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Editorial Page of the ^ American 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
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E. R. Eastman .Editor 
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CONTRIBUTING STAFF 
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Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. . Van Wagenen Comer 
Herschel H. Jones . . . Market Department 
K. J. T. Ekblaw . Farm Engineering Department 
Paul Work .Vegetable Department 
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Dr. S. K. Johnson .... Veterinary Adviser 
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Entered as Second-Class Matter, December 15, 1922, at the 
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VOL. Ill March 17, 1923 NO. 11 
More Local Control in School Bill 
W HEN the Committee of Twenty-one be¬ 
gan its work three years ago it was 
agreed that any recommendations it might 
make for school improvement must be based 
upon the plain, common-sense educational 
needs of country people and their children. 
' The committee went at its work determined 
to be guided by the facts and not by any 
prejudice or educational theories or “frills.” 
To get the facts, hundreds of meetings were 
held where school patrons discussed pro and 
con the rural schools. Educational experts 
were employed by the committee and sent 
into nearly every rural county to learn first¬ 
hand what the problems of the local schools 
were, if any. All of the information obtained 
from this two-sided survey was reported back 
to the committee and from them certain con¬ 
clusions, the more important of which we 
mention below, were drawn. 
First —The district school has been a tre¬ 
mendous factor in American development. 
In some cases, however, rural people gave 
the school credit that should have gone to 
the country home instead. 
Second —Rural schools as a whole have not 
kept up with progress with that made along 
o^her lines, so that country children are not 
getting in them an education in proportion 
to the cost of maintaining them. 
Thu'd —Because there are so many district 
schools rendering good work, and because 
of the difficulty of transporting children to 
larger schools in some sections, the committee 
recommends that district boundaries should 
be left as they are and that no consolidation 
should take place except by local vote. Un¬ 
der the present law, the State Department 
of Education and the local district superin¬ 
tendent can force consolidation. 
Fourth —Because the administration of 
schools is essentially a local matter, the com¬ 
mittee’s suggestions provide for more local 
control, but they make this local control more 
worth while and more effective by operating 
it through a community school board whose 
members shall be elected by the different 
districts in the community. The boundaries 
of each community are to be determined by 
a local commission. 
Fifth —Because the committee found gross 
unfairness and inequalities in the tax rate 
of different districts having the same school 
facilities, it suggests that the tax unit be en¬ 
larged to the community instead of the local 
district, as it is at present. And it further 
suggests a larger financial aid for country 
schools from the State. 
Sixth—The committee found many capa¬ 
ble and self-sacrificing teachers at work in 
the country schools, but, on the whole, it also 
found that the country schools drew the 
poorer qualified teachers and that the better 
teachers gravitated toward the cities. Be¬ 
cause of this the committee’s suggestions 
provide for special courses in the normal 
schools for country teachers and for State 
aid for teachers who make a business of 
working in the country schools. 
These suggestions are incorporated in the 
Education Bill which has been introduced in 
both Houses of the Legislature. The ma¬ 
jority of the farm people who have attended 
the hundreds of meetings that have been 
held, and who have really made an effort 
to study these suggestions, have approved 
them. 
Since the beginning of American history, 
the fundamental principle that farmers have 
insisted upon is an education for their chil¬ 
dren. The little log schoolhouse was as much 
a part of the rural community as was the 
church. The spelling matches, the debates, 
and the social affairs held in the community 
schoolhouse in the old days shotw how the in¬ 
terest centered there. 
The farm people of to-day are as alive as 
they ever were to the need of education. There 
are few farm parents who will make enough 
in the lifetime work on the old farm to leave 
their children very much money, but it is a 
rare parent indeed who does not want his 
child to have every right educational advan¬ 
tage and who does not wish to leave to his 
child something better than money, some¬ 
thing that “moth nor rust cannot corrupt 
nor thieves break through nor steal.” 
Maple Producers Reorganizing 
F or some time there has been consider¬ 
able dissatisfaction regarding the opera¬ 
tions of the Maple Producers’ Cooperative 
Association, which has its headquarters at 
Syracuse, N. Y. Because the success or fail¬ 
ure of one cooperative organization more or 
less effects all the others, and because affairs 
of the association have been misrepresented 
by its enemies, we asked Mr. F. E. Robertson, 
who has just become manager of the asso¬ 
ciation, to give us a full statement of the 
exact situation existing in the maple pro¬ 
ducers’ organization. The absolutely frank 
and full discussion by Mr. Robertson on an¬ 
other page of this issue shows the deter¬ 
mination of most cooperative leaders to take 
the members of their organizations entirely 
into their confidence. 
Mr. Robertson is, by the way, also the 
manager of the New York State Sheep Grow¬ 
ers’ Cooperative Association, which is in 
many respects the most successful coopera¬ 
tive in the State. 
Without question, the maple-sirup pro¬ 
ducers have considerable reason for being 
discouraged with cooperation. Still, when 
a man takes the wrong turn at the cross¬ 
roads and learns his mistake, he returns to 
the base, takes the proper turn, and keeps 
right on going. So it must be with a mem¬ 
ber of a cooperative which has trouble. If 
he is wise, he will do his part to correct the 
American Agriculturist, March 17, 1923 
Agriculturist 
mistakes and start again; if he stops, he has 
lost the value of the experience and will 
make no progress in any direction. 
It is inevitable that with the large number 
of cooperative organizations which have been 
established in the last few years that some 
of them will, because of overenthusiasm and 
a desire for too much speed, make bad mis¬ 
takes. Cooperation in itself is not a cure- 
all for all the difficulties of marketing. If 
it is not founded and run upon good business 
principles, it will not help to establish better 
markets for farm products. On the other 
hand, the fundamental principle of coopera¬ 
tion is too firmly established to be open to 
argument. The maple producers are better 
off together than they are going it alone. 
An opportunity is being presented to these 
producers to reorganize on better principles 
and especially to establish their market ac¬ 
tivities upon a sounder financial plan. This 
plan is being presented to the different mem¬ 
bers, and we are informed that a large ma¬ 
jority of the members are in favor of it. 
To quote the words of Mr. Robertson: “The 
situation is a direct challenge to the sin¬ 
cerity and courage of these men”; and we 
might add that the way in which these mem¬ 
bers respond to a discouraging situation is 
a direct test as to the future of the whole 
cooperative movement. 
Team Work 
N NEW YORK, the State Grange, State 
Federation of Farm Bureaus, State Horti¬ 
cultural Society and the Dairymen’s League 
have worked together for a number of years 
on common problems in an informal organi¬ 
zation known as the New York State Con¬ 
ference Board of Farm Organizations. 
At its last meeting a significant step was 
taken when the New York State Federation 
of Home Bureaus was invited to become a 
member of the Conference Board. Much is 
due to the women for the success of the 
farjners’ private and public business, and it 
is certainly right, therefore, when the im¬ 
portance of women’s influence and work is 
recognized in asking her organization to 
join hands with the others for the good of 
the farm and the farm home. 
There is also another conference group in 
the State, called the Cooperative Council. 
This is made up of commodity marketing 
organizations like the Apple Packing As¬ 
sociation of Rochester, the Wool Growers’, 
the G. L. FI, the State Holstein Association 
and many other groups that are engaged in 
helping the farmer to solve his marketing 
problems. Both the Cooperative Council and 
the Conference Board hold frequent meet¬ 
ings to discuss measures and take needed 
action. 
At the last meeting of the Conference 
Board, during Farmers’ Week at Cornell, 
it was voted to ask the chairman and secre¬ 
tary of the Cooperative Council to represent 
the commodity organizations as voting mem¬ 
bers of the Conference Board and vice versa, 
it was suggested that the chairman and sec¬ 
retary of the Conference Board should repre¬ 
sent the Board, in meetings of the council as 
voting members. This action ties up and 
brings together practically all of the organi¬ 
zations of the State into one great body, 
mobolizing the tremendous agricultural 
power of the whole State in one cooperative 
army to speak and work for the individual 
and collective interests of practically every 
person in the State interested in agriculture. 
Quotations Worth While 
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools 
learn in no other. 
* * ♦ 
If any one speaks evil of you, live so that 
none will believe him. 
