American Agriculturist, May 12,1923 
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Editorial Page of the American Agriculturist 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
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E. R. Eastman .Editor 
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VOt. Ill May 12, 1923 No. 19 
Rural School Bill Carried Over 
HE bill known as the Rural School Bill, 
which contains the suggestions for rural 
school improvement made by the Committee 
of Twenty-one, will not pass this session. 
The New York State Senate voted for it with 
only six votes in the negative. It then went 
to Rules Committee in the Assembly, which 
committee decided not to report the bill out. 
The bill was defeated on the grounds of 
expediency, for the Assemblymen adopted a 
resolution commending the principles of the 
bill. The most of the opponents of the bill 
in the Legislature and out of it, admit that 
it is right—a rather strange situation, for if 
it is right, what real defense is there for not 
passing it now? 
As we have before stated, the Rural School 
Bill would have provided for a larger local 
control of the schools, would do away with 
compulsory consolidation, improve the quali¬ 
fications of rural school teachers, and in 
many other ways would have led to a much 
better rural school system. We believe that 
farmers will be bitterly disappointed that 
this bill did not pass when they realize that, 
had it passed, the school taxes in a majority 
of the districts of the State would have been 
materially reduced. This Tower tax rate 
would have come about in most districts be¬ 
cause of the equalization provisions of the 
bill, and especially because the cities would 
have paid a greater portion of the larger aid 
which would have come to the rural school 
districts from the State. 
The cities voted for this bill this year. 
Whether they can be convinced again that it 
is to their interest to support a bill for im¬ 
proving rural schools, which will mean more 
taxes for the cities, is, of course, problemati¬ 
cal. In the meantime, because of the failure 
of the Legislature to accomplish much this 
year along educational or other lines, except 
to quarrel among themselves over political 
issues, the farmers will continue to pay the 
large school taxes without adequate results 
in school facilities for country children. 
American Agriculturist will continue to 
discuss the educational provisions of the 
Rural School Bill so that next year the de¬ 
mand for it will be so strong no legislature 
will dare to turn it down. 
“The Brown Mouse” 
T is with considerable pleasure that we are 
able to announce that we have secured a 
serial story, ‘The Brown Mouse,” by Herbert 
Quick, for publication in American Agricul¬ 
turist. The first installment will begin in 
our May 19th issue. Because this story is 
of particular interest to farm people it was 
sought for by several farm papers, and we 
happened to be the lucky one to secure the 
rights for publication in this territory. 
Herbert Quick is also the author of “Van- 
dermark’s Folly”, one of the best stories 
that has ever been written of farm life and 
conditions during the early days of this 
country. Mr. Quick was formerly a member 
of the Federal Farm Loan Board, and' was 
once editor of “Farm and Fireside”, so his 
viewpoint enables him to write with sympa¬ 
thetic understanding of country life. 
“The Brown Mouse” is a story of a hired 
man who became a school teacher with the 
strange idea that the schools should teach in 
the terms of life and of the farm, instead of 
theories that may never have practical 
application. 
We have often said that people who live 
in the country have too little opportunities 
for recreation. It is with this thought in 
mind that American Agriculturist carries 
one first class serial story all of the time. We 
wish we had more room for fiction. Most 
country housewives do not have time to read 
books even if there is money to buy them, 
but a few moments can usually be found 
each week to read an installment of a good 
continued story. Hundreds of women have 
told us that this feature of American Agri¬ 
culturist was worth more than the price. 
Martyrs To Principle 
O VER in Russia the other day the Soviet 
Government tried some Calholic priests 
for treason. They were not guilty of treason 
as normal men understand treason, but in 
Russia the Red Government frowns on all 
religion, and these priests had insisted on 
preaching and practicing the tenets of their 
faith. The bearing of these Christians dur¬ 
ing their unfair trial is one of the sublime 
events of history. No soldier going into 
battle, or Christian martyr on the way to the 
stake, ever faced certain death for a great 
cause with more calm courage. 
There was little or no evidence against 
them, and their own clear-cut and positive 
answers in regard to their religious prac¬ 
tices, which were against the Bolshevist law, 
sent them to their death or to long imprison¬ 
ment. Every one of the clerical prisoners 
were asked whether they taught the cate¬ 
chism to children, and every prisoner an¬ 
swered “Yes.” Under the Bolshevist law, it 
is a crime tu impart any religious teaching 
to anyone under eighteen years old. When 
asked if they would continue such teaching, 
the reply in every case was the same. 
In describing these,answers, an American 
reporter who was present said: “The arch¬ 
bishop’s face lit up with pleasure and sur¬ 
prise when he answered. It was as if he 
could see the way to accept a miraculous gift 
of health, youth, and unlimited riches. 
“Behind the archbishop was the young 
priest, Edward Yunevitch. Joy flashed in 
his eyes and irradiated from his whole coun¬ 
tenance when asked if he would cease teach¬ 
ing children their catechism. Joyousness so 
marked his voice in his answer, ‘No,’ that 
the three Bolshevist judges, who were all 
smoking cigarettes, looked up simultaneously 
in surprise. The priests were asked if after 
the churches had been closed they had con¬ 
tinued to say mass, and they answered, yes, 
of course, they had all said mass.” 
On the day when the death sentence was 
passed on the archbishop, he was asked if 
he had anything to say. Again we quote 
the American reporter: “The archbishop rose 
to his full height and delivered an addres.s 
so touching and so simple that a profound 
hush, with something of awe in it, settled 
down upon the hostile audience of Red sol¬ 
diers, atheists, sneerers, and demoralized 
students. The archbishop denied, as did all 
those who spoke after him, that he had be¬ 
longed to any political organization or had 
engaged in any counter-revolutionary in¬ 
trigues. He had confined himself to teach¬ 
ing his people the truths of his holy religion, 
the same truths which the church had taught 
for nearly two thousand years. 
“The church had never taught the people 
to do wrong; he had never taught wrong¬ 
doing; he had never taught anything that 
did not tend to good morals and good citi¬ 
zenship. ‘To-day,’ concluded the archbishop, 
‘I stand before a temporal judge; to-morrow 
maybe I shall stand before an eternal judge, 
and I hope the temporal judge may be just 
to me and the eternal judge merciful.’ ” 
The sentence of death was pronounced 
against the archbishop and one of his priests, 
Butchkavitch, and his companions were all 
sentenced to prison. World-wide protest led 
to the commutation of the archbishop’s sen¬ 
tence to ten years solitary imprisonment, 
but Butchkavitch was shot by a firing squad. 
There are times in human affairs when 
one needs all his philosophy, all his faith 
in humpity, and all his belief in the ulti¬ 
mate triumph of right to keep from cynically 
thinking that the whole world is rapidly be¬ 
coming evil and that everything and every¬ 
body are going bad. The period since the 
war is such a time. The amount of igno¬ 
rance, prejudice, selfishness, business trick¬ 
ery, and immorality, which seem so rampant¬ 
ly on the increase, is particularly dishearten¬ 
ing and disillusioning. 
.But always at such times there are ex¬ 
amples of sublime living and sacrifice for 
high ideals which far outbalance the evil and 
* renew our faith in the ultimate goodness of 
our fellow men and in the whole general 
scheme of things. 
The Instinct for the Soil 
A moral crisis,” says Mr. Herbert 
Quick in his story “The Brown Mouse”, 
“accompanies the passing of a man from the 
struggle with the soil to any other occupa¬ 
tion, the productiveness of which is not quite 
so clear. I believe that this deep instinct for 
labor in and about the soil is a valid one, and 
that the gathering together of people in the 
cities has been at the cost of an obscure, but 
actual moral shock. 
“I doubt if the people of the cities can 
ever be at rest in a future full of moral 
searchings of conscience until every man has 
traced definitely the connection of the work 
he is doing with the maintenance of his coun¬ 
try’s population.” 
Mr. Quick is right. The change from agri¬ 
culture to a less productive occupation is a 
moral shock seldom realized, but there just 
the same; and because this is so, we cannot 
look with any pride upon the great change 
that has taken place in our country from an 
agricultural to a city population. Because 
of our modern methods of living there is no 
way for a nation to avoid the packing of 
dense population into the city. But the fact 
that a majority of our people now do live 
in the cities, makes it all the more necessary 
for the nation to do everything possible to 
maintain upon the land the same strong, pros¬ 
perous, intelligent people that the American 
farmers haye been in the past, so that 
through them the whole nation may receive 
the purifying influence of the soil. 
