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American Agriculturist, September 15,1923 
Editorial Page of the American Agriculturist 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. 
E. R. Eastman 
Fred W. Ohm 
Gabrielle Elliot 
Birge Kinne . 
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Published Weekly by 
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Entered as Second-Class Matter, December 15. 1922 at the 
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VOL. 112 September 15, 1923 
No. 11 
The Rural School Bill 
B EGINNING with next week’s issue, 
American Agriculturist will run a series 
of articles and letters about the recommenda¬ 
tions of the Committee of Twenty-one, foi 
rural school improvement. It will be re¬ 
membered that these recommendations were 
incorporated in the Rural School Bill wine 
was before the New York State Legislating 
last year. The bill passed the Senate and 
was laid over in the Assembly. 
Not in many years has there been a moie 
important issue before the New York State 
farmers than the principles m this Rural 
School Bill, and never in our experience has 
there been a proposed law vitally affecting 
the interests of farm people that has been 
more unfairly attacked, misrepresented, and 
misinterpreted. It is a very easy thing tor 
selfish demagogues to get temporary pop¬ 
ularity, resulting in material gams to them¬ 
selves and their business, by misrepresenta¬ 
tion and abuse of people and principles 
And that is just what has happened to the 
Committee of Twenty-one and their lecom- 
mendations for school betterment. Enemies 
have gone so far as to appear in public punt 
with statements that leave the impression 
with farm people that the Committee Of 
Twenty-one had $75,000 which they used to 
their own advantage! Just where this 
money came from and how it was spent 
will lie fully explained in later articles, butti- 
cient to say now that the accounts are open 
to anybody’s inspection, they were audited 
by a public accountant, and not a cent was 
spent except under the rules of the State 
of New York, requiring sworn affidavits. 
Perhaps it is unnecessary to add that with 
the exception of two members of the com¬ 
mittee—a farmer who left his own work at 
home and worked a few days to help get 
people out to meetings, and anothei membei 
who helped v/ith the survey—no one on the 
committee received any compensation fi om 
this fund. On the other hand, theie is not 
a person on the committee who has not 
sacrificed much of his own time and "vv oik in 
an effort to do something for country 
children. 
We mention this particular attack upon 
the motives of the committee as one illustra¬ 
tion of the kind of campaign that has been 
waged. In addition to the few but powerful 
demagogues making a selfish issue of the 
bill, there have been many persons who have 
been perfectly sincere in opposing the bill 
and its principles as they understood them. 
About this kind of sincere and honorable 
opposition, we have nothing to say, for it 
is a good thing for any proposition to have 
honest criticism in order to bring out all 
sides. Much of this criticism has arisen 
from a misunderstanding of the recommenda¬ 
tions in the School Bill and will cease after 
more study of what is proposed. 
When the farm people of New York State 
find that the proposed school bill will main¬ 
tain a majority of the one-room schools at 
actually less taxes than they are paying now, 
those who have spent months misinforming 
the public about these suggestions for school 
betterment for selfish reasons may be m line 
for a boomerang. The bill provides for 
equalization of the tax rate which will re¬ 
sult in ten million dollars more State aid for 
the country schools. Of this ten million dol¬ 
lars of State tax, New York City alone pays 
approximately 67 per cent, and the othei 
cities of the State bring the total to approx¬ 
imately 87 per cent. If you live m a rich 
district with high valuaton, the equalization 
provision in the bill will tend to raise youi 
tax by dividing the burden more equitably 
with poorer districts that are not so fortu¬ 
nately situated. These outlying poorer one- 
room school districts are in the majority in 
the State; therefore, we make our statement 
that the majority of farm people will ac¬ 
tually have their school taxes lowered. But 
even those who live in wealthy districts need 
•have no fear of greatly increased taxes, be¬ 
cause the bill provides so much more direct 
help from the State. A full explanation with 
examples of just how this works will appear 
in an early number of this paper. 
Another provision in the bill which has 
been much misrepresented is that of con¬ 
solidation. This provision of the bill also 
will be explained in detail in the coming ar¬ 
ticles, but we want to say here that all this 
talk about the difficulties of transporting- 
children by truck over wintry roads has no 
point as far as this bill is concerned, be¬ 
cause under the proposed law, under no con¬ 
sideration would it be possible to consolidate 
any district or districts without a majority 
vote in every district affected. The-committee 
fully recognize that there are districts so 
situated because of weather and roads, that 
they should never be consolidated with any 
other; it is recognized that there are other 
districts where consolidation might help. The 
only ones who are in a position to judge are 
the people most affected—those who live 
in the districts, and who will by their vote 
decide the issue. . . 
Under the bill also there, are provisions 
for more local control by the patrons of their 
schools than they now have. All of these 
will be explained. 
During the past spring and summer, 
American Agriculturist has not had much to 
say on this important subject because we 
thought that people were too busy with the 
farm affairs to give it proper time for read¬ 
ing and study. With the opening of the 
new school year and with the longer even¬ 
ings, farmers will now have more interest 
in matters of this kind, and will do more 
reading. 
As far as American Agriculturist is con¬ 
cerned, from a selfish standpoint, we would 
do better to say nothing about it, for there 
has been so much misinformation put out 
about the bill that there is a lot of bitter¬ 
ness. But in spite of this, since we believe 
in it, we will do our best to make the princi¬ 
ples of the suggested law clear. For the sake 
of the boys and girls, we know that our 
thousands of people will give these coming 
articles a fair reading. After you have done 
this, we are perfectly willing to leave the de¬ 
cision entirely to you. 
The Coal Strike 
S EVERAL times this summer we have sug¬ 
gested to our people that they be sure 
to get their coal into their cellars, for we 
were afraid that unless you bought coal early 
you would be unable to get it at all. At this 
writing, miners are out once more on strike, 
and the coal situation therefore promises to 
be very serious again this winter. The issues 
involved between t*he miners and the opera¬ 
tors are so confusing and so much is said on 
one side that does not agree with what is 
said on the other that it is very difficult tor 
anyone to draw any conclusions as to who 
is right and who is wrong in the controversy. 
In either case, the public—the innocent by¬ 
standers—will be one of the chief suffei ei s. 
Without question there are many injustices 
on both sides and there is altogether too 
much radicalism and unwillingness to com- 
promise on the part of the workers. But the 
mine owners are chiefly to blame for this be¬ 
cause they would not give the workers a 
square deal until they had to. The minei s 
are obliged to use force and force always goes 
too far. Farmers have a parallel case with 
the milk dealers. There are now a good many 
of the milk dealers who are doing square 
business, but before the dairymen were or¬ 
ganized, every farmer knows how unfair 
nearly every dealer was. 
The Japan Cataclysm 
A SERIES of terrific earthquakes in Japan 
on September 1, 2 and 3, followed by 
great fires and tidal waves, caused probably 
what is the worst catastrophe in the world s 
history. Accurate figures are not available 
at this writing, but newspapers report that 
from 150,000 to 200,000 people were killed, 
among whom were many of Japan s leading 
business men and statesmen, and many 
prominent foreigners, including Americans. 
An innumerable list have been wounded, 
thousands more are dying from exposure 
and starvation because of the destruction oi 
their homes and food supplies and the diffi¬ 
culty of getting relief quickly into the dev¬ 
astated regions. Property damage will run 
into billions of dollars. Whole sections ot 
the cities of Tokio and Yokohama have not a 
standing building left. Other and smaller 
cities have been nearly or quite completely 
destroyed. Several islands in the Empire 
sank in the sea and new ones rose from the 
water. Rivers changed their, courses, one oi 
them right through the city of Tokio. This 
river was clogged with dead, as were many 
of the streets. Truly the “Land of Cherry 
Blossoms” has become a land of horror. 
All the world is reaching out a sympa¬ 
thetic and helping hand to the stricken peo¬ 
ple. President Coolidge issued a proclamation 
asking the people of America to raise a la' ge 
sum which the Red Cross can use in im¬ 
mediate help to the Japanese. Should you 
wish to contribute, send any amount you de¬ 
sire to the Director of the Red Ci'oss > city oi 
Washington. A small gift may save a me. 
Earthquakes are supposed to be caused 
by the comparatively thin earth crust ad¬ 
justing itself over the subterranean fires. 
The crust is thinner in some parts of the 
world like the Far East where there are fre* 
quent earthquakes, than in others like East¬ 
ern America where an earth tremor is sel¬ 
dom felt. The theory is that the water oi 
the ocean soaks through the thin crust into 
the great fires underneath and the mighty 
conflict between fire and water upsets the 
earth’s surface over thousands of square 
miles. Another theory is that the crust must 
readjust itself as it contracts when it cools. 
