The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-31
EDUCATION FOR
 ALL THE PEOPLE Another Strange New York
 Organization WORKING FOR THE MASSES An East Side Effort To Cultivate Indi- vidualism-Patform From Which
 MiIionaires Instruct Work
 inumen-Laborers Teach.
WORKING FOR THE MASSES

New York. August 3O-That much talked of institution, a national univer- sity for the people, seems to be in a fair way of Accomplishment in New York. Acting on the advice of famous student of social conditions both here and abroad, prominent persons are lending 1 their wealth and influence and the labor ing classes their support to the move ment looking toward its realization l While this work has been going on for years it's final development is largely due to the following opinion of the above mentioned student.
 America" says he, furnishes the most unstable people, politically, in the world. In England mans politics come 1 to him at his birth. Once conserva- l tive, always a conservative, through not one but many generations. In Germany and many other countries the people are solidifed. Hence their power. In this 1 country they vacillate. No one can tell 1 from year to year how they may feel on any given question. Hence the suprem- { acy of organized machine politics. The very freedom of the American voter is his undoing. He lacks organization" ] In this expression is found the keynote l of the movement now going on in this l clty to change tneSe cOnQlIlOnS. bdcheu l by philanthropists ands restricted by the method of it's organization this Utopian scheme is without politics or class. Re- 1 publicans and democrats, rich and poor, mix in it on an equal footing and with equal voice. A railroad king may en- gage in joint discussion with janitor. l One of the main effects of the movement is to educate the people in the duties of | citizenship and to give them means of making their influence felt in the management of their own affairs
 Slowly, but surely the way toward na- tional education is becoming plain and It is douby significant that the solution is l being worked out in New York city. where thousands eke out an existence scarcely to be called life, where in sum- mer the masses writhe under intolerable heat that kills the babies by hundreds l and in winter freeze 10 or 12 to room in the tenements. Through a spirit of l brotherhood, through education and alert i public conscience and the creation of stable machinery enabling the masses at i all times to- express the consensus of thought and feeling upon questions of 1 public interest, an improvement in this situation is believed to be possible
 This Is the belief of some 50,000 people i living their lives in the very cradle of the social unrest, New York's East Side. ] That this is so is largely due to the work of that peculiar organization known as the Peoples institute of New York, which in the nine years of it's existence has grown from an experiment to rec ] ognized force both in the metropolis and ] throughout the state The platform | which outlines the note struck by the movement is as follows: Recognizing fraternity as the fundamental social truth democracy as the highest known form of human government, and national ! a d6nROdpnt worth the Peoples institute seeks to pro- | mote, through education and the co-op- ! eration of good men of all conditions and occupations, the peaceful evolution of society based upon the recognition of the interdependence of man with man."
 The institute does not expect to com pass the evolution of society suddenly and says so frankly to all who will en- list in the work But that it is going ahead effectively is attested by the fact that the audiences of the people who have assembled so far this season at Cooper Union and at various smaller clubs total over 100000. The home of the institute is in the heart of the great East Side, facing Stuyvesant Park and there and at Cooper Union and at various smaller clubs lectures are given which offer continued and ordered education, making the movement in real sense a peoples university.
 university
 Potentially 1t is the largest college in the world because it has the whole United States as prospective field. So- cial science is very naturally a frequent topic in the lecture courses, but history, literature and kindred subjects which tend to round out the intelligence of the peo- pie are by no means neglected.
 On any one of the four nights during the week when meetings are held a vis- | i+orf fo 10 of at least two cardinal points, the earn estness of the audiences and the educa- tional tenor of the addresses He will realize that intense personal interest alone is the motive which serves to draw great audiences might after night, to hold the toilers year after year, because no hint of sensationalism or radicalism is ever heard Here, too, the visitor may see for himself a visible indication of what this work will be when 1t shall have grown to include the whole nation. This is the Peoples Forum. So well known has the department become that its denunciations of any bad measure n- troduced in the legislature or its endorse ment of one believed by the people to be beneficial carries very considerable weight at Albany, and Governor Hughes Is upon record as desiring to hear from this mouthpiece of the plain citizens Of the state whenever laws affecting the public veal are proposed. He further said of the institute not long ago in a letter to it's director and founder, 1T know of no more important work than you are doing" .it
 Through it's alliance with organized labor, the social settlements, various 1 civic bodies the churches and colleges, as well as that strata of society repre- scented by the men of note who speak from the institutes platform. 1t Is pos sible at any time to assemble an audi ence whose expressions of opinion are without possible exception trained and taught over a period of nine years, and are able to act inteligently and con- servatively upon questions affecting the public generally. At the meetings which consider pending public issues, the par ticular question involved Is minutely ex- plained by the men upon the platform and then free discussion Is indulged kl by the audience, anyone being privileged to speak and to ask questions of the speakers. In the past such action on the i, part of the people of New, York has , changed the aspect of things at Albany in night. It was thus that a certain ini- , quitous measure known as the Remsen } gas bill was defeated at almost the very moment of its enactment into law. The significant point of all this Is that ! 1t has been demonstrated that public