Gore Tells Wisconsin Teens to Fight Racism, ‘Lead the Way’ to Change : Campaign: Democratic nominee speaks at troubled high school in Wausau. In Indiana, Quayle tells farmers that GOP ticket is on their side.

Promoting racial harmony and generational change, Al Gore visited a racially troubled high school Thursday, urging students to “put ancient hatreds behind us” while making an impassioned plea that the time had come for a new generation of leadership in the White House.

America must “stand for the proposition that racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds can not only get along but thrive and prosper by drawing strength from diversity,” Gore told a government class at Wausau West High School.

The school, along with its cross-town rival, Wausau East High, has been plagued by strife between the overwhelmingly white student body and a small group of Asian students, mostly Hmongs from Southeast Asia. Even as Gore visited, city and school officials were contemplating a nighttime curfew and have increased police patrols in the schools.

Gore’s rival, Vice President Dan Quayle, campaigned in Columbus, Ind., declaring that he was “on the side of the farmers” against what he described as excessive federal concern for the environment.

“We want to make sure the farmers continue to do well,” he said. “We want to get the federal government off your back.”

Dressed in jeans and a checkered shirt, Quayle found an appreciative audience in his home state, where he inspected tractors, farm equipment and other exhibits at a “farm progress” show after his speech.

He said Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, had proposed holding an “environmental summit” with farmers if he is elected.

“First of all, he’s not going to win,” Quayle said, drawing loud cheers. “But I suppose Al Gore and his Friends of the Earth would chair that event. Well, good luck with that crowd.” The reference was to a major environmental group.

In Wisconsin, Gore made his appeal for racial harmony in a campaign day otherwise designed to encourage young people to register--and vote--Democratic.

He spoke movingly about the peaceful revolutions around the world that have eliminated authoritarian regimes, telling the students they also can help change government here at home.

“Everywhere in the world where change has come, young people have helped to lead the way,” Gore said. “And young people can help lead the way toward change in the United States.”

Gore later joined Clinton for an afternoon rally at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where they emphasized the same message in this key battleground state with 11 electoral votes. Bush campaigned in Wisconsin a day earlier.

In the evening, Clinton and Gore appeared on a radio call-in show for young people called “Rockline,” which was aired by more than 150 FM stations in the country and broadcast at many colleges.

With barely four more weeks until Election Day, the growing Democratic appeal to the youth vote comes as polls show that 18-to-24-year-olds, who voted heavily for Bush in 1988, strongly favor Clinton and Gore this year.

When Gore was first introduced by Clinton as his running mate in July, the Tennessee senator made a strong appeal for generational change. But Gore quickly toned down that message at the behest of Clinton and his advisers, who were worried that too strong an emphasis on Clinton’s and Gore’s age difference with Bush--more than 20 years--might unwittingly cause voters to question their relative inexperience.

But with the polls showing Bush now suffering as much from an age gap as a gender gap, the Democratic ticket is increasingly courting the youth vote with fervor.

Young people, Gore said, “realize the future will depend upon our ability as a nation to reach out for change, to start following new policies.”

Times staff writer Robert Jackson, in Indiana, contributed to this story.