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1924 was a turbulent year. Hitler, sentenced to five years imprisonment, was released after only eight months, Japanese immigrants were barred from coming to the US., J. Edgar Hoover was named Director of the FBI, The first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France, and Leopold & Loeb got life sentences for murder. George Gershwin composed "Rhapsody in Blue" and both Giacomo Puccini and Victor Herbert died.
As the third decade of The Symposium began, meeting continued to be held at the Contemporary Club. However, in February of 1925, the group met at the home of Dr. George N. J. Sommer who was also the speaker for the evening (he chose as his topic, "Hobbies: Their Therapeutic Value") and in December the group met at the Trenton Country Club.
A reading of the minutes indicates that the years from 1925 through 1929 were organizationally uneventful. The minutes of the Annual Dinner Meeting, held at the Contemporary Club on May 20, 1929 are an interesting exception to this. Colonel Ralph Heywood Isham spoke to the group on the topic, "Manuscripts of the Celebrated James Boswell" and the minutes of that meeting state: "In the estimation of the members, Col. Isham's talk was the most interesting in the history of the Society."
In November of 1929, the site of the meetings was moved to the Trenton Country Club. There is no evidence in the minutes of the reason for this change (the Annual Dinner Meeting in 1930 was held at the Contemporary Club). In June, 1931 a special meeting was held in the Dutch Room of the Nassau Inn in Princeton. The speaker was General Jay J. Morrow, Governor of the Panama Canal Zone and he spoke about the political implications of the operations of the Canal.
But trouble seemed to be brewing. Beginning in 1930, the minutes begin to reflect a concern for the future of the society. Attendance at meetings was seen as very poor (37% of the active membership in 1929, 36% in 1930, 47% in 1931 and 38% in 1932). The number of members actively participating in presenting papers to The Symposium was also greatly reduced from experience in the past - only 8 of the 19 presentations between 1930 and 1932 were made by members.
In January, 1932, a motion was made to appoint a committee to consider the feasibility of merging the Symposium with another similar Trenton Group, amended to include an investigation of "means for making more active the present membership." A 7-man committee chaired by VP Malcolm G. Buchanan was appointed. At the February meeting, the committee reported the following recommendations:
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- Amend the Constitution so as to increase the membership limit to 50 and no more
- Repeal Article IV, Section 6 of the Constitution ("Each member may invite one non-resident guest to one meeting each year.")
- Request the Membership Committee to endeavor to complete the maximum membership.
- Call to the attention of the members that their attendance at, and participation in, the meetings is essential to the success of the club.
- Call to the attention of new members who have not yet read a paper or made an address, that under the Constitution they are not considered fully qualified members until they shall have done so.
- Continue the policy of having papers or addresses by non-members as well as by members; but that at least half thereof, in any one year, be by members.
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It was moved and seconded that an amendment increasing membership from 40 to 50 be placed before the members at the March meeting. (Malcolm Buchanan offered an amendment that membership be increased to 80 which failed.)
These recommendations sparked a good deal of discussion at both the March and April, 1932 meetings, and both meetings involved a number of Symposium members in group presentations, presumably in the spirit of recommendation 5 above. At the March meeting, Messrs. Mueller, Stokes, Bain, Bellis and Wetzel discussed "The Pressing Problems of Unemployment" and at the April meeting, Mr. Loser and Drs. Abbott and Spaeth discussed "Scholastic and Collegiate Athletics."
Nevertheless, no formal action was taken on any of the recommendations made by the committee at the February meeting and no apparent efforts were made to increase the enforcement of the constitutional requirement for participation.
For reasons that are not stated in the minutes there was no Annual Dinner Meeting in May, 1932 - the first time since 1907 that this had happened. There was, however, a special meeting held at the Trenton Country Club on June 6th at which Jacob G. Lipman, Dean of the Agricultural College of Rutgers University, spoke on "the Land Factor in Our Economic System."
Evidence that the problems of the organization had not been resolved is provided by the fact that, on December 14, 1932 a business meeting was held for which no minutes were kept, though on the following day, the president, D. Parry Forst, wrote a letter to Rev. Hamilton Schuyler, the last surviving founding member stating, "It would be a shame to let the Symposium die a natural death."
It is also evident that at this closed meeting a decision was made to permanently change the structure of the groups' meetings. Beginning with the first meeting of 1933, the group met for dinner at 7:00 PM followed by the business meeting and the presentation of the evening. This practice, with some small changes in the details, has continued to the present day.
The regular meetings continued to be held at the Trenton Country Club (as they would be for the next 36 years until March 5, 1969). There was again no Annual Dinner Meeting in May, 1933, but in November, an Annual Dinner Meeting was held at the Old Barracks. The speaker was J. Duncan Spaeth, Professor of English at Princeton University and a member of The Symposium. His topic: "Germany Under Hitler."
In sum, the third decade of The Symposium mirrored the state of the country: complacency during the first half (1925 through 1929) and disruption and uncertainty thereafter (1930 through 1934).
The last three active founding members died during the decade: Linton Satterthwaite in 1925, Foster Griffith in 1928 and Hamilton Schuyler in 1933. Four additional members died and 10 resigned during the period. Thirty new members were added, though 14 of them resigned before the end of the decade (perhaps an indication of the turmoil going on in the organization).
Nevertheless, among the new members were a number of leading citizens of the area:
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William A. Wetzel, Principal, Trenton High School
Ellis L. Pierson, Counsellor-at-Law
William J. Ellis, Psychologist, New Jersey Dept. of Institutions and Agencies
Frank Graham Holmes, Chief Designed, Lennox Incorporated
Roscoe L. West, President, New Jersey State Teachers College - Hillwood
John Van Buren Wicoff, President, Broad Street National Bank
Andrew B. Hammitt, President, H & B Enterprise Corporation
Alfred P. S. Bellis, Chief Engineer, John A. Roebling Sons Company
Frank D. Schroth, Editor and Publisher, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
J. Duncan Spaeth, Professor of English, Princeton University
James L. Martin, President, Walter F. Smith and Company
Paul Loser, Superintendent of Schools, City of Trenton
Sackett M. Dickinson, Deputy Attorney General, State of New Jersey
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As mentioned above, the attendance record for the decade was exceptionally poor:
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Year |
Percent of Members
Attending Meetings |
Year |
Percent of Members
Attending Meetings |
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1925
1926
1927
1908
1929
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47%
41%
45%
41%
37%
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1930
1931
1932
1913
1934
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36%
47%
38%
45%
50%
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There were 73 papers presented during the decade, only 24 of them (33%) by members of The Symposium. The topics, once again, ranged widely as can be seen from the following table.
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Subject |
Frequency |
| Subject |
Frequency |
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Archeology
Art and Music
Athletics
Biography
Biological Sciences
Ecology
Economics
Education
Engineering
Health and Medicine
History
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1
7
3
1
2
1
6
6
2
1
6
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Hobbies
Journalism
Law and Law Enforcement
>Local Affairs
Mental Health
Public Policy
Society
Technology
Symposium Affairs
Travel
World Affairs
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1
2
2
2
1
7
3
1
2
9
9
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Among the speakers were Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, Charles P. Messick, Secretary of the New Jersey Civil Service Commission, Abraham Epstein, Secretary, American Association for Old Age Security, David Fernsler, Director of the Associated Press, Jay J. Morrow, Governor of the Panama Canal Zone (mentioned earlier), Whitney Darrow, Vice President, Charles Scribner's Sons and A. Crozer Reeves, New Jersey Senator.
In the decade from 1925 to 1934, only two men who served as Vice President did not go on to serve as President. William E. Green was Vice President in 1928 but was unable to accept the presidency the following year because of illness. Louis G. Beers was Vice President in 1932 but, in 1933, Howard L. Hughes, long-time Secretary-Treasurer, was elected to the office of President. He was succeeded in the role of Secretary-Treasurer by James L. Martin who held the office until 1941.
With the death of the last three active founding members of The Symposium, it is appropriate to mention a practice, commonplace in the early years of the organization which has since been discontinued. Up until 1976, it was the custom, upon the death of a member, to assign someone the responsibility of composing a eulogy and, at the following meeting, reading it, incorporating it into the minutes and sending a copy to the surviving spouse or children.
Most of these eulogies were beautifully written and, obviously, carefully thought through and composed. They also served to give the reader a clear picture of how the deceased was viewed by his fellow Symposium members. Here are the eulogies for the last three active founding members who died during this decade:
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1/12/1925: Linton Satterthwaite
Resolved, that the Symposium place on record its sincere sorrow over the death of Linton Satterthwaite, one of the Charter Members of the Society and, up to the time of his illness, a regular attendant at its meetings.
One of a group of a dozen men who in 1904 organized the Symposium, he is survived in its membership by only two of his former associates. It was he who read the first paper before the Society, the subject being "Divorce" and from time to time he also contributed other papers. He was always listened to with attention and respect for it was recognized that he spoke the results of his own clear thinking and strong convictions. Whether men agreed with him or not was a matter that appeared to give him no concern and no opposition ever availed to disturb his equanimity or to cause the least diminution in his courtesy or sense of fellowship. Enthusiastic and even aggressive in his advocacy of measures which he deemed for the welfare of mankind whether in the political, moral or social sphere, he yet was quick to see the force of the arguments on the other side and to concede the equal sincerity of his opponents and their right to maintain and express contrary views.
As a man, as a citizen and as a friend Linton Satterthwaite was fully deserving of the esteem and affection which his associates in the Symposium cherished for him and his removal hence will leave a distinct void in its membership.
10/8/1928 Foster C. Griffith
The late Foster C. Griffith, whose recent death is so sincerely mourned by a self-limited circle of his former business and social acquaintances, was a charter member of the Symposium. His connection with this association was deeply prized by him and he seldom missed a meeting.
Though naturally of a retiring disposition and constitutionally averse to mingling generally in conventional social life, he delighted in the companionship of a cherished circle of intimate friends and was seen at this best in the give and take of a congenial group. His conversation was seasoned with the salt of natural wit and illuminated by wide reading. A lover of good literature, with a predilection for works of history and biography, his mind was stored with a fund of knowledge which a retentive memory enabled him to draw upon at will, thus providing a valuable contribution to the common stock.
Never loquacious, he yet took his full share in the current discussions and enlivened the proceedings with flashes of wit and turns of humorous expression that were always delightful. Abhorring self-assertion in all its forms and singularly incommunicative in regard to himself and his affairs, he yet had the gift of inspiring the confidence of others and tacitly conveying to them the assurance of his friendly interest and sympathetic understanding. A man of high principles and deep religious convictions, tolerant in respect to differences religious and political, charitable in his judgments and in his readiness to assist all good causes,
Griffith has left behind him a memory worthy of esteem and honor on the part of all who came within the circle of his acquaintanceship. Though his oddities were marked and his prejudices sometimes unaccountable, they merely served in the case of those who knew him intimately to add flavor to his personality and zest to his talk. His presence will be greatly missed by his associates in the Symposium and his name and memory cherished within the circle of the Society.
2/29/1933: Hamilton Schuyler
Dr. Schuyler was the last of the founders in the present membership of the Symposium. His contributions to it were unsurpassed, whether judged by the quality and number of the formal papers he presented, by his skill in provoking discussion, by the constancy of his attendance or by his tireless devotion to the society's purposes.
Dr. Schuyler was possessed of a keen mind, wisely enriched by reading and travel. His taste was exquisite, his humor bright, his stories apt and sparkling. He never uttered a platitude, a tactless or unkind word. With perfect understanding and with boundless energy he devoted his heart and mind in ministry to others, a ministry both to the intellect and to the spirit. He was never a captious critic, but always a leader. Cant and dogmatism were unknown to him. The books which he wrote, like his life, were painstakingly accurate and true. He was a Christian gentleman and a friend who charm ever increased.
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