Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-03
CHAUTAUQUA NOW
IN SAD DECLINE
s-.--- v VI 81 @~Sub -
SW art h more Association
] Head BIames "Slump in
IdeaIism" for Failure.
by FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

F." washington statesmen and states
women. many of whom in days gone
BY were platform stars beneath the pig
brown tents, have just learned Win
regret of the passing of "Cbautauqua
The great popular entertainment ana
educational movement, originated by
the late Bishop Vincent on the banks
of Lake Chautauqua, New York, In 1879,
is now in sad decline. The automoblle,
the movies and the radio between them
appear to have dealt 1t death blow.
The famous Swarthmore Chautauqua,
the latest organization to give up the
ghost, names still another cause-tne
slump in idealism." In a public letter
addressed to its friends this week in
Guiding prominent men and women IN
Washington, DR.. Paul M. Pearson, the
president of the association. says:
T 1.-THE tide has been flowing out Tor
some time. have tried to hold IL
back, but failed. Besides, no doubt,
some poor judgment, there must De
listed such influences as good roads,
the movies, radio, jaded local commit
teemen in the towns, the slump in ideal
ism and the large increase OF competl.
tive activities - recreational, cultural
and social. In the 18 years OF our ex-
1stence We have run from Al towns IN
What we did is not lost. Chautauqua
has not failed Times have changed"
In Process of Reorganization.
The Swarthmore Association, which
has made an assignment to Its credl-
tors, is in process of reorganization and
expects to run its Summer and festl-
val circuits as usual. The aSsocla-
TONS general endowment committee
includes men and women of national
renown like DR.. S. Parkes Cadman,
Senator Simeon D. Fess of Ohio. Otto
H. Kahn, Mrs. George Horace Lorimer,
Henry Morganthau, Charles M.
Schwab, Ida M. Tarbell and Mark
Sullivan.
Chautauqua was in its heyday in the
years preceding the World War and
the couple of years following it. Then,
with the rapidly advancing popular.
aty of 1.-The pictures" motoring and
radio. public support waned steadily.
In 1920 there were Is Chautauqua or
CARNATIONS. with activities which
spread into every State of the Union
and practically into every county. To-
day there are only four Chautauquas,
not counting the original plant at
Lake Chautauqua, which continues to
flourish, because of its strong religious
background. It is the travelling Chau-
tauquas, which staged one-week
''shovs" in the smaller towns of the
country and for a long time were
about the only forms of entertainment
these communities knew, which have
collapsed.
Radcliffe Among Survivors.
One of the surviving associations is
the Radcliffe Chautauqua of Washing
ton. but its field of activities which in
1921 embraced Asst towns in A States,
has now shrupk to 100 towns in half
a dozen or 10 States. Once upon
time the Radcliffe circuit did an an
nual business of 81 900, 900. Other Chau-
tauquas rolled up equally big figures.
W L. Radcliffe, who is among the last
UI the Chautauqua Mohicans, thinks the
movement dug its own grave by not
sticking to its ideals"
Any number of political national
heroes of yesteryear did turns" in
Chautauqua tents. William Jennings
Bryan and Robert M. La Toilette made
their names household words in the
Middle West by Chautauqua talks. The
Middle West was always the stronghold
of Chautauqua. Two of the organiza-
tons which are still holding on are
headquartered, respectively, in Topeka,
Kans., and Des Moines, Iowa. Warren
c. Harding was a popular Chautauqua
orator. Dolliver of Iowa and Hobson Of
Alabama were big time" attractions.
DR.. Talmage, Billy Sunday. Sam Jones,
Opie Read, James Whitcomb Riley and
Albert J. Beveridge at one time or an
other lured the home folks" in their
thousands into the tents. In more re-
cent years, with the advent of women
into public life, some of their shining
lights have invaded Chautauqua, includ-
ing Ruth Bryan Owen, Mabel Walker
Willebrandt and Nellie Tayloe Ross.
(Copyright, l930)