The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-06-14
EAST SIDE FORUM
PLANS EXTENSION
seeks City's Cooperation to Sc
cure Many Educational
Benefits.
MEETINGS AID THOUSANDS

The first year Of the East Side Forum.
which has been described, as an expert
ment In civic education. has proved. ac-
cording 10 Carl Beck, the director. that
local politics does not prevent people
from sharing in the management OF pub
lie lecture centres and that volunteer
speakers of the highest type can easily
be obtained.
In the last year the forum has served
30. 900 persons. who discussed with the
speakers some OF the vital problems OF
social and political life in the %neishbor-
rood OF which they are a part.
A course OF forum meetings lasting
for thirty weeks was conducted. with an
average nightly attendance Of 300 and
an average weekly cost OF $50, or a per
capita cost of 6la cents. This low figure
Is partly due to the fact that the city
contributed the use Of the hall OF Public
School 81. at Hester and Essex streets,
in the centre of what has been called the
most densely populated quare mile In
! the United States
Among the speakers who have talked
with the people, not to them. for discus
sion is the basis OF the forum move
ment. are Louis Brandeis, Amos Pinchot,
Arthur Woods. Morris Hillquit. Henry
Bruere, Frank Walsh. Adolph Lewisohn,
Meyer London, Florence Kelley. Or.
James r. Warbasse. Mrs. J. Borden Har-
riman. Gutzon Borglum and Prof. Henry
r. Seager
Events ~ the Forum.
Mr.. Beck points out some OF the inter-
esting incidents that have taken place
at the forum. II was there that JEFF
Davis made his frst appeal for the
Hotel de Gink there hat the Brooklyn
Tnemploym ent Committee argued for
workshops and municipal responsibility
toward the unemployed. which was fol-
lowed by the establishment OF relief
workshops by the Mayors committee,
and there that the bank ~depositors of the
East sid who lost 50, 900, 900 of savings
through the failure OF Ave local banks
pleaded for aid. while 1000 persons
banged on the doors outside.
Having firmly established the forum
Mr.. Beck has replied out of his expert
ence % the Mayors appeal for sugges-
tons as To- how TO improve the pu blic
I lecture system. Last fall. he recalls.
the friends OF the bureau of public lee
lures asked the Board Of Estimate TO
] restore the free lecture appropriation Of
$3.50. 600. He believes now that through
his suggestions the city can save s15.-
600. They are:
That the City College look upon the
educational experiments In sociology.
labor problems. city government and
Journalism connected with East Side
Forum as an indication that the intel
lec;ually hungry working people OF the
1 East Side should have an evening exten-
sion branch OF the college within con-
venient and inexpensive reach.
Library Aid sought.
That the Municipal Reference Ii
hrary aid and reinforce the citizens
ne~ighborhood bureau OF information
which IL connected with ;he East Side
Forum.
That the Board OF Elections selec,
Public School SO as ono Of TIE twenty
five school house polling places
THAT the Board OF Education In co.
operation with the Gramercy. Chelsea,
Greenwich ard n dozen other neighbor-
hood associations seek to establish
ne!ghborhood forums managed and
financed on an equal share basis. That
on the basis OF these experiments in co.
operation with the thousands of peopl.
belonging to the ~neighhorhood associa.
tons the board later turn the ia AGA,