DISTINGUISHED PREACHERS AT CHAUTAUQUA
COLLEGE PRESIDENTS AND OTHER EDUCATORS
CHAUTAUQUA RECOGNITION DAY ORATIONS
CLASS DIRECTORY, CHAUTAUQUA HOME READING CIRCLES—C. L. S. C.
THE FIRST CHAUTAUQUA TRUSTEES (SUNDAY SCHOOL ASSEMBLY)
THE FIRST TRUSTEES OF THE CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION (1898)
PREFACE
WHY AND WHEREFORE
An ancient writer—I forget his name—declared that in one of the city-states of Greece there was the rule that when any citizen proposed a new law or the repeal of an old one, he should come to the popular assembly with a rope around his neck, and if his proposition failed of adoption, he was to be immediately hanged. It is said that amendments to the constitution of that state were rarely presented, and the people managed to live under a few time-honored laws. It is possible that some such drastic treatment may yet be meted out to authors—and perhaps to publishers—as a last resort to check the flood of useless literature. To anticipate this impending constitutional amendment, it is incumbent upon every writer of a book to show that his work is needed by the world, and this I propose to do in these prefatory pages.
Is Chautauqua great enough, original enough, sufficiently beneficial to the world to have its history written? We will not accept the votes of the thousands who beside the lake, in the Hall of Philosophy, or under the roof of the amphitheater, have been inoculated with the Chautauqua spirit. We will seek for the testimony of sane, intelligent, and thoughtful people, and we will be guided in our conclusions by their opinions. Let us listen to the words of the wise and then determine whether a book about Chautauqua should be published. We have the utterances by word of mouth and the written statements of public men, governors, senators, presidents; of educators, professors, and college presidents; of preachers and ecclesiastics in many churches; of speakers upon many platforms; of authors whose works are read everywhere; and we present their testimonials as a sufficient warrant for the preparation and publication of The Story of Chautauqua.
The Hon. George W. Atkinson, Governor of West Virginia, visited Chautauqua in 1899, and in his Recognition Day address on "Modern Educational Requirements" spoke as follows:
It (Chautauqua) is the common people's College, and its courses of instruction are so admirably arranged that it somehow induces the toiling millions to voluntarily grapple with all subjects and with all knowledge.
My Chautauqua courses have taught me that what we need most is only so much knowledge as we can assimilate and organize into a basis for action; for if more be given it may become injurious.
Chautauqua is doing more to nourish the intellects of the masses than any other system of education extant; except the public schools of the common country.
Here is the testimony of ex-Governor Adolph O. Eberhardt of Minnesota:
If I had the choice of being the founder of any great movement the world has ever known, I would choose the Chautauqua movement.
The Hon. William Jennings Bryan, from the point of view of a speaker upon many Chautauqua platforms, wrote:
The privilege and opportunity of addressing from one to seven or eight thousand of his fellow Americans in the Chautauqua frame of mind, in the mood which almost as clearly asserts itself under the tent or amphitheater as does reverence under the "dim, religious light"—this privilege and this opportunity is one of the greatest that any patriotic American could ask. It makes of him, if he knows it and can rise to its requirements, a potent human factor in molding the mind of the nation.
Viscount James Bryce, Ambassador of Great Britain to the United States, and author of The American Commonwealth, the most illuminating work ever written on the American system of government, said, while visiting Chautauqua:
I do not think any country in the world but America could produce such gatherings as Chautauqua's.
Six presidents of the United States have thought it worth while to visit Chautauqua, either before, or during, or after their term of office. These were Grant, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft. Theodore Roosevelt was at Chautauqua four times. He said on his last visit, in 1905, "Chautauqua is the most American thing in America"; and also:
This Chautauqua has made the name Chautauqua a name of a multitude of gatherings all over the Union, and there is probably no other educational influence in the country quite so fraught with hope for the future of the nation as this and the movement of which it is the archtype.
Let us see what some journalists and writers have said about Chautauqua. Here is the opinion of Dr. Lyman Abbott, editor of The Outlook, and a leader of thought in our time:
Chautauqua has inspired the habit of reading with a purpose. It is really not much use to read, except as an occasional recreation, unless the reading inspires one to think his own thoughts, or at least make the writer's thoughts his own. Reading without reflection, like eating without digestion, produces dyspepsia. The influence and guidance of Chautauqua will long be needed in America.
The religious influence of Chautauqua has been not less valuable. Chautauqua has met the restless questioning of the age in the only way in which it can be successfully met, by converting it into a serious seeking for rest in truth.
Dr. Edwin E. Slosson, formerly professor in Columbia University, now literary editor of the Independent, wrote in that paper:
If I were a cartoonist, I should symbolize Chautauqua by a tall Greek goddess, a sylvan goddess with leaves in her hair—not vine leaves, but oak, and tearing open the bars of a cage wherein had been confined a bird, say an owl, labeled "Learning." For that is what Chautauqua has done for the world—it has let learning loose.
From the American Review of Reviews, July, 1914:
The president of a large technical school is quoted as having said that ten per cent. of the students in the institution over which he presides owe their presence to Chautauqua influence. A talk on civic beauty or sanitation by an expert from the Chautauqua platform often results in bringing these matters to local attention