HOW THE FAIRFIELD BOYS ORGANIZED
I knew several of the boys at Fairfield, and because I was much
interested in debating generally, I was delighted when Jack Mason asked
me if I would like to go with him to a meeting called to discuss the
organization of a debating club. Jack was a fine lad about seventeen
years old; he was an enthusiastic ball player and delighted in outdoor
sports. His particular chum, Frank Lawrence, was a different lad. He
found his chief interest in books and reading, although he was by no
means a “dig” or a recluse. However, the two boys made a fine team, and
each supplied what the other may have lacked.
Frank was really the leader in the movement to organize the club. He
had been reading several volumes of orations and had been impressed by
the force and vigor of the great speakers. Like all boys who amount to
anything, he wanted to try his hand, and naturally he didn’t want to
do it alone. He took the matter up with Jack and, while Jack at first
laughed at the idea, Frank finally brought him round to see it was a good
thing. The result was that fifteen or twenty of the boys came together
to talk things over.
When I arrived I found just a crowd of ordinary boys, no better or no
worse than average lads in a community. They all wanted to do something;
they were not satisfied with waiting for something to happen; they wanted
to make something happen. With that spirit in them, they speedily got
down to work and before I realized it they had organized their club.
Some of the boys were Scouts and naturally preferred to have that
organization connected in some way with the club. Jack, I think, approved
this idea, but Frank pointed out that although many of them were Scouts
and all of them had friends who were Scouts, this really was not a scout
organization and they might wish to take into the club boys who possibly
did not believe in the scout organization, and might thus be prevented
from joining. Charlie Taylor suggested that it be called “The Debating
Club of the Epworth League.” Charlie was a Methodist and belonged to the
Epworth League. George Perkins, however, who was an ardent member of the
Christian Endeavor Society, objected, and of course when the proposal was
put that way, Charlie at once saw that it was not fair. The boys finally
agreed that the only thing they had in common, as far as the organization
of the club was concerned, was first, that they were boys, and second,
that they wanted to debate. Therefore, they decided to call it by a name
which would, by its very simplicity, avoid any misunderstanding and at
the same time properly characterize the object of the club. They decided
therefore to call the club “The Boys’ Debating Club of Fairfield.”
When they came formally to state the purpose of their organization, after
some discussion they agreed upon this preamble: “We, the undersigned,
appreciating the advantages to be derived from practice in debate, hereby
organize ourselves into a club for that purpose and agree to be governed
by the following constitution:”
Frank wished to have more in this preamble and urged that they write
it so that it would state that they would be benefited by drill
in discussion, in composition, in declamation, in elocution, in
parliamentary practice; in fact, in many other ways growing out of their
meeting as a club, but Henry Jordan, a quiet, unassuming member, asked
if all that really was not included in the word “debate.” They said, “Of
course,” and so the short preamble stood.
The first few articles were adopted without much discussion, as they all
thought substantially alike on those points.
The question of a short term of office called forth much discussion. My
friend Jack is decidedly businesslike and he could see no real reason,
he said, for going through the fuss and bother of so many elections. “If
a man makes a good president,” he said, “why do we want to put him out
of office after he has been working ten weeks and has just got the run
of things? Besides, he would scarcely have time to show what he could do
in ten weeks.” Frank replied: “Suppose he doesn’t make a good president;
even these ten weeks would be a pretty long time, wouldn’t it?” Jack
grumbled a good deal and insisted that the boys would put in most of
their time electioneering for office. The boys laughed him down on this
point, but Henry Jordan convinced them all when he said: “If practice is
what we are after in this club, the more the offices are passed around
the more practice we will all get.” They decided to fill vacancies by
election at any meeting of the club, although some of the boys thought
that it would be simpler to have the president appoint some boy to fill
out the unexpired portion of the office, if a vacancy should occur.
There was a good deal of discussion of the duties of the various
officers. Henry Jordan thought it would be enough if the constitution
simply set out the ordinary rules governing similar bodies. Ralph
Parsons—the boys called him “Tubby”—suggested, quite ingenuously I
thought, that he supposed the various officers would have so much work
to do that they would not be expected to take part in the debates. The
thought in his mind was clear to all. The boys evidently knew him. “No,
indeed,” announced Jack, “the president and all the rest of the officers
take part in the debates when their time comes.” “O, well!” sighed
“Tubby.”
Frank made a suggestion at this point which I thought was very good.
“There are other debating clubs,” he said, “we ought to get acquainted
with. There are societies for doing other kinds of work which is worth
while. There is the Epworth League, and the Christian Endeavor Society,
and the Boy Scouts, and the High School literary society, and the Girls’
Library Club, and lots of organizations which are just as good as ours.
I think it would be great to get together with them just as much as we
can—have joint programmes and all that sort of thing, you know. It might
be good for them, and I know it would be fine for us.”
“Splendid!” I could not help exclaiming.
“I move that it be one of the duties of the President to see these clubs
and carry out this idea,” said George Perkins. This motion was carried
enthusiastically. After more discussion the enumeration of the other
duties of the officers was left to a committee.
One office was created for which I suppose I am responsible. The boys
felt pretty “cocky” and Jack said something about the good work they were
going to do in their club. They had asked me before to take part in
their discussion and I ventured to ask: “How will you know whether your
work is good or not?”
“Well,” Charlie Taylor replied, “when we have a debate with that Onarga
bunch and lick them good and plenty, I guess they’ll know we are doing
good work.”
“Well, we may not find judges who will stand for ‘lick them good and
plenty’ arguments,” interrupted Frank. “That kind of talk won’t go in a
dignified debating club.”
“Anyway,” I replied, “suppose you don’t know what kind of work you are
doing until the result of some debate contest tells you. Isn’t it quite a
while to wait?”
“I tell you what, boys,” I continued. “I know folks say there is a great
deal of education in learning through our mistakes, and of course there
is. But there is also a lot of energy wasted in doing things the wrong
way. We would look well, wouldn’t we, if we insisted in finding out for
ourselves every fact in geography or physics when we have available the
accumulated experience of centuries. So don’t try to do it all alone,
boys. Get some older men who have gone through the mill themselves and
get them to act as your critics and advisers. You will save a lot of time
and get along much better.”
This advice seemed good, and they adopted the following section: “The
President shall appoint at each session of the club a Critic, whose duty
it shall be to criticize the conduct of the meeting and of the individual
members in all respects and to render to the club such other help in
advice and counsel as may seem wise to him. Such Critic shall, when
possible, be appointed from the honorary members of the club.”
When they came to the question of membership there was a hot debate.
There was an almost even division on the question of admitting the girls.
There was no nonsense about the boys; they were not rough or boorish on
the one hand, nor “sissified” on the other. One faction contended stoutly
that it would be a good thing to have the girls with them. They urged
the difference in the minds of boys and girls and felt that any question
would be better understood if they had both points of view about it.
Jack led the opposition to having the girls join. He said:
“You fellows all know my sister Polly.” (There was a chorus of assent and
several side glances at Frank, who looked carefully out of the window.)
“You know Polly is great. She is as good a fellow as any of you here.”
Here he glared pugnaciously about, but as no one seemed to disagree with
him in the least he continued.
“I would as lief chum with Polly as not—but not in this club. I think
we would have better times and do more business if we were alone. We
could easily enough have social nights in the club once in a while. We
can always get the girls and have a good time together outside, but I
believe we ought to keep the club out of it. I wish they would organize
a debating club of their own. It would be great sport to have a joint
debate.”
The antis won, and the word “boy” used in the provision on membership.
Only two other points concerning membership made much discussion—how many
votes were necessary to get a boy in and how many votes were necessary to
get him out after he was in.
Will Morrissey had not talked much yet, but he grew eloquent when he
urged that one vote should be enough to keep a boy out. “Why,” he said,
“if we are going to do good work here we must be careful who we have in.
If we have united action we must be a band of brothers. We must not have
in here anyone who is obnoxious to anyone else.”
Pietro Frontenelli was an Italian lad who had completely won the hearts
of the rest of the boys since he had been in Fairfield. He was supposed
to be a socialist at least, quite likely an anarchist, possibly a
Camorrist, but altogether a most likable fellow. The boys indifferently
called him “Pete” or “Nellie” for short; he admitted himself that his
whole name made quite a mouthful.
“Pete” thought it made little difference whether we all thought alike
or not. “Of course,” he said, “we want to thresh out the questions we
have up for discussion and get at what seems to be the correct answer.
But it’s a sure shot we will be more likely to get at that result if we
approach it from as many angles as we can. I would like to see members
elected by a majority vote.”
George Perkins thought that provision would be too liberal and finally
the boys compromised on allowing election if no more than three votes
were cast against the candidate.
They decided to follow the same rule in the election of honorary members.
Right here I broke in again. “Boys,” I said, “let me repeat, don’t try
to do it all alone. Get your older friends in. Get your big brothers,
your fathers, your teachers, the fathers of the other boys, even if their
sons don’t belong. It is a good thing to have a lot of them with you as
honorary members. Of course they are busy men. There will not be many of
them out any one night, but you ought to have some outsiders and advisers
here every night.”
“I don’t know about that,” said “Tubby.” “If we have folks like that
here, we won’t feel free and easy. We will be on dress parade all the
time.”
“That’s just how we should be,” said Charlie Taylor. “If we don’t take
ourselves seriously, no one else will.”
“That’s the way to talk,” chimed in Jimmy Francis. “We don’t want any
‘rough house’ or bear dances or anything like that. We want to do
business in this club of ours.”
“Now, look here, fellows,” said “Tubby.” “Who said anything about rough
house or anything like it? I don’t want that any more than you do.”
Jimmy assured him that they all knew that he wasn’t standing for anything
like “rough house.”
“But it’s going to be awful hard work to keep braced up all the time,” he
sighed to himself. “I won’t dare even to slide down in my chair. O well!”
When it came to considering the conduct of members within the society
and methods of discipline, the boys were decidedly at sea. They wanted
to maintain the dignity of the club and yet they wanted to be fair to
everyone. “But,” as Frank Lawrence put it, “what rule shall we follow in
passing upon the guilt of members? What standards shall we follow? What
is a crime and what is not a crime?”
That was the question. What should be regarded as conduct unbecoming a
member of the club? It was finally decided that no one code of rules
could answer such a question, but that each case should stand on its own
merits. Consequently the section was worded like this: “Any member who
is guilty of conduct unbecoming a member of the club may, at any regular
meeting, be suspended or expelled at the discretion of the club. But
the charge against such member shall be signed by one of the officers
of the club or at least three members, shall definitely state the facts
constituting the alleged offense, shall lie on the table one week, and
shall require a two-thirds vote of the members present for its adoption.”
In arranging for their programmes the boys felt that they should allow
some latitude for joint sessions with other clubs. Consequently they
instructed their committee who had the drafting of the rules in charge
to give a place for such things on the order of business. While they
were organizing a debating club, they said, they didn’t want to shut out
anything else they might want to do.
How should they provide the necessary funds? Since Sam Levi’s father was
a banker, he was regarded by all the boys as an authority on finance.
He talked quite at length on bonds, debentures, income taxes, and just
dues, and when it was all over the boys seemed to be quite clear that if
they ever decided to build a club house they might want to sell bonds,
but until that time they would simply levy dues on all members equally.
They really did not need much money. The School Board had told them they
could use the school assembly room for their meetings. Their incidental
expense would not amount to much, and they thought ten cents per member,
besides an initiation fee of twenty-five cents, would take care of it.
One point did cause some discussion. Suppose a boy didn’t pay his dues;
what then? Jack as usual was for drastic action. He wanted such a boy
“fired” right off. Sam suggested that a penalty of ten per cent. per
month on the past due fees would keep the boys up to the mark. “If they
have to pay eleven cents instead of ten if they are behind a month,” said
he, “or twelve cents if they are back two months, they will look out.”
It struck the boys as good finance until Jimmy Francis suggested rather
timidly: “If a fellow is hard up and couldn’t get his money together just
right it would rather hurt to pay the extra cent or two.”
The boys quickly saw the other side. Jimmy was the son of a widow.
Everyone respected him, for, although he didn’t pity himself the least
bit, he was always looking out for odd jobs to help out. All the lads
knew he would have to find one more job to take care of his dues. His
mother had to count every penny as it was.
They finally decided not to impose any penalty for non-payment of dues.
As Frank pointed out, they felt that “if any fellow is mean enough to
quit on his dues because there is no penalty tacked on, that’s conduct
unbecoming a member of the club and we can ‘fire’ him.”
After they had taken care of a few miscellaneous provisions, they found
they had a good working organization. I agreed with them, and in the
appendix, beginning on page 156, you will find their constitution in
full. In the next chapter I am going to tell you about the rules of order
they adopted. They appointed a committee to draft them and I helped with
the work. We talked the rules over a good deal both in this committee
and afterward in the first two or three meetings. They were good enough
to make me Critic several times and most of the help I gave them was in
parliamentary practice. I have given you the rules, together with the
running discussion we had on them. Possibly the reasons given for the
rules will help you, as they seemed to help them.