The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-02-14
COLEMAN TALKS
At MEMS FORUM
Leader of Ford Hall Speaks
to Interested Audi
ence of 80
SHOWS NECESSITY
OF COOPERATION
ton Decided Success Workings of
Ford Hall Movement Outlined in En-
tertaining WAY.

Over so men, representative of al
most every denomination and creed in
Brattleboro, heard George w. Coleman
of Boston, chairman of the Ford Hall
Forum for the nine years of its exis-
tence and business man who has
abandoned his business to propagate
The Prime Necessity of Getting To
gether, talk for nearly two hours last
evening in the Unitarian parish house
on that subject. He was especially in
teresting and those in charge of the
local movement felt that the initial
meeting was decidedly worth while.
Frank II. Brasor, accompanied by
Frank NJ. Cram, sang two selections be-
fore Mr.. Coleman was introduced by
President Z. B. Smith of the Brattle-
boro Men s Forum, recently organized.
Mr.. Coleman, after sketching rapid
~ his connection with religious inter
ests from early boyhood, said that if
any one association of his must stand
as his record in the hereafter he pre-
ferred his connection with the open
forum. H said that % years ago the
cry was constant that the churches had
failed to reach the masses, but that
cry had died out now; the churches
have given 1t up as a bad Job. In
! stead we hear the whisper: What are
/ the masses going to do with us?' In
| this socalled Christian country the
| majority of the inhabitants are not
members of any church, vet it seems as
l. =
/ ligion for everyone to be able to make
Il choice. This fact is one ingredient
of the powder that is lying around
waiting for a match to be dropped in
il.
Another is that one-tenth of the PEG.
pie of the country own the combined
wealth and this situation is increasing
i'll intensity This forms another Gle
meut.
The glass door separates the EN-
ployer from the employed as it did not
years ago, which is still another ele
ment leading to the unrest
In normal years over enc million i'm
migrants come to this country and an
other danger is in our attitude toward,
them. The particular degree of muck
erism is dependent only upon the phass
of lifa represented by the individual
who considers himself superior to tn
: other. There is food fer thought il
the fact that at the last national cleo
ton. when there was every reason 70
all voters to east their ballots for on
or the other of the two great parties
between 100000 and 100000 votes wer
cast for the Socialist national ticket
. The system of caste in India is reflect
: ed by present conditions in America.
We must have homogeneity of idea
and ideals and the open forum is tn
$ present solution. The Ford Hall Forur
! is conducted on the basis that nothin
G Intentionally offensive to any rae.
! class or creed shall be said from th
platform. Anyone is invited TO spea
(, from the platform provided only thu
y the have done sometime worth Will
y and are capable of presenting their idea
from a public platform. The purpos
of the Forum is to bring divided il
terests together
He pictured wildly, and sometime
dramatically, occasions in Ford Hal
where the seating capacity is 1900 an
: where every Sunday evening in II
n winter hundreds are turned away fl
II lack of room. One in particular is
II Illustrative.
II Rev. George Hodges. dean of a
II Episcopal seminary, spoke one evenir
on What the Matter With Il
II Church? and from the same platfor
on tn same evening Morrison
II Swift, New England s Coxey, spoke {
II What IS the Matter With the Man On
II side Of the Church,
II As at all Ford Hall meetings, tin
II is given for questions after the a
II dresses, and his recital of some of Il
II questions and answers that were askt
| and answered on not only that Gee
! sion, but others, was not by any meal