372 
American Agriculturist, December 1,1923 
Editorial Page of the American Agriculturist 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr .Publisher 
E. R. Eastman .Editor 
Fred W. Ohm, .Associate Editor 
Gabrielle Elliot .... Household Editor 
Birge Kinne . ■ • • • Advertising Manager 
E. C. Weatherby . . • Circulation Manager 
CONTRIBUTING STAFF 
H. E. Cook, Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., H. H. Jones, 
Paul Work, G. T. Hughes, H. E. Babcock 
OUR ADVERTISEMENTS GUARANTEED 
The American Agriculturist accepts only advertis¬ 
ing which it believes to be thoroughly honest. 
We positively guarantee to our readers fair and 
honest treatment in dealing with our advertisers. 
We guarantee to refund the price of goods pur¬ 
chased by our subscribers from any advertiser who 
fails to make good when the article purchased is 
found not to be as advertised. 
To benefit by this guarantee subscribers must say: 
“I saw your aa in the American Agriculturist” when 
ordering from our advertisers. 
Published Weekly by 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, INC. 
Address all correspondence for editorial, advertising, or 
subscription departments to 
461 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, December 15, 1922, at the 
Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3,1879. 
Subscription price, payable in advance, $1 a year. 
Canadian and foreign, $2 a year. 
VOL. 112 December 1, 1923 22 
A Pilgrim Thanksgiving 
Written for Thanksgiving Number of American 
Agriculturist Thirty Years Ago 
“rnHE Pilgrim fathers first fell upon their 
JL knees, and then upon the aborigines.” 
If anybody can tell the story of the fathers 
with fewer words and more wit than is 
packed into this famous sentence, let him. 
The Pilgrim fathers were hard-working 
farmers, good fighters, and above all, God¬ 
fearing men. This, when you stop to think 
of it, is a grand combination of virtues. It 
is a combination found to-day in every State 
in the Union, and if this were not so, we 
might cry from the bottom of our hearts: 
“God save the country!” For there are 
farmers, as there are hirelings, and lawyers, 
capitalists, politicians, and members of every 
craft, who are neither hard-working, cou¬ 
rageous, nor God-fearing. It. is scarcely 
probable that these words will find their way 
to such, but whether they do or not, there is a 
lesson for all in the lives of the Pilgrims, 
and particularly for us now, in the day of 
Thanksgiving which they instituted. 
Suppose, for instance, that the passengers 
rf the Mayflower had come to the coast of 
North America from mere motives of busi¬ 
ness. They tossed for many weeks on the 
stormy Atlantic, and when at length they set 
foot on land they found the aborigines any¬ 
thing but glad to see them. Then, too, it 
was a raw, cold climate; crops would not 
grow till the forests were felled, and did 
not want to grow even then. It was a strug¬ 
gle for existence, precluding the mere 
thought of accumulating property. Had the 
pilgrimage, then, been made from motives 
of gain, think you the little colony would 
have greeted a harvest adequate to save them 
from starvation as an occasion for Thanks¬ 
giving and prayer? The Mayflower would 
have scudded for England under every inch 
of sail, and the disgusted voyagers would 
have reported that there “wasn’t even a liv¬ 
ing in it, not to speak of money.” But the 
Pilgrims stood for the majesty of an idea— 
“civil and religious liberty.” No gold was 
in sight, nor diamonds, but this priceless 
jewel they won. As a result, the spirit of 
the Pilgrim fathers is alive, very much alive, 
from Plymouth to the Golden Gate, to-day. 
The farmer, or any other man, whose 
primary motive is gain, is bound to be dis¬ 
contented, wdiether he acquires a bare sub¬ 
sistence'or a hundred millions. To keep con¬ 
stantly before the vision a certain sum of 
money or piece of property to be acquired, 
is to miss a thousand happy scenes along the 
road. There is a heartfelt Thanksgiving 
every year for all who, in the struggle for 
spiritual triumph, find themselves fed and 
clothed and out of debt. “Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and 
all these things shall be added unto you.” 
Who Has a Better Plan? 
S OME of those who wish to defeat the 
Rural Education Bill, which will prob¬ 
ably be before the New York State Legisla¬ 
ture this winter are saying among other 
things that it is so complicated it is impos¬ 
sible to understand it. This bill is not more 
complicated than any other general bill, which 
is up for consideration. We have often won¬ 
dered why legislators go on year after year 
using legal terms that are so difficult for lay¬ 
men to understand. We have spent hours 
trying to figure out the meaning of some com¬ 
plicated legal sentence that could have been 
much better expressed in a few short Anglo- 
Saxon words. 
But the Education Bill is no worse in this 
respect than other bills. As a matter of fact, 
there are only a few fundamentals in this 
bill that are new and different from the pres¬ 
ent education law. 
In order to incorporate these new funda¬ 
mentals it was necessary to re-write the 
whole law. In the old law, for instance, all 
the details such as publishing the notices of 
school meetings, when, how and where the 
meetings should be held, what officers are 
to be elected, etc., are duly set forth. All 
such details must be incorporated in the law 
when it is re-written, but they are not new 
material. 
There are three fundamental features of 
the new bill that are different than the pres¬ 
ent law. These are first, the plan of adminis¬ 
trating the schools; second, the plan of super¬ 
vising schools; and third; the plan of financ¬ 
ing schools. 
Under the plan of administration, the bill 
provides for the community district made up 
of a certain number of rural school districts 
and administered by a board of education, 
consisting of at least one member from each 
district in the community district. Bound¬ 
aries of each rural-school district would be 
kept as they are now arid no school could be 
consolidated or closed unless the people in 4 
that district voted to do it themselves. 
The plan of supervision keeps the number 
of supervisory districts as they are now, and 
each supervisory district would consist of a 
number of community districts. The district 
superintendent would be the chief super¬ 
visory officer in the supervisory district and 
he would be elected or appointed by a board 
of education consisting of one member from 
each of the community districts in the super¬ 
visory districts. This board replaces the 
present board of school directors. Therefore, 
it is not adding new officers. The district 
superintendent would be responsible to this 
local board of education for his administra¬ 
tive duties. He is now responsible to the Ed¬ 
ucation Department. 
The plan of financing would equalize the 
taxes within the community district and 
would bring to rural districts ten million dol¬ 
lars aid from the State, of which the cities 
pay from 87 to 88 per cent. 
These, then are the fundamental principles 
to be remembered in studying the bill. Prac¬ 
tically all of the rest of the_ bill is details, 
the great majority of which is a re-write of 
the present law and is not new. 
It is the aim of the bill to keep the bound¬ 
aries of the rural schools as they are now, 
and to still maintain a local school in each 
district, unless the people themselves vote for 
a change, and at the same time, to give rural 
people a better system of administrating and 
financing the schools so that they themselves 
may gradually and slowly bring about what¬ 
ever improvement they think is needed. If, 
after these principles are understood, the 
people of the State do not wish the bill 
passed, we hope it will be defeated, but we 
do not think the rural folks will in the end 
base their judgment on so important a mat¬ 
ter upon the prejudiced arguments that 
some are making who seem to be more in¬ 
terested in writing or saying something that 
will make a sensation than they are in the 
best interests of country children. 
American Agriculturist believes in the 
rural school. It has turned out many thou¬ 
sands of the country’s most capable and best 
men and women. We want to see it main¬ 
tained and improved, for as yet no institu¬ 
tion or individual has ever existed that did 
not present at least some opportunity for 
improvement. If those who are criticising 
the proposed Education Bill have a better 
plan, let them come forward with it. We 
fear they will find that no matter what the 
plan is on such a great issue, there will be 
many who oppose it. But if the plan is bet¬ 
ter, we will be for it. 
Director Knapp at Farmingdale 
I T now looks as though the rather stormy 
affairs which have prevailed for some¬ 
time in the administration of the New York 
State School of Applied Agriculture at Farm- 
ingdale. Long Island, are to be succeeded by 
a more quiet period and more successful re¬ 
sults for the farmers of Long Island, for 
the farmers of the State, and particularly for 
th^ boys and girls who will attend the school. 
Director H. B. Knapp, of the State School 
of Agriculture at Cobleskill, has resigned to 
accept the position as director of the State 
School of Applied Agriculture. If anyone 
can make a success at Farmingdale, Direc¬ 
tor Knapp can. 
H. B. Knapp was a farm boy, coming orig¬ 
inally from Cayuga County. After he was 
graduated from the Port Byron High School, 
he spent four years on the home farm and 
then attended and was graduated from the 
New York State College of Agriculture. 
After graduating, he became a specialist in 
the College fruit department. Then Mr. 
Knapp went to Cobleskill where he made that 
school an example of what can be done by 
these State schools for the young people who 
want to get as much training as possible in 
a short time to make them better farmers, 
home-keepers, and citizens. 
We sympathize with the people of Scho¬ 
harie County and Cobleskill in losing Direc¬ 
tor Knapp, and we congratulate the State 
School of Applied Agriculture and the farm¬ 
ers of Long Island in acquiring his services. 
The American Agriculturist is preparing 
some illuminating articles showing how 
quacks and scoundrels get the investors’ 
money under false pretenses. In this issue, 
we tell of some unpleasant experiences which 
our own subscribers have reported. In gen¬ 
eral when somebody promises something for 
nothing, or makes some glowing claim that 
common sense shows never can be fulfilled, 
Beware! Beware! Beta are! 
Where we love is home, 
Home that our feet may leave, but not 
our hearts, 
Though o’er us shines the jasper-lighted 
dome:— 
The chain may lengthen but it never 
parts! —Oliver Wendell Holmes 
