Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-09-03
SCHOOLS SHOULD BE FORUM
For Discussion of Public Questions
Says Governor Wilson.

Sayo ss"oS"
Governor Wilson addressed q large
crowd of farmers at the Monmouth
county fair at Red Bank, NJ J., Friday,
topics and the tariff as 1t affects the
farmer. In part he said:
"The farmers of the United States,
have not played as great q part as
they might in the affairs Of the coun-
try. One Of the reasons Is, 1t seems to
me, our farmers have not used the
means Of public agitation which lay
just at their hands.
There Is one thing in which I have
been very much interested In recent
years in this county. You know / used
to be a school master, and the inter-
esting thing about the schools Of the
United States Is that the United
States makes 80 limited a use Of
them. For example, you take our
school houses, scattered all through
the countryside, standing here, there
and everywhere in the cities, and they
are closed for the most part between
the schoor- session Of one day and the
school session of the next day.
They are public buildings. They be-
long to the communities. They furnish
ideal places in which to assemble and
discuss public affairs. They are just
what we need for neighborhood con-
ferences of every kind. And yet 1t was
reserved for a recent date for some
body to suggest that the schoolhouses
be made social centers; that they be
used for every kind Of legitimate con-
ference, and just 80 soon as they be-
gan to be used for conferences some
politicians began to get very uneasy.
There Is a certain class Of pOaiti-
clans that dread nothing so much as
that the neighbors should get together
and talk things over, because the
minute you begin to talk things over
you begin to make that most powerful
instrument that exists In any free
country. I mean public opinion. Just
as soon as the people Of this country
begin to have weekly town meetings,
weekly neighborhood meetings, weekly
meetings or discussions, whether in
the schoolhouse or in the church, then
the primaries will begin to mean some
thing.
Now, the farmers of this country
can agree upon anything they please,
but it will have no effect until they get
together and draw citizens Of other
kinds together with themselves In fire.
quent conference in the buildings that
belong to US and begin to make pub
lie opinion. This country can have
anything that public opinion concen-
trates upon, and 1t cannot have any
thing that public opinion does not
concentrate upon.
you know the trouble about a no.
ton Is it has only this world in which to
vindicate itself. Most Of us believe
and I do believe myself-that there Is
another world for the individual. but
there isn't another world for the state
of New Jersey, and there isn't another
world for the United States Of Ameri-
co. It's got either to succeed or bust
in this world, and therefore its own
salvation and its own damnation have
to be played out on this platform here.
And / am so interested in the dra-
matte properties and the plot of the
great play that leads either uphill or
downhill that I would like to see the
upward incline begin right at my
feet, begin right in the county / am
living in, and I would like to see the
level rise and rise and rise until we
should have reached the outlook Of the
immortal hills"