The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-18
CHAUTAUQUA CHATS.
A Summary of a National Symposium
 on "Social Unrest"

one or two dramatic readings, one lighter entertainment and one address
 by some speaker of national promi- hence.
 We arrived here at the end of Music Week. but had the good fortune to hear
 Verdis Aida and Rossini's Moses in
 Egypt. Many lighter cantatas and operettas will still be heard.
 Sam Jones once said we haven't
 enough religion left to run camp
 meeting and the county fairs have
 played out, so we organize Chautau-
 quas!' These causes may have worked
 for the upspringing of numerous sum-
 mer assemblies all over the land, but
 they hardly seem to hold good at the
 parent Chautauqua.
 For there is scarcely an hour dur ing the day when one so inclined may not attend some kind of devotional exercise at the various denominational headquarters. At ten each morning there is a union meeting at the amphi-
 theater, which is well attended and
 which is conducted by the minister who preached the preceding Sunday. Some prominent minister is selected
 from the larger denominations in TO-
 tation for this honor. The week we arrived Dr. Aked had charge. He is the Englishman who has recently come to preside over John D. Rockefeller's
 church. That may be Rockefeller's church, but pr. Aked Is "aman for a that" and impresses one as fear
 ing only God and his own conscience.
 The next week Dr. Biting of St.
 Louis presided. He Is quite d phil
 biologist and gives new meaning and familiar Bible phrases by tracing for
 his listeners the origin of the main
 words. He is evidently a man of wide secular reading and quoted delightful
 bits from the Browning and Tennyson.
 His talks, implying leisure for spirit
 ual and mental pleasures and pursuits,
 were restful after the strenuous speeches on social unrest which occu- pied most of that week.
 No seven days ever brought together so distinguished group Of thinkers and speakers as assembled here to dis-
 cuss the general problem of social unrest" in America. The idea outlined in the week was that to any student
 of social conditions it is evident that at the present time America is in restless, nervous, half-excited condi- tion, and that for this condition there
 must be certain definite causes and certain remedies which at least can
 be proposed. Representatives were
 asked to speak for the rich and the
 poor, the capitalists and the day la-
 borer, for the journalist and the read
 CT, for the preacher and the parish
 toner.
 The central series of the week was
 presented by John Graham Brooks, of
 Cambridge, Mass, president of the Ma
 tional Consumers League and author of the book, Social Unrest" which
 lent it's name to the entire discus
 sion. MT. Brooks lectured on The Challenge of Socialism to Modern So-
 ciety," giving the origin of socialism,
 it's present growth and particular ac-
 tivity. the organization of discOntent,
 and the duty of the average citizen to-
 word the movement. Mir. Brooks is 8
 man of fine education, wide experience
 and logical mind. As a student of
 conditions and a friend of men of af-
 fairs his equipment for this particular
 kind of work is unequalled. His lec- lures aroused so much speculation and
 discussion that he was forced to give an extra talk on Why I Am Not a
 Socialist" He believes in trying to
 improve present conditions before re- sorting to the radical changes advo- cated by the Socialists and epitomized
 his conservatism by quoting German warning: When you throw out the bath water, don't throw out the baby
 also"
 His principal objection to Socialism is its denunciation of ali interest on
 money. for MT. Brooks believes that money borrowed at a reasonable rate is advantageous to small enterprises. On Monday of social unrest week" the main address was on The Rela- ton of Politics and Social Unrest" by Hon James Wadsworth, Jr., Speak CT of the New York State Assembly. If I remember correctly MT. Wadsworth's youthful bravado won him an early 1 initiation into, President Roosevelt's ] Ananias Club; 1t also brought down
 on him strictures from almost every succeeding speaker on similar topic. For, not content with saying | the road to clean politics was being cleared, he asserted that all rotten l timber had been removed, which was | a remarkable statement in New York, | which is still represented in the Sen ] ate by those two battered old land
 marks of corruption, Platt and Depew. Being introduced as an Organization | politician" MT. Wadsworth proceeded | to defend his position, and claimed l that party organization is the most effective barrier aganst the despot and | the demagogue. He said in part: "The l earliest strife of the American people
 was for distinction in professional and | social life. Public sentiment was con- servative, debates were tedious and profound, and the men who made our laws were statesmen. But when the IOrm&llon perlou was pdSL anu PoOP4O became secure in the stability of gov ernment they turned to industrial de- velopment and the statesmen became politicians and the successful business man the power in his community. Thus
 began that mad race for money, and as nearly everybody out of politics
 was trying to make money so many
 in politics took up the same quest. The people do not approve of this, hence the unrest as caused by politics. Disapproval and exposure have pro- duced reform and now clean politics prevail"