The Story of Chautauqua — Background and Themes

These were Grant, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft. Theodore Roosevelt was at Chautauqua four times. He said on his last visit, in 1905, "Chautauqua is the most American thing in America"; and also:

This Chautauqua has made the name Chautauqua a name of a multitude of gatherings all over the Union, and there is probably no other educational influence in the country quite so fraught with hope for the future of the nation as this and the movement of which it is the archtype.

Let us see what some journalists and writers have said about Chautauqua. Here is the opinion of Dr. Lyman Abbott, editor of _The Outlook_, and a leader of thought in our time:

Chautauqua has inspired the habit of reading with a purpose. It is really not much use to read, except as an occasional recreation, unless the reading inspires one to think his own thoughts, or at least make the writer's thoughts his own. Reading without reflection, like eating without digestion, produces dyspepsia. The influence and guidance of Chautauqua will long be needed in America.

The religious influence of Chautauqua has been not less valuable. Chautauqua has met the restless questioning of the age in the only way in which it can be successfully met, by converting it into a serious seeking for rest in truth.

Dr. Edwin E. Slosson, formerly professor in Columbia University, now literary editor of the _Independent_, wrote in that paper:

If I were a cartoonist, I should symbolize Chautauqua by a tall Greek goddess, a sylvan goddess with leaves in her hair--not vine leaves, but oak, and tearing open the bars of a cage wherein had been confined a bird, say an owl, labeled "Learning." For that is what Chautauqua has done for the world--it has let learning loose.

From the American _Review of Reviews_, July, 1914:

The president of a large technical school is quoted as having said that ten per cent. of the students in the institution over which he presides owe their presence to Chautauqua influence. A talk on civic beauty or sanitation by an expert from the Chautauqua platform often results in bringing these matters to local attention for the first time.

Here is an extract from _The World To-day_:

Old-time politics is dead in the States of the Middle West. The torchlight parade, the gasoline lamps, and the street orator draw but little attention. The "Republican Rally" in the court-house and the "Democratic Barbecue" in the grove have lost their potency. People turn to the Chautauquas to be taught politics along with domestic science, hygiene, and child-welfare.

Mr. John Graham Brooks, lecturer on historical, political, and social subjects, author of works widely circulated and highly esteemed, has given courses of lectures at Chautauqua, and has expressed his estimate in these words:

After close observation of the work at Chautauqua, and at other points in the country where its affiliated work goes on, I can say with confidence that it is among the most enlightening of our educational agencies in the United States.

Dr. A. V. V. Raymond, while President of Union College in New York State, gave this testimony:

Chautauqua has its own place in the educational world, a place as honorable as it is distinctive; and those of us who are laboring in other fields, by other methods, have only admiration and praise for the great work which has made Chautauqua in the best sense a household word throughout the land.

Mr. Edward Howard Griggs, who is in greater demand than almost any other lecturer on literary and historical themes, in his Recognition Day address, in 1904, on "Culture Through Vocation," said as follows:

The Chautauqua movement as conceived by its leaders is a great movement for cultivating an avocation apart from the main business of life, not only giving larger vision, better intellectual training, but giving more earnest desire and greater ability to serve and grow through the vocation.

This from Dr. William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education:

Think of one hundred thousand persons of mature age following up a well-selected course of reading for four years in science and literature, kindling their torches at a central flame! Think of the millions of friends and neighbors of this hundred thousand made to hear of the new ideas and of the inspirations that result to the workers!

It is a part of the great missionary movement that began with Christianity and moves onward with Christian civilization.

I congratulate all members of Chautauqua Reading Circles on their connection with this great movement which has begun under such favorable auspices and has spread so widely, is already world-historical, and is destined to unfold so many new phases.

Prof. Albert S. Cook, of Yale University, wrote in _The Forum_: