Order of Business.—This may well be different for different bodies, but the following is a useful form:
- Meeting called to order.
- Minutes of last meeting read and approved.
- Communications from other bodies or persons.
- Reports of any officers which are due.
- Reports from standing or special committees.
- Unfinished business.
- New business.
- Literary or other programme, if any.
- Adjournment.
CHAPTER XIV
THE FORD HALL TOWN MEETING
The Ford Hall Town Meeting is a school of democracy at work; it is a school of applied brotherhood. That statement may sound like an attempt at fine writing but I want to show you that applied to the Town Meeting it is justified. I want to show you also that after you have carried on a debating club for a few years, the Town Meeting is a good graduate school for the further development of the art of debate. You will remember that throughout this book I have insisted that the real purpose of debate is to get worth while things done. To a peculiar degree, the Ford Hall Town Meeting does enable debate to get worth while things done.
I said it was a school of democracy at work; but what is democracy? You have learned that there are three kinds of states, monarchies, aristocracies and democracies. You all believe, moreover, that in this age of the world, the first two are outgrown and that the democratic state is the only one that should exist nowadays. If I should ask you to define a democratic state you would immediately answer that the democratic state is one based upon democracy. If I should then ask you to define democracy, you would hesitate long. I have tried many definitions before I found one which was satisfactory. How does this strike you?
“Democracy is the equality of opportunity for self-expression.” I think that statement covers it all. You see, for instance, the opportunity to the slave was not equal to that of the free man. The child of twelve who works in the factory all day has no equality of opportunity with other children. The man who is willing to work but can’t find a job, has no equality of opportunity. To the slave, the child, and the jobless man, democracy means nothing.
We all believe that God intended every child to have his chance. Somehow, though, things have become twisted and warped. Because we believe, however, that after a while things will be right, we keep on trying to help make our democracy the common property of all of us. We try to keep these children out of the factory and get them into school. We try to get a job for this man who wants work, or, better yet, so arrange things that there will be plenty of jobs for him and for his friends. After Jimmy Francis’ mother has lost Jimmy’s father by death and she is left without means, we want our democratic state to say: “Oh! Mrs. Francis, what a loss! We are truly sorry for Jimmy and for you. To show that we are, we have arranged so you will have a few dollars a week, enough to help take care of Jimmy, so you won’t be anxious and worried about his bringing up.”
You see many a widowed mother hasn’t had her equal chance to bring up her boy as she wanted to. Democracy didn’t exist as far as she was concerned. Her Jimmy began to live in the streets, then in the pool-rooms, then in the saloons. He wasn’t a good boy any more; he knew all about vice and crime. He knew all about reform schools and jails and possibly State prisons. Her Jimmy was lost to democracy.
But was it Jimmy’s fault? Or his mother’s? Did he have his chance? Was the State really democratic to him?