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.
CHAPTER XXIII
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH
(1917-1920)
When the forty-fourth session of Chautauqua opened on Thursday, June 26, 1917, it found the American republic just entering upon the Great War, which had already raged in Europe for over two years. Training camps had sprung up like magic all over the land, from ocean to ocean, and young men by the hundred thousand had volunteered, with others by the million soon cheerfully to accept drafting orders. Almost every university had been transformed into a war college. President Vincent was at the intensive military training school at Plattsburg, N. Y. Every morning before breakfast two hundred men at Chautauqua were marching and counter-marching, and learning the manual of arms with wooden guns, with President Bestor and most of the officials of the Institution in the lines. The young women every afternoon were receiving similar drill under a woman officer, and some said that they presented even a more soldier-like appearance than the men. The headquarters of several denominations had been commandeered for Red Cross work and training. A stranger could scarcely get into the Methodist House without being scrutinized as a possible German spy, with a pocketful of poison or powdered glass to sprinkle on the bandages. War was in the air as well as in the newspapers. No matter what was the subject of a lecture it was almost sure to be on the war before the finish. There were discussions on the platform and on the street about the League of Nations, some with President Wilson in favor of it, others as vigorously against it. A symposium on "Our Country" and a conference of "Organizations Engaged in Education for Patriotic Service" were held during the session; also a company of students from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, presented a brilliant pageant, "The Drawing of the Sword."
The Fourth of July address was given by the Hon. G. W. Wickersham, former Attorney-General of the United States. Captain A. Radclyffe Dugmore of the British Army spoke on "Our Fight for Freedom." Miss Ida Tarbell, who had won fame by a book showing the operations of the Standard Oil Company, and had also written a life of Abraham Lincoln, to be found in every public library and read more widely than any other biography of the Greatest American, gave some lectures. Her literary life, by the way, began in the office of the Chautauquan Magazine. Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker this summer became President of the Chautauqua Woman's Club, which office Mrs. B. T. Vincent had relinquished after many years of leadership. Both these presidents were eminently successful in different directions and by different methods, the earlier having built up the Club by wisdom mingled with gentleness; her successor carried it onward by an energy that brought everybody into willing subjection to her far-reaching plans. Almost the first result of the new administration was the purchase of a club house fronting on the Lake, and holding in it almost a bewildering series of teas and receptions. While the public meetings of the Club crowded the new Hall of Philosophy every afternoon, Mrs. Pennybacker gave a stirring address on "What our Country Asks of its Young Women."
During the first week Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick of the Union Theological Seminary was the Chaplain, and his addresses blended fervent patriotism and fervent religion in about equal measure.