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Show Town Meeting Revived The old town meeting's, continued in spirit still in some New England states, by which the early legislation legis-lation of local issues was promulgated, had much in its favor. It brought government home to the people. peo-ple. It made of every citizen a legislator, and made him do his own constructive thinking on the day's issues. It brought the people together at stated times during which the events of the day were debated, de-bated, weighed and settled. Failure of the people to take an interest in government gov-ernment when it is a government made up of the people's representatives id the weakness of our system. sys-tem. All over the nation, however, the idea of the town meetings is being revived. In nmst places they call them forums. One has been operating at Pullman a dozen years or more. A panel forum at Moscow is in its third year, and growing ever more popular. Sunday Lewiston entered the lists, 100 enthusiastic people voting the regular continuance of the initial experiment. Genesee last week heard the two Moscow forum leaders, Prof. C. W. Cheno-weth Cheno-weth and Dr. R. D. Russell, describe the procedure followed here, and then deciding' to inaugurate a series of such programs. Lewiston's new program is a typical revival of the town meeting idea. Any one from the audience may speak upon the allotted subject, with only a time limit upon his remarks. Pullman's forum has followed the style of the debating societies one or several persons formally, presenting' a subject or speaking upon allied topics. The American Legion panels at Moscow have been informal discussion programs with selected individuals participating to present a rounded discussion of the topic, prompted and questioned by a chairman, and the audience participating after the formal presentation. These? are all evidence of a keener interest in national na-tional and political affairs by thinking citizens who realize, some perhaps too late, that the important issues is-sues of the world are important individually to each of us. They want to know more about them, what tneir neignDors are tninKmg aoout tnem. This new interest is one of the most satisfying developments de-velopments of this era of canned thought by radio, motion pictures, magazines and newspapers. It is one definite assurance that the spirit of an informed inform-ed democracy in America will survive. Daily Idahonian. |