The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-09-28

the issues of this campaign before an audience that overflowed into the street. Great enthusiasm prevailed | as he arose to begin his address. Graciously acknowledging the in- ] troduction Governor Wilson spoke briefly on his ideas of commercial prosperity and said he would be very anything that would dfsappoint the hopes of these who come to Am erica 1 in order to be freq
 s'I was very much interested he continued, in the remark of a. citi- 1 zen born on the other side of the wa ter, he said not long ago that he had | wandered into one of those neighbor- hood meetings where in the evening the schoolhouseS used by the children during the day had been opened to the grown ups in the night time for meeting and cOnVersing some pub nae11ta of our time,'' said he. lis what
 we call the civic center movement at our disposal to gather together This gentleman had wandered into one of those school houses. and when
 he came out he said to me. 'I have been living in America for 10 years and tonight for the, first time saw
 America as I imagined it to be- That he said was his dream of America. What he said set me to thinking. He had not seen the America he had come to find until that night He had
 
 not met in the little circles in which the public affairs had been discuss
 "The public school, continued Gov.
 Wilson, is the place where we are made Americans. The schools where men of every station in life send their children Or ought to send their chill dren and where being Americans to- gether they are all developed into American men or American % women; rt sending our children to paid teach CTS we go to school to one another And let me tell Sou confidentially who object to opening school houses in the evening for proper public meet ings Of every sort you had better look around for some politician who is ob- jecting to it, because the influence that creates bad politics is talked ov- CT by the neighbors and nothing brings to light the concealed circun- stances of every political life as the talk of the neighborhood. The night you can get the ne1ghDors together and get, them to talking to one an other you know your politics will be turned out the way they ought. to be- And the inside doesn't look like the Daughter and applause.1
 Nothing clears the way for turn ing our politics inside out like frank discussion and nothing checks all the bad practices of politics like a public exposure. There Is nothing so suitable to crooked politics az dark
 
 crooked in the light. I don't know whether you have tried it or not, but venture to say purely from observa- ton that it can't be done
 Taking up the conditions as he foslsnd them throughout his travels, he said, he was impressed by. the .sWhy,'' he exclaimed, "I am travel ling from one end of the country to another ,e, and md; meeting great t6 bodies s,, of of a week to ten, twenty thirty. even forty thousand people. And for what purpose? Simply to hear a man talk? master looks like when he is looking for the presidency ?''
 4 cry from the rear of the arnory. You're ali right kid.'' he added to the mirthSTI outburst of the candf- dates personal a1lusion to his calling. :. continuing seriously, he said, "No air of America. something that I for one never saw before, never felt be- meetings all my life, though not all my life playing an 1mmodeshy con- spicuous part. It is not many years that women have been attending poli- 1 attending political meetings now sim ply because there is woman ques- because it is not like the meeting of 10 years ago. That was a sort of rat ]! ification rally. place to whoop it i aB aBu1e 1or somseoa er be no party has ever deserved quite the abuse that each party has had in the paradise that both parties have got in turn. And that political meet 1 ing was wholly an irrational per ! formance. It was a, place where elo- i quence was used merely in order to | much mistaken in the temper of my i have observed the last two years bear any resem mblance to those political 1 meetings, We gather nowadays to discussed, to exchange ideas.
 .'If this gathering tonight were sim 1 ply a body Of Democrats, suppose it | it. for you would all believe what I am going to say before I say it. But I believe you want to find out just are puzzled because the Republican party is very much variegated just now and it is difficult to find--'' How about the ladies?'' S1nilingly the speaker replied They'll find themselves all right
 there is an expression used that have often thought was singularly un- true. When a man loses his way in lost himself Have. you eyer reflect ed that is the only thing he has not lost? He is there. But he has lost all the rest of the world. If he knew where any other known thing was To- cated he could steer by it. He has lost the world but the minute he gets something to steer by he finds him. self. That to my mind is the image of our present political condition. Men want to know their relation to the life of the country and in trying to find it they want to be assisted by the orga anization of great parties, to join with their fellow men.
 'tI for one would not be interested in parties if they are only to be used to put a very small mum Der of men into office but if their purpose is to lead and to organize and give eff cacy to the great body of their fel- low citizens in rectifyfng the condi- tions Of the national life then it is tcn al1Sl