THE CHATAUQUA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 123, 11 February 1918, Page 3

THE CHATAUQUA

FOUNDING A GREAT INSTITUTION (By Earl C. Miller in the "Sydney Sim.") America believes in people getting all the joy out of life they can; and to this end I have been sent to Australia to establish the Chatauqua among you.—Mr. Earl C. Miller. The purpose of the Chatauqua is to privide wholesome, high-class entertainment and instruction. -It 13 universal in its scope. It brings high-class musical artists, orators, statesmen, lecturers, scientists, explorers, and authors into personal touch with the people. The Chatauquas were attended in the United States last year by over 47,000,000 people. Up until this last year i{ was strictly a United States institution. In 1917 Canada held for the first time in her history 42 Chatauquas, and this year has arranged for holding over 500.

• The Chatauquas are conducted as cooperative institutions. First, the people in a community get together as an organisation. Any series of towns, ranging from 70 to 150, co-operate together and each town takes the same talent. The towns aro arranged in a •circuit, so that the talent is changed in each one of the Chatauquas every day —thus distributing the entire expense among the whole of the towns of the circuit. My purpose here in Australia is to organise one or more Chatauquas, with 100 or more towns in each circuit, on' practically the same lines as they aTe operated in each of the American States. My intention is to develop a purely Australian Chatauqua system—using Australian talent and bringing from time to time noted men

from England and the United States, nnd arranging intor-changes with Australia. •

Tho Australian situation has been gono over very carefully, and I can see no reason why the Chatauquas should Jiot bo made a permanent instituitioir here. /The method of organising by the Gluitauqua system is by personal interviews with the people of each town. I intend to go.right into tho heart of the communities. 1 will start organising Chatauqtia assoeiationSj.with tho idea of establishing a circuit in the Commonwealth. It is necessary for a community -.'.csiring to secure a Cliatauqua to get representative men together in a business organisation. I expect to start a circuit within the next nine months. All the work preliminary to the commencement will be organisation work.

The Ohatauquas arc conducted m big brown tents. Theodore Roosevelt has Baid that it is the most democratic institution in America. The people in the different communities get together in a big home-coming week—often called a big joy week. Its most vital purpose is to be of service in the community in making the community a better and happier place to live in. It champions everything that is for the good and the benefit of the community. The Federal Commissioner of Education in the United States has placed the Chatauquas next to ihe university as an educational institution. There is a special department for children at every Cliatauqua. The managing editor of "Collier's Magazine"—well known to the people of Australia—in a letter, states:—

My judgment is tha,t tho Ohatauqua is probably the most'important single force in tlie moulding of public opiuion in the United States at this time. In the first place, it has the reputation of being absolutely free from bias or prejudice. I daresay it has acquired this reputation as niost reputations ,are acquired, by many years of correct. conduct. In any event, the public thinks of the Chataiiqua as being without prejudice, and particularly as not being under the dominance ot any large interest or corporate influence. The Chatauqun. readies the element of the public which forms public opinion. Another important element in the strength of the Cliatauqua \s, in my judgment, due to the hi(?h personality of the men who manage it. I have met many of these men, and they are all men of character, who take their rebponsibilities seriously. All of the public men who lecture on the Chatauqoa platforms tell mo the same things namely, that the managers are men of high character and substance. I have talked, I suppose, with probably twenty public men in America who lecture on the Cliatauqua platform—l mean such men us Mr. Bryan, Mr. Heney, Victor Mr.rdoclc, Governor Folk, etc.—and these men all spontaneously in their conversation make the point of the high character of the men who manage the Lhatauqua circuits;

President Wilson has written a high appreciation of the institution in a letter from "White House) a copy of which ivas handed to me just before leaving for Australia. Ho thanks our organisation for the "very real help it has given to America in the struggle that is concerned with every fundamental element in national life. _ Your speakers' going from community to _ community, meeting people in the friendly spirit "engendered by years of intimate and understanding contact, have been effective messengers for the delivery and interpretation • of, democracy's meanings and imperative needs. The work that the Chatauqua is doing has not lost importance because of war; but rather has gained new opportunities for service. Let me express the hope that you will let no discouragement weaken your activities, and that the people will not fail in the support of a patriotic institution that may be said to be an integral part of the national defence."

When the community is fortunate enough to secure a Chatauqua the people get together in the big brown tent, and hear a rousing, high-class; , musical programme, • followed immediately by a noted lecturer or_entertained with some other attraction. The Chatauqua is hold in afternoon and night sessions for six consecutive days, with an entire change of programme every session. The tents can accommodate from 1500 to 3000 people. Chatauquas are held in towns which have a population of from 100 people upwards, drawing on their surrounding district. It is a frequent occurrence in towns of 500 for 3000 people to get together in these Chatauquas. The Chatauqua comes to be the get-to-gether, home-coming joy week of the year. Canada has "put it all over" the States in holding big Chatauquas, nnd there is no reason .why the institution, when it becomes established in Australia, should not rise to as high a level as the sister dominion. So great have we grown that the Chatauquas possess their own national .magazines, the leading city newspaper? give ns to tho extent of six-page editions, and daily doings of the Chatauqua folk are chronicled in the columns.