American Agriculturist, March 22, 1924 
Why These Men Support the School Bill 
Lower Taxes and a Better Chance for Country Children 
W HEN unfair and prejudiced statements 
about the Rural School Bill are answered 
by men and women like these whose state¬ 
ments are given below, whose lives are 
devoted to making farm life easier and whose 
honesty, sincerity and integrity have never been 
questioned, even by their enemies, is it not time 
for us to begin to wonder if this School Bill has 
really had a fair chance? Is it not time for us to 
begin to question some of the motives that have 
been back of the campaign of misleading propa¬ 
ganda and prejudiced statements that has been 
waged against this proposed'legislation? Is it not 
time to realize that when the fog of misinforma¬ 
tion has cleared up we will see with bitter regret 
that an opportunity has been lost to give our 
children a little better chance in life without 
putting an extra burden upon country taxpayers? 
The fate of the bill will soon be decided. Read 
these statements and then write a letter to your 
assemblyman, or to Hon. II. Edmund Machold, 
Speaker of the Assembly, Assembly Chamber, 
Albany, New York. A list of assemblymen, in 
which you will find the representative of your 
county, was printed on page 271 of our last issue. 
The first statement that follows was written by 
the late Albert Manning as a part of his annual 
address as Master of the New York State Grange. 
When the Grange met, Mr. Manning was on his 
deathbed, and his statement had to be read at the 
Grange meeting by another person. To the best 
of our knowledge, this is the last statement of any 
length prepared by Albert Manning, who was 
a farmer who devoted his life to serv¬ 
ing other farmers as secretary of the 
Dairymen’s League and as a Grange 
leader. Mr. Manning said: 
sory consolidation of rural schools. On the other hand, 
if it is a voluntary act of themselves, should they be 
denied that privilege? 
“It is anticipated that the rural school question will 
come up at this session of the Grange, and I trust and 
hope the deliberations of this session will be from a 
liberal, impersonal standpoint, regardless of how it may 
affect us personally, but rather what may be best for 
our boys and girls.” 
(Signed) Albert Manning. 
Defects Can Be Remedied 
N ATURALLY the interest in what concrete good 
shall come from the careful work of the Com¬ 
mittee of Twenty-one on Rural Education is very keen. 
The Report of the Committee is manifestly so unbiased, 
so authentic and withal so illuminating as to our real 
situation that every true friend of our boys and girls 
in the Empire State must agree that we should take 
steps to remedy the glaring defects shown. The Bill 
now in the Legislature is based upon this report and 
deserves to pass. If it has defects they can easily be 
amended. Let us take some steps in the light which we 
have and not wait until that light itself is dimmed or 
lost.” 
S. I/. Strivings, 
Master flew York State Orange. 
Local Control Safeguarded 
“ 'M'EW York State now has before it the most 
carefully considered proposals with reference to 
the betterment of rural schools which, without doubt, 
have ever been presented to an American legislature. 
“The Rural School Bill was introduced 
into the Legislature last year. It was 
passed by the Senate but did not come to a 
vote in the Assembly, and the people of the 
State have had another year to think over 
this great problem. During this interval, 
the desire and aim of the State Master 
(Mr. Manning) has been to get the correct 
information to our members as to just 
what the findings and recommendations of 
the Committee of Twenty-one were and 
just what the bill, as introduced into the 
legislature, provided. 
“As the discussion progressed, it might 
have been well if a statement had been 
prepared setting forth some of the things 
the Committee did not recommend and 
some of the things the bill would not do. 
Seldom if ever has there been a proposition 
before our people when so much misinfor¬ 
mation has been circulated, and so many 
predictions of the impossible calamities 
that might happen. Doubtless this has 
unnecessarily prejudiced some and be¬ 
fogged the issue. 
“Most people agree that all of our rural 
school conditions are not as we would like 
to have them; that railroad, telegraph, 
telephone and electric light lines have been 
built, various industries have been devel¬ 
oped in some localities and have been 
abandoned in others; some sections have 
greatly increased in population while 
others have not, so that it is generally 
acknowledged that the expense of main¬ 
taining rural schools is not equitably distri¬ 
buted as between different districts. 
“We have had some splendid buildings 
and some that are not so splendid. We 
have some wonderful teachers, and some 
that are not so well qualified for their 
work. Some sections have convenient 
high school opportunities, others only at 
great inconvenience, expense and the 
leaving of home to secure this education. 
It is not that the parents do not wish the 
girls and boys to have better buildings 
and equipment, and the best of teachers; 
but under the present assessment basis 
they may be giving the best they feel they 
can afford. 
“It is agreed that our members are 
almost unanimously opposed to compul¬ 
They represent mature consideration of the existing 
conditions and of the steps which must be taken if the 
public provision for rural education is to be lifted to a 
plane commensurate with the present needs and the 
requirements of permanent progress in the State. 
They are not theories; they are concrete and tested 
proposals put forth by persons well-informed and 
interested only in opening the way to improved schools. 
They fully safeguard the principle of local responsibility. 
I hope that they will win general support and be made 
effective by the necessary legislation.” 
A. R. Mann, * 
Dean, New York. State College of Agriculture. 
No Bill Can Satisfy Everybody 
I DOUBT very much if there ever was a piece of 
legislation, educational or otherwise, at Albany that 
was based on as thorough-going a study of the condi¬ 
tions it was framed to meet as the present Education 
Bill. Nearly everyone agrees that the need for rural 
educational re-organization is imperative. No one can 
deny the thoroughness of the study and survey made 
by the Committee of Twenty-one. It is the best ever 
made in this country. The Committee's report has 
been published and ample time and opportunity 
have been given through meetings and publicity for 
everyone interested to become acquainted with its 
recommendations. The bill is based on this Committee’s 
report. 
“There never was a perfect bill drafted and no bill 
can be expected to satisfy every community or indivi¬ 
dual in the State. 
“On a basis of these facts I can see no reason why 
people of broad vision, with the interests of rural educa¬ 
tion in its State-wide aspects at heart, 
can oppose the present bill embodying 
the recommendations of the Committee of 
Twenty-one.” 
From the Report of the Independent Publicity 
Committee on the Rural School Bill 
I. WHAT THE SCHOOL BILL DOES NOT DO: 
1. Does not consolidate schools without the consent 
of the districts affected. 
2. Does not further centralize State control but rather 
the contrary. 
3. Does not provide for transportation of children with¬ 
out the consent of the majority of voters. 
II. WHAT THE SCHOOL BILL DOES DO: 
1. Permits districts to continue their own schools so 
long as they desire. 
2. Increases State aid both for the maintenance of 
schools and for the repair or erection of buildings. 
Editors’ note:—This increased State aid is approx¬ 
imately twelve million dollars a year, of which 
between 88 and 89% is paid by the cities, and 
which will reduce present school taxes in every 
rural county in the State. 
3. Provides for a larger local tax unit based on the 
activities of the people of the present rather than 
the conditions of 1812, by grouping for tax purposes 
school districts into a community unit. The taxes 
in this unit would be equalized. This, with the 
State aid furnished, will lower the tax rates in many 
districts. 
4. Provides for high school instruction within each 
unit, or by contract with another unit, which in¬ 
struction is free. 
5. Increases local control of schools, by 
a. giving to the voters of the intermediate unit 
the employment and payment of the superin¬ 
tendents, 
b. providing for consolidation only when a ma¬ 
jority of the voters desire, 
c. providing for transportation when voters 
desire, 
d. providing for proper equipment without 
burdensome expense. 
(.signed) S. L. STRIVINGS, Chairman 
MABEL G. FEINT, Secretary 
ENOS LEE 
DEWEY J. CARTER 
T. E. CROSS 
Enos Lee, 
President. New York State 
Farm Bureau Federation. 
Recommendations Are Logical 
“'T'HE proposed changes in the rural 
A school system commend themselves 
to me because they are logical. In my 
work with county farm bureaus I was im¬ 
pressed again and again with the fact that, 
arbitrary county, township and school dis¬ 
trict lines meant nothing in the life of farm 
people. Rural activities always rotate 
about a trade or social center. It would 
seem, therefore, only natural to have 
educational developments follow the same 
lines. 
“As far as adjustments in taxation are 
concerned, I am not worried, because the 
Committee has been far-sighted and liberal 
enough to leave to the local people to work 
out themselves. 
“I, personally, am very much of the hope 
that this legislation will pass because I 
believe it will constitute a great forward 
step in education.” 
H. E. Babcock, 
General Manager, Cooperative 
G. L. F. Exchange, Inc. 
First the Home Then the School 
A FTER striving for a home, a man and 
a woman may well place their next 
best efforts in educational advantages for 
their own and their neighbors’ children. 
Whatever plan leads to a higher educational 
standard will reflect upon the individual 
life and interest of every one living in the 
community. The Committee of Twenty- 
one has made a thorough study of the rural 
schools of New Y ork State. Its recom¬ 
mendations, if enacted into laws, should 
advance the educational interests of the 
State to a degree never before effected in 
the history of the State.” 
Martiia VanRensselaer, 
Director, School of Home Economics, 
Ithaca, N. Y 
