WAR CLOUDS AND WAR DRUMS
(1913-1916)
THERE have been visitors at Chautauqua who, listening to some of the
lecturers and their radical expressions, were alarmed and inclined to
believe that the woods were full of cranks, faultfinders of the general
social order, wild agitators, and revolutionary reformers bent on
reorganizing the world. Chautauqua has always favored the freest
discussion of all subjects and has admitted to its platform spokesmen
upon all the questions of the time and from every point of view, even
some unpopular men airing their unpopular ideas, confident that in the
conflict of opinions the right will triumph. In 1913 the living question
under discussion was Socialism; what it means, its positive aims and the
arguments both for and against it. Here are the names of some speakers
on that controverted subject. Professor Scott Nearing, perhaps the most
radical of any, spoke on "Social Sanity," although his conception of
sanity was looked upon by many as absolutely insane. Mr. J. W. Bengough
explained and advocated "The Single Tax" and almost converted some of us
to his doctrine. Mrs. Rose Pastor Stokes, a most winsome speaker,
without opinion as to her views, told us of "The Socialist's Attitude
towards Charity," which was that much denominated charity is simple
justice. Mr. Victor L. Berger of Milwaukee, who has several times been
denied a seat in Congress to which he was elected on the Socialist
ticket, stated the views and demands of his party. Dr. H. H. Powers
spoke on "Present Day Socialism in Europe," John Mitchell gave us "The
Trades-union Point of View." Earl Barnes took part in the discussion,
and Dr. Charles R. Henderson of Chicago also touched upon it. Some
speakers were openly for, others as strongly against the movement.
Whether the Socialist Party gained voters may be doubted, but it
certainly enjoyed a full and fair hearing.
Turning from politics to religion, which should have a more intimate
friendship than most people give them, we notice the Devotional Hour
during the season of 1913. The Chaplain for the first week was Dr.
Charles F. Wishart of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, his addresses
being on "The Christian View of Some Facts of Life." Dr. Lynn Harold
Hough, then a Methodist pastor in Baltimore, and Rev. Arthur C. Hill of
London were on the list. Dr. S. M. Crothers of Cambridge, Mass.,
preached one Sunday and conducted the Devotional Hour a week in a series
on "Gaining the Mastery." Bishop Williams was on the platform again,
speaking on "Aspects of Personal Religion." Anyone who attended this
service through the season--and the daily congregation was not far below
a thousand--would obtain a pretty clear understanding of Christianity
and the character of its advocates.
Every year the musical element grows at Chautauqua. There was this year,
as had been the case for several seasons, a Musical Festival Week, with
daily concerts. For many years there had been a quartette of the best
soloists during July and another during August, supported by a chorus
often of three hundred voices and the great Massey organ. Henry B.
Vincent, who is the son of Dr. B. T. Vincent of the Children's Class,
grew up at Chautauqua, in a sense, spending his summers there from early
childhood. For many years he has been at the organ seat, except when
conducting the orchestra which he organized and trained. In 1912 he gave
an interesting course of lectures on "How to Listen to Music." Every
Sunday afternoon a large audience assembles to hear Mr. Vincent for an
hour in an organ recital. An oratorio of his composition and under his
direction was given at Chautauqua some years ago, entitled "The Prodigal
Son." With one Vincent Founder and Chancellor, his son the President,
one nephew a lecturer every year or two on literature, the other nephew
the organ and band master, and his mother the President of the Woman's
Club for many years, the Vincent family has been worthily represented at
Chautauqua.
While speaking of music we must not forget one course of lectures by Mr.
Olin Downes, musical critic of the _Boston Post_, on "Musical Expression
in Dramatic Form," a history of the music drama in general; early French
operas; the German Romantic School; Richard Wagner; Verdi and Latter-day
Italians.
Prof. Richard Burton gave an entire course of lectures on "The Serious
Bernard Shaw," which caused a run upon the library for Shaw's writings,
as I perceived, for I vainly sought them. Miss Maud Miner of the School
of Expression gave some recitals and a lecture, packed full of
suggestions on "Efficiency in Speech." Dr. George Vincent spoke to a
crowded Amphitheater on "A National Philosophy of Life." A Serbian,
Prince Lazarovich Hvebelianovich, gave a lurid picture of the Balkan
situation. Let me quote one sentence as reported in the Daily of July
11, 1913 (note the date):
"Within the next few months there will be a war; and such a war as has
not stirred Europe since the days of Napoleon; a war that will involve
all the principal nations on that side of the Atlantic."
Less than thirteen months after that prediction came the event in the
capital of his own little nation which let loose twenty millions of
armed men, filled the seas with warships, above and beneath the waves,
and the skies with fighting aeroplanes.
Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker of Texas, gave a series of addresses on the
Federation of Woman's Clubs, of which she was at that time the
President. We listened to a Chinaman, Ng Poon Chew, the editor of a
Chinese daily paper in San Francisco, on "China in Transformation," a
clear account of the new Republic of China in its varied aspects, spoken
in the best of English. We noticed too, that the speaker showed an
understanding and appreciation which foreigners are often slow to obtain
of American humor and jokes.
Another lecturer from abroad, though hardly a foreigner, for he came
from England, Prof. J. Stoughton Holborn, wearing his Oxford gown (which
we had not seen before at Chautauqua), gave a course on "The Inspiration
of Greece,"--a view of that wonderful people in the different fields of
their greatness. Think of one city which in the departments of
literature, drama, philosophy, oratory, art, and public affairs could
show more great men in two hundred years than all the rest of the world
could show in two thousand!
We were treated during the season of 1913 to a sight new at that time,
though common enough now. Mr. Engels brought to Chautauqua a Curtiss
hydroplane, and day after day made flights, skimming over the surface of
the lake, rising into the air, circling the sky and returning to the
starting-point, to the amazement of the watching multitudes. A few, and
but a few, dared to be strapped into the machine and take the flight;
Director Bestor was one of them, and when Mrs. Bestor heard of it she
said: "I told him that he must not do it, but I knew all the time that
he would!"
Another event of the season was the production of a Greek play, in the
original language, by a group of college students in Greek costume.
Another fact worthy of remembrance was the opening of a completely
furnished playground for the children in the ravine near the
ball-ground. To stand on the bridge and look down upon that company of
happy little people, is always a delight. Also it is not to be forgotten
that this year for the first time natural gas for cooking and heating
was supplied throughout the grounds.
The year 1914 was the fortieth anniversary of the founding of
Chautauqua. One of the Founders was with us, hale and hearty, and still
able to give an admirable address, although his memory of recent matters
and people had failed. The other Founder was no longer among us, and
even fifteen years after his departure we of the earlier days missed
him; but his memory will ever be kept green at Chautauqua, while the
white lilies are silently unfolded in his honor. On Friday, July 3d, the
signal fires were lighted all around the Lake. The celebration of the
anniversary did not take place until August, near the date in the month
of the first Assembly. On Sunday, August 2d, Bishop Vincent preached in
the Amphitheater with scarcely any lessening of his old power. At the
anniversary service, Dr. Jesse L. Hurlbut--who was exhibited as one of
the survivals of the prehistoric age, a sort of a dinosaurus or
pleiosaurus,--gave an address on "Memories of Early Days," of which the
reader may find the substance scattered through these pages. But we must
give a paragraph or two from Mrs. Frank Beard's paper.
In reference to the interdenominational aspect of the Assembly, she
said:
The good Baptist brother, wandering down by the
Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean,
looked at the generous supply of water and was
satisfied. The Presbyterian brother gazed into the
cloudless sky above him, saw his favorite color,
and felt that Chautauqua was foreordained for him.
The lineal descendant of St. Peter croqueted his
ball through the arch and rejoiced that he was on
saving ground.
We sat on the hard board seats with nothing to
rest our backs upon but the salubrious atmosphere.
We heard ponderous speakers who talked on
ponderous subjects. Among the speakers was Joseph
Cook, also Bishop Peck, 350 pounds. Some of the
lecturers were recommended as cultured and highly
finished. Mr. Beard said that he had attended
these lectures, was glad that they were cultured
and more than pleased that they were finished.
The music week had now become a permanent institution, bringing
thousands to the Assembly. This year it began on Monday, July 27th, with
Victor Herbert's orchestra through the seven days, the Chautauqua
soloists, and the great chorus trained by Alfred Hallam. Some musical
associations from Jamestown and elsewhere added their voices.
Among the lecturers, Mr. Griggs gave a course on "Dramas of Protest,"
the Book of Job, Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound," Galsworthy's "Justice,"
Calderon's "Life is a Dream," and some others. Bourke Cockran, the
brilliant orator of Irish descent, gave a great lecture on "Abraham
Lincoln--Original Progressive." Miss Mary E. Downey, Director of the
Library School, spoke on "The Evolution of the Library," Dean Edwin
Watts Chubb on "Shakespeare as a Moral Teacher." John Purroy Mitchel,
the reform Mayor of New York, spoke on "Municipal Government" on July
18th; Dr. Lincoln Hulley of Florida gave a course on the leading
American poets. Mr. E. H. Blichfeldt spoke most interestingly on "Mexico
as I Know It," the results of a year of wide travel and close
observation in that land.
During the month of July we read in the papers of complications in the
political world beyond the ocean, but few looked for serious trouble and
none for actual war. On the first of August, 1914, the storm burst, and
nation after nation in a few hours assembled their hosts for the most
terrible war in the history of the world. In accordance with the
Chautauqua tradition of free and open discussion, a War Symposium was
improvised and each of the contending nations had its speaker. On
Tuesday, August 4th, Dr. Hans E. Gronow who had served his time in the
German army gave "The German Point of View." On Thursday, August 6th,
Mr. Sanford Griffith, a newspaper correspondent and a student of public
affairs spending several years in Europe whom some of us had known as a
boy at Chautauqua, spoke on "European Unrest Due to Shifts in the
Balance of Power." On Friday, August 7th, Mons. Benedict Papot, formerly
a soldier in France, gave "The French Point of View," and on Saturday,
August 9th, Dr. W. S. Bainbridge, English in ancestry but American in
birth and spirit, presented "The British Point of View." All the
exercises of the crowded program were held, but amid all our efforts the
war brooded above us, a darkening cloud.
The Department of Religious Work was carried on with a strong force of
speakers and teachers under the direction of Dr. Shailer Mathews, its
details supervised by his efficient assistant, Miss Georgia L.
Chamberlin of Chicago, who also gave daily lectures. Among the
instructors were Dr. Charles F. Kent of Yale, and Dr. James Hope
Moulton, one of the richest minds of the age in Biblical lore, who gave
a series of lectures, learned yet simple, on "The Origins of Religion."
None of us could have thought then that this noble life in its prime was
destined to end in the Mediterranean by a shot from a German submarine.
The Devotional Hour and the Sunday services were led for a week by the
Rev. C. Rexford Raymond of Brooklyn, who told in several chapters the
old story of Joseph, yet seeming new in its application. The Rev. G.
Robinson Lees, Vicar of St. Andrews, Lambeth, England, who had lived in
Palestine and among the Arabs in the desert, had written a book
forbidden by the Turkish authorities, and had been banished from the
land, preached one Sunday morning and gave graphic pictures of Oriental
life through the week. Dr. W. H. Hickman, a former President of the
Chautauqua Board of Trustees, Rev. Peter Ainslie of Baltimore, Dr. C. F.
Wishart, Dr. Washington Gladden, one who was ever welcome at Chautauqua;
and a great-hearted man, Dr. George W. Truett of Texas, were also
chaplains, each serving a week.
This year also the new golf course was opened on the field beyond the
public highway, to the rejoicing of many patrons. At the close of the
season the annual convention was held by the International Lyceum and
Chautauqua Association, the union of bureaus and speakers in the "Chain
Chautauquas" held all over the continent, of which we shall speak later.
Their meetings were continued until September 10th, making 1914 the
longest session in the history of Chautauqua.
In 1915, the war of the world was bringing its unspeakable terrors to
Europe, and America was looking on, yet hesitating to plunge into the
welter; but Chautauqua held on its even way, its courses of instruction
as many, and its classes as large as ever. This year Dr. George E.
Vincent felt constrained by the pressure of his duties as President of
the University of Minnesota, with its eight thousand students and as
large a number in its University Extension courses, to withdraw from the
direct supervision of Chautauqua. He resigned his office as President of
the Chautauqua Institution, and Dr. Arthur E. Bestor became President.
But Dr. Vincent retained his membership on the Board of Trustees, was
named Honorary President, and has continued to come to Chautauqua almost
every year. Even for a few days, and with a lecture or two, his presence
gives strength to the Assembly.
In 1917, Dr. Vincent resigned the presidency of the University of
Minnesota to accept the same position with the Rockefeller Foundation,
disbursing millions of dollars every year in the interests of world-wide
education and health.
The lecture platform of 1915 was arranged under six great weeks, each
making prominent one subject, while popular addresses and the devotional
services went on parallel with them all. The first week was devoted to
the study of community service. Mary Antin, whose book, _The Promised
Land_, had been read by everybody, was greeted by an audience far beyond
the reach of her voice, speaking in her ardent manner. Dr. Lincoln Wirt
proclaimed "America's Challenge to the World"; Mr. E. J. Ward explained
the why and the how of "Community Service," and Norman Angell set forth
"American Leadership in World Politics." During this week Chancellor
McCormick of the University of Pittsburgh conducted the services of the
Devotional Hour.
The second week was devoted to the Drink Problem. Bishop Francis J.
McConnell of the Methodist Episcopal Church preached on Sunday morning
and spoke at the Devotional Hour each day. The opening address was by
Governor George A. Carlson of Colorado, who set forth powerfully the
methods and results of prohibition in his State. Dr. H. A. Gibbons spoke
on "The Prohibition Question in Europe." The Hon. J. Denny O'Neill, on
"Booze and Politics." While the temperance question was discussed in the
Hall of Philosophy, there were concerts and lectures in the
Amphitheater, one especially by Mr. Sanford Griffith, who had been at
the battle front as a war correspondent, on "Fighting in Flanders." Also
Dr. Hamilton Wright Mabie, editor and essayist, spoke on "The East and
West, Friends or Enemies?"
The third week was entitled "Justice and the Courts"--with such subjects
as law, legislation, the administration of justice, and penology. Among
the speakers were George W. Alger, Thomas Mott Osborne, Katharine Bement
Davis, Judge W. L. Ransom of New York, and Dean James Parker Hall of the
University of Chicago Law School. Mr. Charles Rann Kennedy, author of
_The Servant in the House_, a drama with a sermon, recited the play,
aided by Mrs. Kennedy. The play had already been read a year or two
before by Mrs. Bertha Kunz Baker, and also enacted by the Chautauqua
Players, so that we were familiar with it, but were eager to hear it
recited by its author. Mr. Kennedy also gave some dramatic
interpretations from the Bible. This week the Devotional Hour was held
by Dr. Charles W. Gilkey, of the Hyde Park Baptist Church in Chicago,
the church nearest to the University and attended by many of the
faculty and students.
The music week was notable from the presence of the Russian Symphony
Orchestra, led by a great player and delightful personality, Modest
Altschuler. One of his company said of him, "He rules his orchestra by
love." The Recognition Address this year was by President E. B. Bryan of
Colgate University, on the all-important question: "Who are Good
Citizens?"
The forty-third Assembly in 1916 found our country in the throes of a
presidential election, party strife bitter, and the nation divided on
the impending question of our entrance into the world war. The feverish
pulse of the time was manifested in the opinions expressed by the
different speakers. Dr. George E. Vincent gave a lecture on "What is
Americanism"--a sane, thoughtful view which was needed in that hour.
The week beginning Sunday, July 23d, was devoted to the subject of
Preparedness for War or Peace. The Ford Peace Expedition of that year
will be remembered, the effort of a wealthy manufacturer to stop the
war. Several who had taken part in that apparently quixotic movement
spoke in defense or criticism of it, and also the question of
preparedness was discussed by Governor Charles S. Whitman, President
Hibben of Princeton, Hon. Henry A. Wise Wood, Senator W. M. Calder, and
others. Mrs. Lucia Ames Ward, of the Woman's Peace Party, was opposed to
any participation in the war or preparation for it. The controversy
waxed warm, for the opinions were positive on both sides.
On subjects aside from the war we had an enlightening series of
addresses at the Devotional Hour by Dean Charles R. Brown of Yale; a
course of lectures by Dr. Edwin E. Slosson on "Major Prophets of
To-day," Bernard Shaw, G. K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, and some others; a
series of lectures by Dr. Percy F. Boynton on "The Growth of
Consciousness in American Literature,"--as shown in Irving, Cooper,
Emerson, Lowell, and Whitman. Raymond Robins gave four lectures on "The
Church and the Laboring Classes." Dr. Griggs awakened general interest
by his lectures on "Types of Men and Women," as illustrated in their
autobiographies and letters, presenting John Stuart Mill, Benevenuto
Cellini, George John Romanes, Marie Bashkirtseff, Sonya Kovalevasky (a
new name to most of us), and Henri Frederic Amiel,--all possessing
characters pronounced, some of them so peculiar as to be almost
abnormal.
The Russian Symphony Orchestra, with its beloved director, Modest
Altschuler, was with us again for another week, aided by the soloists
and Chautauqua Chorus. In our rapid survey, we have only glanced at the
prominent events in a great season.