152 
Editorial Page of the American 
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 
Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., G. T. Hughes, H. E. Babcock 
Published Weekly by 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, INC. 
Address all correspondence for editorial, advertising, or subscription de¬ 
partments 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 S, 1879 
Albany on February 5th that this is the only 
country in the world where there is a direct tax 
on land. H. C. McKenzie, representing the State 
Farm Bureau, said that the nine million dollars 
surplus now in the New York State treasury has 
been created out of the real estate tax and there¬ 
fore any reduction should by rights go to the 
taxpayers who paid that assessment. Professor 
Seligman said that REDUCED TAXES ON IN¬ 
COMES INSTEAD OF ON PROPERTY 
HELPS THE WRONG CLASS OF TAX - 
PAYERS. He is right. A part of this tax at least 
was raised by the farmers and should go back to 
them. The present tax situation is a rank in¬ 
justice to farm people. Reducing income taxes 
instead of real estate taxes makes the injustice 
greater. But farmers will have this unfair situa¬ 
tion as long as they meekly accept it. 
We are urging action and are suggesting the 
way, not only for some relief this year, but for 
future relief in years to come. DIRECT TAXES 
ON FARM REAL ESTATE MUST BE ABOL¬ 
ISHED. Will you help? Read the article on the 
next page and then act. 
Subscription price, payable in advance, $1 a year. Canadian 
and foreign, $2 a year. 
VOL. 113 February 16, 1924 No. 7 
Woodrow Wilson 
OODROW WILSON, great advocate of 
peace for humanity, has found it for him¬ 
self. He is dead. So the curses cease, and the 
roses come. Thus does humanity follow its regular 
precedent, established these thousands of years in 
honoring its great. 
The contemporaries of Jesus Christ crucified 
Him. George Washington was so bitterly criticized 
that it shortened his life, and made him look for¬ 
ward with intense relief to his retirement to his 
farm at Mount Vernon. Abraham Lincoln was 
a “freak”, a “baboon who had escaped from the 
morasses of Illinois,” a “vulgar clown” and a 
“low-bred village politician.” And Woodrow 
Wilson was a “visionary fool” who thought the 
world had had enough of war so he gave his life 
for a plan for good will on earth and peace among 
men. Men said that plan was idealistic; that it was 
impractical; that it was visionary; but at least it 
was a plan, and WHO HAD A BETTER ONE? 
“A prophet is not without honor save in his 
own country” applies to time as well as to place. 
Great leaders have a prophetic view of the future. 
Most of us live only in the present. We see not, 
and what we do not understand we curse. The 
perspective of time will show Woodrow Wilson, 
the World War president, a great outstanding, 
tragic figure. Time will prove that his was one 
of the most lonesome and most misunderstood 
lives in all our history. “I want folks to love me,” 
he said, “but they never will.” 
Broken in health, bitterly disappointed and 
disillusioned, he died, with no knowledge that all 
the sacrifices of the World War and of the millions 
of known and unknown soldiers w*erte not in vain. 
But now we bring him roses and his fame will 
continue to increase among men; now w r e honor 
him, as we have honored our other great, and as 
we too often honor our own loved ones—when it 
is too late. But our bitterness may be softened by 
the sure knowledge that Woodrow* Wilson’s 
influence, work and sacrifice for a New 7 Day 
among men were not in vain, and that in God’s 
good time many of his ideals of peace and democ¬ 
racy shall come to pass. 
Abolish the Land Tax 
I F you miss everything else in this issue, be 
sure to read and act on the tax reduction sug¬ 
gestion on the opposite page. 
E. R. A. Seligman, a tax expert from Columbia 
University, said at a legislative tax hearing in 
The Syracuse School Meeting 
O N Thursday, January SI, a meeting was called 
at the Court House in Syracuse, for the pur¬ 
pose of taking action against the Downing- 
Porter Rural School Bill w T hich is now in the New 
York State Legislature. A newspaper report— 
which we later checked from persons who attended 
the meeting—stated that “from start to finish this 
meeting was a hectic, riotous and exciting affair.” 
No one w 7 as allowed to speak for the bill and only 
one side of the question was presented. Those w 7 ho 
attempted to support the bill were given scant 
courtesy. In all of the hundreds of meet¬ 
ings that have been held by the Committee 
of Twenty-one, there has never been one 
where opponents of the bill have not been 
allowed to speak. But this whole affair at 
Syracuse is an example of the methods of those 
leaders who are trying to defeat any constructive 
legislation for the schools. At the close of the 
meeting, a permanent organization was formed 
for the purpose of killing the proposed bill. 
American Agriculturist has constantly ad¬ 
vised our people to beware of the motives which 
w r ere back of the propaganda of misrepresentation, 
that is trying to create so much prejudice against 
this school bill. In further evidence that these 
warnings were justified, we give below* some plain 
facts regarding the leadership of this organization 
which was formed in Syracuse on January 31. 
The president is Mr. James Green, a Rochester 
lawyer. We are informed that Mr. Green lives 
in the town of Brighton, just outside of Rochester, 
where the true valuation per teacher for running 
schools is $717,399. The average valuation per 
teacher throughout the State, including cities and 
rural communities, is less than $300,000, and in 
most rural sections it ranks from $30,000 to 
$125,000. It will be noted, therefore, that Mr. 
Green lives in one of the richest districts in the 
State, and this should be taken into consideration 
w*hen it is remembered that the proposed Rural 
School Bill equalizes these unfair valuations and 
provides that the poorer districts shall get the 
largest amount of aid from the State. 
We do not know Mr. Green. We take it for 
granted that he is a reputable gentleman. How¬ 
ever, much mud has been cast at the members of 
the Committee of Twenty-one, with misleading 
statements to the effect that they were not 
farmers. The majority of them are; and we ven¬ 
ture to say that all of them can lay as much claim 
to being plain farmers as can Attorney Green! 
The vice-president of this destructive organiza¬ 
tion is Mr. W. S. Droman. We understand that 
Mr. Droman has made himself conspicuous as 
a “defender” of the people’s rights in traveling 
up and down certain sections of Western New* 
York, in throwing mud at the School Bill and at 
the members of the Committee of Tvventy-one. 
We found it interesting, therefore, and are sure 
you wall, in studying Mr. Droman’s record. 
During the year 1912-13, Mr. Droman was 
American Agriculturist, February 16, 1924 
Agriculturist 
principal of the high school at Sodua, New York. 
On October 28th, 1912, Mr. Droman began to 
make inquiries to the State Education Depart¬ 
ment with the view of securing State money for 
pictures purchased for his school. Later, Mr. 
Droman made formal application for picture 
money. Because of several misstatements an 
investigation resulted, and we quote the following 
from the report of that investigation, which is 
a public record on file in the New 7 York State 
Department of Education, open to any of our 
readers to see for themselves: “The following 
facts indicate first, that Mr. Droman is very care¬ 
less in his business dealings, and further that 
he endeavored to secure by direct and 
repeated misrepresentation an appropria¬ 
tion of money from the State.’* 
The president of the Board of Education was 
called to Albany because as president he had 
signed the sw*orn affidavit making false claims for 
State money. The president of the Board was 
exonerated because he showed that he made such 
affidavit upon the solicitation of Principal 
Droman. 
Another officer reported elected at the Syracuse 
meeting to defeat the Rural School Bill was Mr. 
William Truman, of Ulster County. The news¬ 
paper report states that Mr. Truman introduced 
a resolution in the Syracuse meeting which read 
“We are confronted with a complete 
breakdown of our public school system 
in that instead of giving us educated 
people, we have the cigaret-smoking flap¬ 
per, the jazz-loving, joy-riding youth, 
to whom labor in any shape is nauseous.” 
We in no way agree with Mr. Truman in this 
utter condemnation of our present school system. 
Yet it seems strange that if Mr. Truman feels that 
the schools are as bad as quoted in the above reso¬ 
lution, that he should be so opposed to making 
any changes for the better. 
Incidentally, Mr. Truman lives in a very rich 
one-teacher district where the valuation is 
approximately $200,000 and where the West 
Shore Railroad pays a lot of the taxes. Remember 
that the average rural district in this State has 
a valuation of from only $30,000 to $125,000. 
There are a lot of honest, sincere people that are 
conscientiously opposing the School Bill. For 
these we have nothing but the highest respect, and 
we have nothing to say against those who have sel¬ 
fish motives in opposing the bill when they STICK 
TO THE FACTS. But because we believe in 
the boys and girls of this State and have some con¬ 
sideration for the farmers’ taxes, we think the 
time has come for plain statements of the truth. 
There are several sections of the State where the 
people are almost hysterical in their fear that this 
bill w 7 ill pass. We confess that we cannot blame 
them. If one half of the wild statements that have 
been said about this education bill were true, it 
ought to be burned and those who proposed it 
imprisoned! 
On page 154 of this issue we have stated that 
every rural county in this State will have its taxes 
reduced if this bill passes. We have said several 
times, and we repeat it again because it is im¬ 
portant, that if this opportunity of reducing the 
farmers’ taxes is lost after the dust of propaganda 
is settled so that the truth of this whole matter 
comes to light, there are going to be a lot of folks 
mighty sorry. 
An Unusual Winter 
T HE general interest in the weather on every¬ 
body’s part is well justified. Certainly there 
is no other factor of such great influence in the 
lives and fortunes of all of us; particularly is this 
so of farm people. Never in our experience have 
we known a finer fall and early winter than this 
one has been so far. Many of our correspondents 
and friends from all parts of the state have written 
us commenting upon the fine weather for both 
working and living. Up to the middle of De¬ 
cember, dandelions were reported actually in 
bloom in some Canadian pastures, and farmers 
were able to plow and to clear up the last 
odds and ends of outdoor business even in late 
December. 
