FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



maintain on a most healthy basis a community-center building 

 fitted to take care of all activities for which such buildings 

 are erected. The state that has taken the lead in the estab- 

 lishment of community centers is Wisconsin. The community 

 building at Spring Valley, a village of one thousand inhabit- 

 ants in Pierce County, is typical. It is 50 x 100 in dimensions 

 and cost $7,388. The building is used for the following 

 purposes : 



" Entertainments, shows, plays, moving pictures, entertain- 

 ment courses of the extension division of the state university, 

 school plays, amateur theatricals, banquets and suppers, har- 

 vest festivals, political meetings, good roads meetings, farm- 

 ers' institutes, dancing parties, art exhibits, band practice, 

 orchestra practice, meetings of the town and country club, 

 public receptions, social parties." 



During the past few years many manufacturing plants and 

 large business concerns have erected community buildings. 

 Some of these are solely for employees, while others are quite 

 liberal in the matter of extending the privileges of member- 

 ship. Of special interest is the fact that such community 

 buildings are becoming more numerous in the rural districts 

 and encourage the residents of the farming sections to become 

 members. The most widely known of this class is the large 

 community building of the Hershey Chocolate Company, of 

 Hershey, Pennsylvania. 



G. The Rural Chautauqua 



Most persons are quite familiar with the great Chautauqua 

 movement of the nation. It has not been so many years since 

 Chautauqua, New York, inaugurated the movement that has 

 become nation wide. In the early years, however, only a few 

 institutions similar to that in New York were established, but 

 gradually the number increased, and finally the larger towns 

 and many of the cities began to provide annually for a week 

 or more of entertainments under the auspices of a Chautauqua 

 Association. The villages seemed to be too small to finance 

 a Chautauqua program. But as time passed, as the Chautau- 



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