The second decade of The Symposium began on January 11, 1915 with a presentation at The Old Barracks by ex-governor Edward C. Stokes on the topic "Peace," which, considering the state of affairs in the world at large was eminently appropriate.

In January of 1916, the persistent problem of attendance at meetings once again raised its ugly head. This time, instead of advocating the enforcement of the constitutionally-based attendance rules, Judge Gnichtel offered the following resolution with a request that a copy of same be sent to each member of the Symposium

"Resolved that the membership of the Symposium be increased to thirty members"

"A motion by Mr. Griffith was seconded and passed authorizing the Secretary to arrange for new quarters for the future meetings of the Symposium."

Thus did The Symposium move to its new meeting place, The Contemporary Club, located at 176 West State Street. That continued to be the venue for the regular meetings on and off until February, 1933.

The first meeting at the Contemporary Club, held on November 13, 1916 was, according to the minutes "of an informal nature, the discussion being relative to the advisability of seeking means to insure a more regular attendance, and confining the papers more strictly to the members themselves than has been done in the more recent past." The average attendance during 1916 was only 10 out of 22 members.

Though no decisions were reached at the meeting, in December, Linton Satterthwaite made the following two motions:

"Resolved, that the Symposium elect from time to time permanent guests, to a number not to exceed five." (This was seconded by Mr. Moore and unanimously carried. Six names were submitted to the Committee on Membership to be reported at the next meeting.)

Throughout its history, The Symposium strongly rejected any suggestion that its deliberations be made public. On a number of occasions, the membership was instructed not to discuss or repeat any statements made during the discussions at the meetings. However, In January, 1917, a grand exception was made to this tradition. The speaker at the meeting was Major General George W. Goethals, the Chief Engineer of the recently opened Panama Canal. A reported from the Trenton Times-Advertiser was invited to the meeting and, in the issue of January 9, 1917, an article titled "GOETHALS TALKS TO SYMPOSIUM: Panama Canal Engineer Gives General Survey of the Work, with Motion Pictures" appeared. Here is the text of that article:

General George W. Goethals, engineer of the Panama Canal, lectured on the general subject of the canal before the Symposium at The Contemporary Club House last evening. John J. Cleary, president of the Symposium, introduced General Goethals. The lecture was illustrated by a reel of motion pictures, projected by Charles W. Kimble of this city.

General Goethals spoke on "The Building of the Panama Canal," and his talk was divided into three topics, respecting the slides in the Cutebra Cut, the toll system, the canal as a business enterprise and the cost and relative usefulness of the stream to the United States.

General Goethals said he believed that the improvement would eventually pay for itself. Last year, he said, the profit from the sale of coal alone was $400,000, while the sale of commissaries brought something like $40,000.

Answering a question from the audience, he said that the canal has been fortified and that the country reserves the right to close it at any or all times to foreign traffic, whether during the time of war or peace, and that the United States has the authority to search or hold and or all ships that pass through the canal. He said that the damage done by the slides in the cut had been reduced to a minimum and the ultimate cost of the work reached the sum of $376,000,000, of which about $10,000,000 has been realized through the operation of the canal. He said that vessels using the stream are assessed a toll of $1..20 per 100 cubic feet of cargo, which aggregates to about one ton. At the present time, he said, the canal is used more by Denmark, *Norway and Sweden than by other countries.

Among the well-known men at the lecture were Governor-elect Walter E. Edge, former Governor, E. C. Stokes, John A Campbell, F. W. Roebling, Sr., Charles G. Roebling, John H Scudder, Newton A. K. Bugbee,, Henry C. Moore, Charles E. Hewitt, William N. Mumper, R.V. Kuser, former Supreme Court Justice Alfred Reed, Vice Chancellor John H. Backes, Assistant United States District Attorney Joseph L. Bodine, Frank S. Katzenbach, Jr., former Judge Frederick W. Gnichtel, Robert A. Messier and many others.

The middle part of the second decade of the club's existence was a quiet time organizationally. There is little of note in the minutes other than a vote in January, 1921 to increase the number of "Permanent Guests" from 5 to 10. This was the inevitable result of the continuing pressure for additional members in order to increase attendance at meetings and the apparent reluctance on the part of the body to increase the constitutionally authorized membership above the twenty-one which had been established in the 1912 amendments.

In February, 1917, when the "Permanent Guest" category was established, the number was set at 5. Thus, along with the constitutionally authorized membership of 21, the club was able to have 26 active participants. In that year, the actual number was 22. However, in 1918 it jumped to 27 and then to 29 in 1921. By increasing the number of Permanent Guests from 5 to 10, the club managed to bring the actual number once again within the technically authorized number.

Trenton's glamorous new Stacey-Trent Hotel opened on September 21, 1921 and just 19 days later, The Symposium held its October meeting there. While the hotel was modern, the club's presentation that night remained well within the traditional borders of club discourse: the Reverend Hamilton Schuyler, founding member, spoke on "The Religion of the Future: A Forecast."

The 1922 Annual Dinner Meeting, held May 19th at the Trenton Country Club marked a milestone in the history of The Symposium. It was the first time that more than 20 members were in attendance at a meeting (there were also 12 guests present). The speaker was Roland S. Morris, former United States Ambassador to Japan, and his topic was "Some Aspects of the Russian Situation."

From November, 1922 until April, 1923, The Symposium met the Old Stonehouse Tea Shop, 320 West State Street. There is no indication in the contemporary minutes why a change in the meeting location took place, but following the Annual Dinner Meeting in May, 1923 at the Trenton Country Club, the meetings returned to the Contemporary Club.

In 1922 there were 21 regular members and 10 permanent guests on the roster. However, Henry Collin Minton, Jr., the son of one of the founding members, was advanced for membership. To accommodate him, in December, 1922, the number of permanent guests was increased from 10 to 11.

1922 also represents the year in which the Treasurer's report first appeared as a part of the minutes. It reports disbursements of, among other things, $70.00 for suppers, $94.50 for the annual dinner, and $21.90 for cigars.

In May, 1923 the Annual Dinner Meeting was held outside Trenton for the first, and to date only, time. The group journeyed to the Fountain House in Doylestown, PA where 16 members and 11 guests heard a paper by David Lawrence, President of the Consolidated Press Association and founder of both the White Press Corp. and US New and World Report magazine. He spoke on the topic "National Politics."

In commemoration of the completion of two decades of scholarship and camaraderie, Hamilton Schuyler, at the meeting on December 15, 1924, "brought to the attention of the Society that fact that the Symposium had completed its twentieth year and he offered a motion that a committee be appointed to prepare and print a second decennial book to give the history of the society for the past ten years.

The motion was seconded by Judge Gnichtel who subsequently offered an amendment to the effect that Mr. Schuyler be appointed a committee of one with power to carry out that suggestion.. The amendment and the original motion were unanimously passed" and the booklet, titled "Twenty Years of the Symposium: 1904-1924" was published three months later at a cost of $157.00.

Also, at the December, 1924 meeting, the members finally decided that it was time to amend the membership requirements in the Constitution. They adopted an amendment to Section II - Name and Membership, Section 1. increasing the number of authorized members from 21 to 40. The days of the "permanent guests" were over.

At the same time, Article IV - Membership, Section 4. which read "Any member absent from four successive meetings, not having been excused, shall thereby forfeit his membership, and the Secretary shall certify each vacancy to the Club at the next regular meeting." was deleted and the subsequent sections (5, 6 and 7) renumbered. Why this section requiring attendance at the meetings was deleted is not made clear in the minutes. Perhaps the members realized that, since it was not being enforced, it should be removed.

On the other hand, to address the issue of improving membership participation in the meetings of The Symposium, first raised by William Libbey thirteen years earlier, the following sentence was added to Article II - Name and Membership, Section 2.:

The second decade of The Symposium brought some major changes to its character. The number of members (and permanent guests) increased from 21 in 1914 to 33 in 1924, an increase of over 50%. And with the constitutional limit having been raised to 40, the problems of membership, and thus of meeting attendance, would appear to have been solved - at least for the time being.

During the decade, Frederick C. Clark, William A Clark, and Henry Minton Collin resigned and James M. Green died, leaving only three of the original 14 founding members active: Foster C. Griffith, Linton Satterthwaite and Hamilton Schuyler. Four other members resigned and two died, but 22 new members were added to the roster. Among them were:

A number of well-known persons addressed The Symposium during this period. Already noted were General George W. Goethals and David Lawrence. James C. R. Ewing, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Punjab spoke on "Political Unrest in India, John B. W. Gardner, Military Consultant to the New York Times spoke on "Results of the Washington Conference" and Clifford M. Holland, Chief Engineer of the New York and New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission (and after whom the tunnel is named) spoke at the May, 1924 Annual Dinner Meeting on the topic "The Building of the Interstate Vehicular Tunnel."

However, as contrasted to the fact that 82% of the presentations during the first ten years were delivered by symposium members, in the second decade, only 65% were the product of member's efforts. This represents the motivation behind the constitutional amendment discussed earlier and also the beginning of a trend which will be noted several times in the years to come.

Beginning in 1914, the practice of treating the office of Vice President as a springboard to the Presidency became more firmly established. Except for Scott Scammel, who was Vice President in 1915 but resigned from the club in 1917, all of the vice presidents in the second decade were elected to the presidency the following year. Frederick C. Clark resigned the office of Secretary-Treasurer in 1917 and was replaced by Howard L. Hughes, who served until 1932.