Newark post., 1913-04-30
Extending the
Use of The
Public School

ing center of the social life of the
community is a suggestion as to the
merit Of which serious minded
workers are practically agreed.
President Wilson, in Labor
Day address, delivered last Sep
tember, III speaking Of the subject
said:
"The public schoolhouse is the
great melting pot of democracy.
Why should not our whole life
center in this place where we learn
the fundamentals of our life9 Why
should not the schoolhouses be the
constant, year-in and year-out
places Of assembly, where tidings
are said which nobody dare ignore I?
II we have not had our way in this
country it has been because we
have not been able to get at the
ear OF those who were conducting
our government, and if there is any
man in Buffalo or anywhere else in
the United States who objects to
using the schoolhouses that way.
may be sure that there is something
that he does not want to have dis
cussed. -
At the same time that President
Wilson was urging the adult use
of the public schoolhouse as centers
OF democratic understanding and
civic expression, the practical
methods by which eve shall have
a clear air in which we shall see our
way to every kind Of social better.
ment, Colonel Roosevelt, speak
ing at Hartford, Conn.,, upon means
by which "voters may get more
control over their machinery than
at present, said;
Zone Of the ways in which |
would see that done is by having
greater use made of the school
houses. For example, the polling
places ought to be necessary for the
parties to hire buildings in which
their candidates are to speak. We
have schoolhouses in which they
can speak. We can make each
schOolhOusp a senate chamber of
the people. Think how this would
reduce the expenses Of the cam
paigns.
Nor is this agreement that The
public schoolhouse should be made
the common center of political de-
liberation and expression limited to
the Democratic and Progressive
party leaders. Three days before
Governor Wilson and Colonel i.
Roosevelt united in endorsement of |
this plan, Helen Varick Boswell, |
chairman of the department of |
women s work of the Republican
National Committee, issued a state
ment in which she quoted the words
of Justice Charles f. Hughes re-
garding this use of the public
spoken three years
ago when he was the Republican
Governor of New York State: -
am more interested in what you
are doing and what it stands for
than in anything else in the world.
You are buttressing the founda-
tions of democracy. In this
statement, issued by Miss Boswell
from the National Republican
headquarters. she says:
lie us, in this development of
a common ground of civic friendli-
ness, unite to get it done now. Nv
word to the women of America is:
Let us join with men to open this
room for citizens to
come together to discuss and under
stand and so decide as neighbors
and friends, having at heart, under
all differences Of opinion, a desire
for the common good in solving the
problems which confront us. -
Everywhere a strong factor is
the influence of women. Not only
in the states where women vote.
and those in which the extension
of the franchise is now under con-
slderation, but generally through
out the country, suffragists and
anti-suffragists are uniting in the
statement that, whether women
should vote or not, at any rate the
place of citizenship assembling for
leliberation and for decision
should be fit for the use of women
otherwise it is not worthy the
use Of men. And the leaders of
he several parties, and women as
hey come to participate in public
affairs, are recognizing the fact up
IN which the National Education
Association based its endorsement
II this moVement-that when the
public schoolhouse is made the
common place of adult civic ex-
preston it becomes a more efficient
)lace Of the youth s civic training.
md as the school principal becomes
he active secretary of thp Drasapt