It may be remembered that while the Hon. William Jennings Bryan was Secretary of State he received some criticism and even ridicule for "hitting the Chautauqua trail" and "going off with the yodelers." On that subject the _Baltimore Sun_ said in an editorial:
If it could be demonstrated, we would be willing to wager that the average Chautauqua student has a far better knowledge of public questions than the average of those who sneer. And whether he likes it or not, no public official of to-day can afford to disregard the Chautauqua movement.
Mr. Bryan himself gave this testimony in the _Review of Reviews_:
The Chautauqua affords one of the best opportunities now presented a public speaker for the discussion of questions of interest to the people. The audience is a select one, always composed of the thoughtful element in the community, and as they pay admission, they stay to hear. I believe that a considerable part of the progress that is now being made along the line of moral and political reform is traceable to the influence of the Chautauqua.
A writer in _The Outlook_ (September 18, 1918) says:
I have studied the Chautauqua speakers. They command the admiration of the honest critic. They deal with serious subjects as experts. They carry men, women and children on to the conclusion of the longest lecture by knowing when to lighten at the proper moment with a story or a lilt of humor, or sometimes a local reference. Said a village woman in my hearing of a fellow-speaker on the problems of patriotism, "I thought at first he would be hard to follow, but I surely hated when he had to stop." The thermometer was reported to be 105 in the tent. The speaker held the rapt attention of the people for an hour and a half in a philosophical presentation of the causes of the war and our responsibilities in consequence. It was like reading a solid book and condensing it with marked success into one hearing. It was typical, and twenty millions are reported to be listening to such addresses in Chautauqua tents the country over.
In the magazine _The World To-Day_ (September, 1911), I read the following by George L. Flude:
A few years ago I saw Senator Robert M. La Follette address a crowd of eight thousand people at Waterloo, Iowa. For two hours and a half he jammed insurgent Republicanism into that crowd. He was at that time the only insurgent in the party and had not been named yet. The crowd took it all in. They were there to be instructed, not to hear a partisan speech. Hence their att.i.tude, regardless of party affiliation, was a receptive one. He absolutely converted that crowd into insurgents and they did not know it. For five years La Follette crammed and jammed "non-partisan" talks into Chautauqua crowds through Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Nebraska, and Kansas. The average audience was probably about four thousand and he met sixty or more audiences each summer; 240,000 people inoculated with insurgency by one man.
Occasionally an audience finds that the lecture is not what was looked for. Some years ago a Western a.s.sembly engaged Senator La Follette, and from the list of his subjects chose "The World"s Greatest Tragedy,"
expecting a sensational attack upon the greed of capitalists. A great crowd a.s.sembled to see "Senator Bob jump on the trusts." He gave his well-known literary lecture on _Hamlet_, a critical appreciation, without a word on current affairs. The crowd sat, first puzzled, then baffled, and at last went away dejected.
A newspaper of wide circulation, _The Christian Science Monitor_, said:
By far the most active and keenly interested voters of the country, with their leaders, forceful in shaping progressive legislation, have come during the last decade from States where this Chautauqua method of cultivation of the adult population has been most steadily used, and the end is not yet, since now the system is being organized in a thorough-going way never known before. Public men, educators, artists, authors, pioneers in discovery of unknown lands or of secrets of nature, who get the ear of this huge audience season after season, come nearer to the heart of the nation and observe its ways of living better than by any other method.
The old mother Chautauqua by the Lake would not like to be held responsible for all the utterances under the tents of her ten thousand daughters. For that matter, she would not endorse everything spoken upon her own platform in the Amphitheater, where "free speech" is the motto and the most contradictory opinions are presented. But she must recognize that her daughters have wielded a mighty power in forming the political and moral convictions of the nation.
The bell which rang at Fair Point on August 4, 1874, to open the first a.s.sembly, might be compared to "The shot heard "round the world" from Concord Bridge in 1775, for in answer to its call ten thousand Chautauquas have arisen on the American Continent. The question might be asked, Why have none of the ten thousand rivaled the first, the original Chautauqua?
Many of these opened with a far better outfit of external accommodations, with more money expended upon their programs, with greater advertising publicity, with more popular attractions. Yet now at the period of almost fifty years, not another among the ten thousand, either of the earlier or the later a.s.semblies, holds a two months"
program, conducts courses of study of a wide range, or brings together even one quarter of the a.s.semblage which every year gathers upon the old Chautauqua ground. All the a.s.semblies which were established with the highest promise have either been abandoned or are continued as chain Chautauquas, meeting for a week only. Let us endeavor to answer the question--Why does the mother-Chautauqua still stand supreme?
In the judgment of this writer, who has known Chautauqua almost from the beginning, and has taken part in fifty similar gatherings, the reasons for its supremacy are easily seen and stated. It was established by two men of vision, one of whom was also a practical man of business, and both men of high ideals which they never lowered and from which they and their successors have never swerved. In its plans from first to last, there was a unique blending of religion, education, and recreation. No one of these three elements has been permitted to override the two others, and neither of them has been sacrificed to win popularity, although on the other side, popular features have been sought for within just limits. Never has the aim of Chautauqua been to make money; it has had no dividends and no stockholders. It has opened avenues and leased lots to hundreds of people, but it has not sought financial gain.
Neither of its Founders nor any of their a.s.sociates have been enriched by it, for all profits--when there have been any--have been expended upon improvements or enlargement of plans. It has shown the progressive spirit, while firm in its principles, open to new ideas, willing to listen to both sides of every question. It has sought to attract and to benefit all cla.s.ses in the community, not setting the poor against the rich, nor the rich against the poor, giving a welcome to scholars of every view and to churches of every doctrine. It has maintained a continuous, consistent administration, fortunate in finding able and broad-minded men to carry forward the conceptions of its founders. Few changes have been made in its management and these have been without a revolution or a renunciation of principles. Men at the head have changed, but not the policy of the inst.i.tution. It has remained unshaken in its loyalty to the Christian religion and penetrated through and through with the Christian spirit, without flying the flag or wearing the badge of any one denomination of Christians. These have been the principles that placed Chautauqua at the front in its beginning and have kept it at the front through forty-eight years.