The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-14
Public Schools As Voting Places Better Than Barber Shops and Pool Rooms and Cost Less Many Cities Already Using Schools
 
 md 8 t8 consin fFrxclusfye surveyP Press Esureau
EDWARD J. WARD "a Social Center Develo]
 Wisconsin
Exclusive Service The Survey Press Bureau,

| \ 4( EACtuS1Fe SeEV4C0 10e
 
 The hrst physical step in straight ening out our political Arrangement IS the use of each public school house as the polling place of it's district That a good start has been made IS evident in the fact tha- more than | 500 school houses throughout the coun- | try have already been put to tnls aP- propriate use Seventy school build ings are serving as polling places In IChicagof this spring. New f ork, with I62o public schools and 554 other pub lie 1 buildings, still votes in 413 barber shops as well as many pool rooms, and small stores. Although a bill I failed at the recent session of the Legislature, the people of New York are still struggling for law which will permit the use of schools as yot- ling centers
 perience and reason make it clear that I the public school is pre- eminently the I place in which the people should voice l their will in their own affairs It is economical To use existing public buildings obviafes the needless Iexpense of renting private places, or Il purchasing, transporting, setting UP, l Iouthtting with means of warmth ana flight. taking down. retransporting ana storing special booths for voting. This I expense tends to Increase with tie I growing frequency of elections. I It is worthy. The ballot box Or yot-s ling machine is the instrument or so- Icietv,s self-determination, to attain which mankind has sacrificed and I struggled Hope of orderly progress for the race centers chiefly in the in- 1 telIigent use of the ballot The in- lstrument of the ballot should have Ithe most nobly significant housing the community can give. The public lsehooI building affords that housing.
 It is appropriate. Elections are, I first and finally, examinations Of pub. lie intelligence. The common educa- l tionaI building are the natural places flor the periodic testings of the com mon intelligence.
 I It is convenient The public school I houses are So distributed as to be I easily reached by all the children of lgo each day adults may readily go to vote.
 I It is perm anent The storing Of the Ivoting apparatus in cellar, loft or shed excepting at election times sug- Il gests an intermittent and occasional
 democracy. as though the people were Lin authority for only day or two each year. The continuing presence of the voting instrument permanently sl Installed in the community building proclairls the continuing responsibility
 of citizens.
 It is educative In Milwaukee the Iquestion whether the public school houses should be used as the polling Fl IplaceS was referred to the school principals. Their vote was unanim- Il ously in favor of it; the reason being that this use of the school buildings
 would be 8 positive aid in the most
 important part of the chlldrens Itraining The central object of the
 public school is development of the lcapacity for citizenship. The practi- cal difficulty is to visualize the busi- Iness of democracy. The operation of
 voting is the supreme civic expression
 makes for them a point of contact and
 departure from which they may go on to the understanding of the processes
 of government as reality.
 It is simplifying Making the pub lie schoolhouses the polling places inn plies making the voting precincts and the school districts identical This
 does away with the confusion that arises from having two differing units
 of neighborhood, a confusion in part Irresponsible for our failure to appre- ciate the neighborhood, the group unit | of society next in. importance to the
 family. This permanent identifica- ton of voting precinct and public school district reduces the possibility
 of gerryInande dering. This use of the | schoolhouse as voting center removes
 one practical reason for the failure of citizens to vote. Not infrequently
 
 even at elections because they do not
 .know the location of their polling places. Everybody knows the location
 of the public school house in his dis !; trict.
 It is unifying Not all the citizens in every public school district send
 their children to the public school.
 There are parochiaI or private schools. But there is no parochial private
 ballot box, and when this all-u--it-rg instrument is permanently establish I ed in this Neighborhood House, it makes plain the fact that with the l 1 adult civic uses of this public build , ing the distinctions that cause the sep ! arate schooling of the children have l nothing to do.
 It promotes better citizenship. The polling registers are the active-me ern- 1 bership lists of the district voting bodies. The establishment of the vot- ing equipment in public buildings ca- : pablo of being used citizens com
 mon counsel chambers, is the con-
 structive first step toward the self-or- s ganization of the voting body into 8 g de1iberative body. This will substi- tJSte clarified common sense for mus-