excess  of  $7,000. 
without  a  vote  of  the  school  meeting  of  the  com¬ 
munity  district.  It.  seems  to  us,  in  studying  this  Iuav, 
that  the  full  intent  of  all  these  provisions  is  to  take 
away  from  the  home  district  as  far  as  possible  any 
real  authority  over  the  school.  True,  the  home  dis¬ 
trict  is  permitted  to  vote  on  the  question  when  the 
total  amount  is  in  excess  of  $7,000.  but  one  can 
easily  see  Avhat  might  happen  in  case  the  community 
board  really  Avanted  to  get  rid  of  the  school  or  close 
if.  By  making  the  proposed  appropriation  $5,000  or 
$0,000.  there  would  be  no  need  of  calling  a  meeting 
under  this  Iuav  for  the  voters  to  decide.  It  Avould 
seem  as  if  this  law  Avas  designed  primarily  to  do 
away  with  many  of  the  school  districts,  and  under 
this  plan  of  putting  the  power  almost  entirely  in 
the  hands  of  these  community  and  intermediate 
boards,  we  cannot  see  Iioav  the  voters  of  any  smaller 
school  district  can  help  themselves  in  case  a  com¬ 
munity  board  was  elected  which  was  absolutely  bent 
on  closing  these  schools  and  forcing  consolidation. 
We  think  that  point  should  be  fully  thrashed  out 
and  understood  by  all  farmers.  The  plan  of  control 
by  means  of  all  these  boards  and  the  plan  of  forming 
the  community  units,  to  begin  with,  seem  to  us  a 
means  of  taking  away  from  the  rural  residents  very 
much  of  the  control  of  their  own  schools. 
Next  week  we  Avill  take  up  the  matter  of  condem¬ 
nation  of  schools  and  the  appropriations  of  money. 
We  have  every  evidence  that  NeAV  York  State  farm¬ 
ers  are  intensely  interested  in  this  matter,  and  they 
want  us  to  go  through  with  the  work  to  the  end. 
The  Farmers’  Low  Dollar 
Daugherty,  Va.,  June  3. — Ben  Bue,  of  this  place, 
grew  some  fine  berries  this  year,  as  he  does  all  years. 
But  on  May  21,  when  he  hauled  them  to  the  auction 
block  at  Onley,  and  was  paid  $2.10  per  crate  for  them, 
he  couldn’t  understand  why  they  brought  so  little,  when 
he  had  been  told  that  the  crop  was  the  shortest  in  years 
in  Accomac  County. 
On  the  inside  of  the  crate  he  wrote :  “I  received 
$2.10  for  this  crate?  What  did  you  pay?”  And  on 
Monday  of  this  week,  Ben  got  an  answer  from  Phila¬ 
delphia,  which  read  as  follows:  “I  paid  $8  for  the 
crate  you  say  you  sold  for  $2.10,  and  I  sold  it  again  for 
$10,  but  I  don’t  know  Avhat  the  man  paid  who  ate  the 
berries.” 
And  that’s  Avhat  puzzles  Ben. 
ROBABLY  the  final  consumer  paid  45  or  50 
cents  a  quart.  She  would  have  bought  more, 
but  no  doubt  she  said  “These  profiteering  farmers 
are  robbing  us,”  and  so  she  was  satisfied  Avith  one 
box !  And  yet,  you  never  can  tell.  The  other  day, 
in  front  of  this  office,  peddlers  Avere  selling  straw¬ 
berries  of  fair  quality  at  12  cents  a  quart,  retail.  As 
we  saw  these  men  sorting  this  fruit  over  with  their 
dirty  hands  Ave  remembered  that  this  12  cents  repre¬ 
sented  the  payments  to  peddler,  jobber,  commission 
man.  agent  and  farmer!  But  the  chances  are  that 
this  was  a  tail-end  lot.  perhaps  the  last  of  a  car. 
The  dealers  had  made  a  good  profit  on  the  entire 
car.  and  the  little  they  got  for  this  small  lot  was 
pure  velvet! 
Discussion  of  the  New  School  Law 
The  Dutchess  County,  N.  Y.,  Pomona  Grange  at  its 
quarterly  meeting  adopted  a  resolution  requesting  that 
the  State  Master  call  a  conference  of  county  deputies. 
At  this  conference  the  provisions  of  the  proposed  new 
school  law  are  to  be  explained  and  studied  in  minute  de¬ 
tail.  so  that  the  deputies  would  be  thoroughly  familiar 
with  the  meaning  of  all  piwisions  of  the  proposed 
legislation.  The  resolution  further  provided  that  at  a 
later  date  each  Subordinate  Grange  should  arrange  for 
a  meeting  at  which  the  county  deputy  would  explain 
fully  all  provisions  of  the  bill  and  ansAver  all  questions 
which  might  come  up. 
This  may  appear  like  quite  a  contract,  and  probably 
it  is.  However,  it  has  been  recommended  by  The  R. 
N.-Y.  and  others  that  this  matter  be  discussed  at  local 
meetings.  The  limiting  factor  in  this  plan  seems  to  he 
the  lack  of  persons  sufficiently  familiar  Avith  the  prop¬ 
osition  to  lead  the  discussion  intelligently. 
The  County  Grange  deputies  as  a  body,  after  having 
been  given  an  opportunity  to  go  over  the  proposition 
carefully  in  conference,  should  be  as  capable  of  leading 
the  discussion  as  any  group  of  men  who  could  be  got 
together.  There  is  perhaps  the  additional  advantage 
that  they  would  be  as  unprejudiced  and  personally  as 
disinterested  as  any  group.  Employes  of  the  State  Ed¬ 
ucation  Department,  including  district  superintend¬ 
ents,  perhaps  do  not  in  all  cases  take  an  entirely  open- 
minded  and  unprejudiced  viewpoint.  h. 
E  call  that  a  good  idea.  We  repeat  AA’hat  has 
often  been  said,  that  the  proposed  school 
law  is,  next  to  the  struggle  for  making  a  living,  the 
most  important  legislation  before  New  York  farm¬ 
ers.  We  are  convinced  that  the  laAv  is  not  Avell  un¬ 
derstood,  and  anything  that  will  bring  out  the  truth 
about  it  is  desirable.  There  ought  to  be  a  series  of 
debates  on  the  bill  before  farm  gatherings.  In  a 
case  such  as  this.  Avhere  country  people  provide  most 
of  the  taxes  and  all  the  children,  every  effort  should 
be  strained  to  the  limit  to  make  them  understand. 
Prices  Paid  for  Milk 
Would  you  print  the  price  Sheffield  Farms  paid  for 
fluid  milk  for  year  1916  in  200-mile  zone?  AV.  A.  M. 
New  York. 
AKING  the  year  from  October  1.  1915,  to  Oc¬ 
tober  1.  1916,  the  average  price  was  $1,384  per 
100  lbs.  for  3  per  cent  milk  in  the  oxitside  zone,  and 
10  cents  more  within  the  100-mile  zone.  During  this 
time  and  for  some  years  previous  the  price  of  milk 
Avas  made  by  the  Borden  Company,  and  Sheffield 
Farms  paid  the  Borden  price.  Other  dealers  did  the 
same,  and  the  assumption  was  that  Borden’s  spoke 
for  all.  The  fight  conducted  by  the  State  Depart¬ 
ment  of  Foods  and  Markets  on  behalf  of  the  Dairy¬ 
men’s  League  Avas  Avaged  over  the  price  for  six 
months  from  October  1,  1916.  It  increased  the 
price  45  cents  per  100  lbs.  for  the  last  three  months 
of  1916,  and  Sheffield  Farms  paid  the  same  price  as 
all  other  dealers. 
An  Income  Without  Work 
THE  Osage  Indian  tribe  lives  in  Northern  Okla¬ 
homa.  Their  land  lies  in  the  oil  district,  and 
over  3,000  oil  Avells  have  been  drilled  in  their  terri¬ 
tory.  Uncle  Sam  takes  care  of  these  Indians,  and 
the  income  from  this  oil  business  goes  Jo  them,  so 
that,  something  over  $5,000  a  year  is  distributed  to 
each  man,  woman  and  child  of  this  Osage  tribe. 
“They  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin.”  So  long  as 
the  oil  flows  they  have  more  spending  money  than 
they  can  properly  handle.  We  have  been  curious 
to  learn  Avhat  these  red  people  do  with  their  money. 
Tell  us  Avhat  a  man  does  Avith  his  income,  or  what  is 
left  after  his  living  expenses  are  paid,  and  Ave  can 
figure  very  close  to  his  character.  We  learn  that 
these  Osage  Indians  operate  in  just  about  the  same 
Avay  as  the  general  run  of  Avhite  folks.  A  feAV  of 
them  are  strong  and  responsible  business  men.  They 
have  natural  character.  They  Avork  and  plan,  and 
a  goodly  share  of  the  money  which  is  given  to  the 
tribe  in  general  finds  its  Avay  into  the  hands  of 
these  stronger  characters.  Most  of  the  members  of 
this  tribe.  lioAvever,  seem  to  spend  their  money  Avith 
what  is  known  as  “supreme  abandon.”  To  use  a 
more  familiar  term,  “they  blow  it  off  with  a  high 
wind,”  and  it  may  be  said  that  in  this  occupation 
they  are  ably  assisted  by  every  A'ariety  of  grafter 
and  fraud  known  to  mankind,  either  AAdiite,  black, 
red  or  speckled.  It  is  an  interesting  study  to  Avatch 
such  things.  Here  is  a  large  group  of  human  beings 
absolutely  removed  from  the  necessity  to  labor  or 
suffer  from  the  ordinary  care  and  troubles  of  life. 
All  they  have  to  do  is  to  eat,  drink,  sleep,  go  through 
the  ordinary  exercises  of  life,  and  draw  their  money 
at  intervals  from  Uncle  Sam.  The  result  is  that  a 
few  strong  men  of  known  character  accumulate  prac¬ 
tically  all  the  money,  while  the  great  majority  of 
the  people  take  literally  no  thought  for  the  morroAV. 
The  question  which  arises  in  the  ordinary  mind  is 
Avhether  a  community  of  Avhite  men  similarly  placed 
would  not  do  just  about  the  same  thing.  If  some 
of  the  Utopian  dreams  of  the  Socialists  could  be 
carried  out,  the  chances  are  that  they  would  come  to 
about  the  same  plan  until  it  became  absolutely  nec¬ 
essary  for  all  hands  to  get  out  and  work.  Onr  ex¬ 
perience  has  been  that  nine  men  out  of  10  who  are 
given  to  understand  that  they  may  live  or  make  up 
their  incomes  from  the  means  of  someone  else  will 
divorce  themselves  more  and  more  from  the  habit  of 
work  or  taking  responsibility.  They  will  drop  in¬ 
itiative,  and  Avhen  that  goes,  a  man  becomes  more 
and  more  of  a  mere  machine.  We  don’t  care  to 
have  a  gold  mine,  an  oil  well,  or  a  deposit  of  coal 
discovered  on  our  own  farm.  Frankly,  we  think  it 
would  be  the  worst  thing  that  could  possibly  hap¬ 
pen  to  our  family  and  children. 
