Extension Committee. By EDWARD J. WARD, Chairman, Advisor in Civic and Social Center Development, Extension Division, University of Wisconsin. We have the public school plants, but most of us no more appreciate what it means to have these possessions than the people in Europe before 1492 appreciated what it meant to have the earth. There was a whole hemisphere of incalculable wealth and opportunity which they knew nothing about. And in the public school plant there is a whole hemisphere of value unrealized, undiscovered, by those who think of the public school plant as simply a place for the education, the teaching of children, with the added use, as an occasional evening school. But while the majority of us see nothing more in the school plant than an educational institution for teaching children, lead The Public ing students of political, social, educational, economic and other public problems are alive to the tremendous importance of the undeveloped resources in the wider uses of the public school plant. It was because of this fact that, when a year ago the committee of twenty leaders in American thought was named to serve with me, and they were asked to prepare articles upon the various phases of the extension of the use of school plants as social centers, not one of them needed to be told that this is vitally important. As all roads used to lead to Rome, so these students. of public affairs show that to-day, nearly all lines of thinking upon public questions lead to the public school, both in its prime, never-to-be-forgotten use and in its extension as a common social center. I will not stop to read the table of contents of this report nor the list of names of those who have made it worth while by their contributions, but I begin at once by a definition of the term social center: The term social center is sometimes confused with civic center, but the term civic center has come to have a distinct meaning as the city center, the convenient and beautiful grouping of the municipal buildings and grounds in connection with the town or city hall, the focal point, in which is expressed the unity of the city. The same impulse toward economy and intelligent, orderly arrangement of the physical city, which is responsible for the civic center movement aims toward the convenient and beautiful grouping of public buildings and grounds in the smaller sections or divisions of the city. The term social center is applicable to these neighborhood focal points and the public buildings and grounds there assembled because, being more intimately connected with Social Center the homes of the people, their use includes social Defined activities, recreational and educational, as distinguished from the more purely administrative uses of the buildings which make-up the civic center. The social center is to the neighborhood, the district, the smaller section of the city, as the civic center is to the city as a whole. The ideal, complete civic center has not yet been realized in any city except perhaps on paper. The ideal, completely-equipped neighborhood social center has not yet been realized, even on paper. It is high time that the city-planning movement should emphasize from the point of view of economy in physical construc Chicago's Field Houses tion, the neighborhood social center idea, for in some cities, notably Chicago, common neighborhood needs are coming to be met not by the extension of the normal nucleus of the neighborhood social center plant which is the public school, but by the development of separate recreation buildings. The wonderful small park and fieldhouse development in Chicago had its beginning as a separate development simply because the school authorities in Chicago, a dozen years ago, lacked wider vision of the possible social center development in connection with the school plant. The man who is chiefly responsible for the splendid work of the South Park field-house system told me that the better arrangement would be an extension in connection with the school plant in each district, which would make one common center for education, recreation, reading and all sorts of social and civic activities. The shortsightedness of the school authorities in Chicago has cost that city millions of dollars and made it, splendid as it is, less than the ideal in neighborhood center development. But while the term civic center is already appropriated by the one common city center, the essential basis of social center development is in the civic use of the school buildings as a place for the free discussion by citizens of the problems of democracy, a place wherein the true government, which is the citizenship, finds expression. There is one public-school building in this country which is used as a day school, an evening school, a vacation school, a playground house, a public gymnasium and bath place, a branch public library, a lecture hall, a political discussion forum, a moving-picture theatre, a public-dance hall, a local health office and an allround neighborhood club-house. It typifies as much as any in the country the neighborhood social center. A number of the people who meet in this building were asked to prepare definitions of the term "social center." These definitions are significant as showing the fundamental importance of the civic, democratic foundation of the whole institution. Here are four of the definitions which are typical: "The social center is a foundation of American democracy, a place where everybody meets on an equal standing, disregarding political, religious and other differences; where one can voice his opinions publicly and meet all with a spirit of brotherhood." "The social center is a place where the spirit of democracy is very evident, where everyone has a chance for mental and physical development, where you can meet your neighbors for discussion on things of vital importance." "The social center is a place of democracy where people of all nationalities, religions and political parties meet to discuss questions of the day, a place of education and recreation where everybody can develop mind and body." "The social center is a point of concentration where the people of the neighborhood mix in friendly acquaintance and discuss questions for the betterment of the people." The remarkable thing is that these persons, all of them familiar with the entertaining, recreational and social features, cut past these and pointed out the essential mark, the democracy, the free discussion, the free expression; that is, the civic foundation. There are cities (Buffalo is one of these) which propose to develop the use of their public school buildings as neighporhood social centers, but to limit the right of free discussion, the right of the citizens to express unhampered democracy in them. So much by way of definition; now for a summary of Professor Zueblin's contribution to this report on "Historic Antecedents of the Modern Social Center." Historic "The organization of people for self-expression dates back to primitive times. Public discussions were familiar in the little democracies of Greece and subsequently in Rome. The German mark and the Swiss commune furnish the best examples of freedom of public discussion and public action; the oldest democratic organization now existing, and historically the most important, is the Landesgemeinde of Switzerland. From the thirteenth century the male citizens of several Swiss cantons have assembled from their mountain homes for the conduct of their public affairs by the living voice in the open air." Professor Zueblin follows this popular democratic assembly down through the churches and the guilds and closes with these words: "The larger use of the school houses and the organization of social centers are not novelties. They are the twentieth-century revival and expression of that democratic spirit which has been vital at intervals, for more than two thousand years." Do you notice that when asked to discuss the historic antecedents of the modern social center, Professor Zueblin finds them in the ancient forms of free discussion and democratic expression. Now to the paper of Dr. Samuel M. Crothers, of Cambridge, Mass., "The American Historic Antecedents of the Modern Social Center." "The present movement for using the school houses of a city American for the promotion of neighborhood life is one that has a long history-as long as democracy. It is the attempt to adapt ancient usages to modern conditions. The sense of social solidarity which gives rich and deep meaning to the word 'neighbor' is in danger of being lost. The neighbor is the 'nigh-dweller,' but what signifies this if the door of his dwelling be shut? The house with its locks and bars becomes the symbol of exclusive individualism." Dr. Crothers then gives a brief survey of the democratic expressions in ancient Jewish times and in the meetings of the freeholders of the primitive townships on the old moot hills where England learned the worth of public opinion, of public discussion, the worth of argument, the common sense, the general convictions to which discussion leads, where England "learned to be the mother of parliaments." He then comes to America and traces the line through the New England town meetings and the democratic expression in the primitive schoolhouse. He ends with these words: "Those who are opening our school-houses for the largest public service are simply carrying on the traditions of freedom." Or turn to that description of the place of the public school in the early American community, which "Gene" Wood, whose memory is best, of all the men who write to-day, gives. ... Sing of the little red school-house on the hill and in everybody's heart a chord trembles in unison. As we hear its witching strains, we are all lodge brethren. We are all lodge brethren and the air is all Auld Lang Syne, and we are clasping hands across, knitted into one living solidarity. This is the true democracy that batters down the walls that separate us from each other, the walls of cast distinction and color prejudice and national hatred and religious contempt and all the petty anti-social meannesses." Do you notice that each of these, like those people who from within the social center wrote definitions of it, speaks first and strongest of the democracy, the freedom, of the ancient forerunners of the modern social center. Cut out this democratic foundation in the right of free discussion of all public questions and the line of descent of the in |