from where we are, we must take things "as is; we must "accept the universe" and try to fashion it as best we may with patience and good humor.

Although the road to the community center goal is difficult, nevertheless the hope of ultimate success has the best of guarantees. It is buttressed by unescapable necessity. The solid basis on which this hope rests is the lack of self-sufficiency. On this fact society itself is founded. On this principle, Plato constructed his republic. No community nor nation, as well as no individual, is self-sufficient. This applies both to the supply of physical necessities and the supply of food for minds and souls. No nation, as no man, can long live a Robinson Crusoe type of existence. They have a community of interests. All men are political animals. They must have with each other some kind of business, either good or bad. The community center movement merely aims to make this business good instead of bad. The obvious sanity of this policy is the guarantee of its ultimate triumph.

While a lack of knowledge concerning both the spirit and method of democracy makes the road to this goal a difficult one to travel, yet the rewards by the way are always in proportion to the hardships. The satisfaction of working for a cause bigger than one's private advantage is never lost, whatever be the fortunes of the cause itself. Eric, a dying soldier boy in France writing his last letter to his father and mother, well expressed both the satisfaction and its cause when he said: "To a very small number it is given to live in history; their number is scarcely 1 in 10,000,000. To the rest it is only granted to live in their united achievements." This is the experience not only of vision-seeing, chivalrous youth who have not yet exchanged their ideals for their comforts, but it is the experience also of a mature man like Thomas Jefferson. When the long shadows fell across his life and he came to write his epitaph, this is what he wrote:

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson author of the DECLARATION of

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

of the

Statute of Virginia
for

Religious Freedom

and father of the

University of Virginia.

It is highly significant that he never mentions the fact that he had been governor of Virginia, Secretary of State, minister to France, twice President of the United States. That is to say, he never mentions any personal rewards, anything that the people had done for him, but only what he had done for the people, only the service which his genius and loyalty had rendered to the community causes of democracy and education. This alone is what he cared to remember with joy and pride. This is why the community-center movement is justified in claiming the major loyalty of all soldiers of the common welfare.

PART III.

A SUGGESTED CONSTITUTION.

The following is the constitution prepared by the writer for a community center in Washington, D. C., and is reproduced here as a suggestion to other communities:

PREAMBLE.

We, the people of the Wilson Normal Community of the City of Washington, D. C., in order to secure the advantages of organized self-help, to make public opinion more enlightened and effective, to promote the education of adults and youths for citizenship in a democracy, to organize the use of the public school as the community capitol, to foster a neighborhood spirit through which the community may become a more efficient social unit, to prevent needless waste through the duplication of social activities, to engage in cooperative enterprises for our moral and material welfare, and to create a social order more in harmony with the conscience and intelligence of the Nation, do ordain and establish this constitution.

ARTICLE I.-NAME.

The name of this organization shall be the Wilson Normal Community Association, and its headquarters the Wilson Normal School Building.

ARTICLE II.-LOCATION.

The community shall be defined as follows: Beginning at Fourteenth and W Streets, thence north on the east side of Fourteenth Street to Monroe Street, thence east on the east side of Monroe Street and Park Road to Georgia Avenue, thence south on the west side of Georgia Avenue to Irving Street, thence east on the south side of Irving Street to Soldiers' Home, thence south on west side of Soldiers' Home, McMillan Park, and Reservoir to College Street, thence west on north side of College Street and Barry Place to Tenth Street, thence south on the west side of Tenth Street to W Street, thence west on the north side of W Street to Fourteenth Street, the place of beginning.

ARTICLE III.-MEMBERS.

The members of the association shall be all the white adult citizens of this community, both men and women. A limited number of nonresident members may be received into membership, provided they are not registered members of any other organized community. Organizations now in operation which are nonpartisan, nonsectarian, and whose aim is the public welfare, such as

66

"Citizen associations," "Home and school leagues," "Red Cross chapters," "Women's clubs," 66 College settlements," Housekeepers' alliances," desiring to retain their name and identity for the sake of cooperation with other branches of similar organizations, may become departments of this association. There shall be no suggestion of superiority or inferiority among the departments. The members of each department shall have the same standing as all other members.

ARTICLE IV.-OFFICERS.

The association shall elect by ballot from its own members a board of directors, or community council, which shall be both a legislative and an executive body. It shall consist of not less than 6 nor more than 15 members. They shall be elected for a period of three years, excepting for the first year, when one-third of the number shall be elected for one year, one-third for two years, and one-third for three years.

The chairman of the committee in charge of each department of the association shall be a member of the board of directors. A chairman may be appointed by the board or selected by the department itself and confirmed by the board. Chairmen shall have the right to select the members of their own committees. The community secretary, whose public election is provided for by the board of education, shall be a member of the board of directors and a member ex officio of all committees. It shall be his duty to exercise general supervision over all the activities of the association, and to nominate, by and with the consent of the directors, all assistant secretaries. They shall have the right to attend all meetings of the board and take part in the discussions. but shall have no vote.

As soon after the annual election as convenient the directors shall meet to organize, and shall elect from their own number a president, vice president, and a secretary-treasurer, who shall perform the duties usually performed by such officers, and who shall also be the officers of the association.

ARTICLE V.---DEPARTMENTS.

The board of directors is authorized to organize and operate departments of activity, such as forum, civics, recreation, home and school, buying club, and community bank, whose activities shall be supervised and whose accounts shall be audited by the board of directors.

1. Forum Department: The committee in charge of this department shall arrange for public meetings, at such times as the association may decide, for the free and orderly discussion of all questions which concern the social, moral, political, and economic welfare of the community. It shall select a presiding officer for such meetings, secure speakers, suggest subjects, and formulate the method of conducting discussions.

2. Recreation Department: The committee in charge of this department shall provide and conduct games, dances, community dramas, musicals, motion pictures, and shall promote all similar play activities, with a view to increasing the joy, health, and good fellowship among both adults and youths.

3. Civics Department: The committee in charge of this department shall provide the members with the means of securing information concerning politics, local, national, and international; it shall stimulate a more intelligent interest in government by the use of publicity pamphlets; it shall suggest ways in which the members may contribute to the economic and efficient administration of the city's affairs; it shall provide courses of studies for young men and women

as a preparation for citizenship, and devise methods of organizing the youth into voluntary, cooperative, and constructive forms of patriotic service.

4. The Home and School Department: The committee in charge of this department shall seek to promote closer cooperation between the school and home, the teachers and parents; it shall aim to improve the school equipment, to secure more adequate support and better housing conditions for teachers; it shall organize and conduct study classes for youths and adults; it shall provide such ways and means or remove such obstacles as may be necessary to enable all children to remain in school until they have finished the grammar grades, whether these obstacles be the kind of studies now pursued in school, the home conditions of the children, or the economic conditions of the community.

5. Buying Club Department: The committee in charge of this department shall organize and operate in the school a delivery station for food products with a view of decreasing the cost of living; it shall establish a direct relation between the producer and consumer in order to eliminate wastes; it shall seek to safeguard the people's health by furnishing the purest food obtainable; it shall aim to moralize trade by giving full weight and measure and substituting public service for private exploitation; it shall eliminate debt by asking for no credit and giving none; it shall practice economy and equity in order to secure a larger return to the producer and decrease the cost to the consumer. An anual fee shall be required of all members of the buying club, payable quarterly in advance, to defray operating expenses, the amount of the fee to be determined by the committee, and it shall be decreased or increased as the number of members and volume of business warrant. All members shall secure their goods at the net wholesale cost price.

Goods shall be cold only to members of the buying club. Membership in the buying club is open only to members of the association and only to those members who are depositors in the community bank.

The buying club shall set aside annually a sum equal to 2 per cent of the amount of its sales, to be used by the association for the purpose of educating its members in the principle and practice of cooperation, until public appropriations are sufficient to provide the means for such education.

The club shall set aside annually a sum equal to 1 per cent of the amount of its sales as a reserve fund to cover unexpected losses.

The committee in charge of the buying club shall serve without compensation but may employ one or more executives to conduct the business of the club, who shall receive compensation for their services, the amount of which shall be fixed by the committee, but the amount shall be determined, as far as possible, on a percentage basis according to service rendered.

All checks, drafts, or notes made in the name of the club shall be countersigned by the chairman of the directing committee. The executive in charge of the buying club shall be required to givé a surety bond.

6. Community Bank Department: The committee in charge of this department shall organize and conduct a credit union bank for members of the association in order to capitalize honesty and to democratize credit, and to multiply the efficiency of their savings by pooling them for cooperative use. It shall be known as the "Community Bank." It shall receive savings deposits both from children and adults and shall make loans. It shall, if possible, be a part of the curriculum of the school, at least as regards deposits of children. The committee in charge shall serve without compensation, but may employ one executive to conduct its business who shall be required to furnish a surety bond.