The forty-third Assembly in 1916 found our country in the throes of a presidential election, party strife bitter, and the nation divided on the impending question of our entrance into the world war. The feverish pulse of the time was manifested in the opinions expressed by the different speakers. Dr. George E. Vincent gave a lecture on "What is Americanism"--a sane, thoughtful view which was needed in that hour. The week beginning Sunday, July 23d, was devoted to the subject of Preparedness for War or Peace. The Ford Peace Expedition of that year will be remembered, the effort of a wealthy manufacturer to stop the war. Several who had taken part in that apparently quixotic movement spoke in defense or criticism of it, and also the question of preparedness was discussed by Governor Charles S. Whitman, President Hibben of Princeton, Hon. Henry A. Wise Wood, Senator W. M. Calder, and others. Mrs. Lucia Ames Ward, of the Woman's Peace Party, was opposed to any participation in the war or preparation for it. The controversy waxed warm, for the opinions were positive on both sides. On subjects aside from the war we had an enlightening series of addresses at the Devotional Hour by Dean Charles R. Brown of Yale; a course of lectures by Dr. Edwin E. Slosson on "Major Prophets of To-day," Bernard Shaw, G. K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, and some others; a series of lectures by Dr. Percy F. Boynton on "The Growth of Consciousness in American Literature,"--as shown in Irving, Cooper, Emerson, Lowell, and Whitman. Raymond Robins gave four lectures on "The Church and the Laboring Classes." Dr. Griggs awakened general interest by his lectures on "Types of Men and Women," as illustrated in their autobiographies and letters, presenting John Stuart Mill, Benevenuto Cellini, George John Romanes, Marie Bashkirtseff, Sonya Kovalevasky (a new name to most of us), and Henri Frederic Amiel,--all possessing characters pronounced, some of them so peculiar as to be almost abnormal. The Russian Symphony Orchestra, with its beloved director, Modest Altschuler, was with us again for another week, aided by the soloists and Chautauqua Chorus. In our rapid survey, we have only glanced at the prominent events in a great season. CHAPTER XXIII WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH (1917-1920)