When the forty-sixth session of Chautauqua opened in 1919, it found the land rejoicing over the conclusion of the war, happy in the return of two million men in khaki, apparently rich with high wages, booming business, and money in plenty. It was the top of a tide destined before many months to recede to normal conditions. But while the flush times lasted, Chautauqua shared in the nation-wide prosperity. This was the period of astounding financial drives. One great church commemorated the hundred years of its missionary enterprise by a centenary movement and a subscription of more than a hundred million dollars. Other churches followed with "New Era" and "Nation Wide" campaigns. It seemed to be the opportunity for Chautauqua to reap some benefits from the spirit of the time, and the trustees launched the "Comprehensive Plan" to raise half a million dollars, freeing the Institution from all debt and placing it on a safe, permanent, and prosperous basis. Here was a university of a hundred and twenty-five instructors, two hundred courses of study, and nearly five thousand students every summer, yet without a dollar of endowment;--what college in the land was doing so much with an income so small? Here was a property of three hundred and fifty acres, gradually accumulated, partly by the demands of the Institution's growth, partly from the necessity of controlling its surroundings. Debts had been incurred by enlargement of the grounds, a sewer system, a water supply, electric lighting, new buildings, new roads, and a hundred items of improvement. The overhead expenses of Chautauqua, in the form of interest that must be paid, were more than thirty thousand dollars every year. How much might be accomplished if every debt could be cleared away and the saving in interest be applied to the improvement of the property and the enlargement of opportunities? Mr. John D. Rockefeller made an offer of giving one-fifth of all that should be raised, up to the desired half-million dollars. The trustees assigned to themselves another hundred thousand of the amount, and a committee of the cottage owners pledged $150,000 from those having property on the ground. The plans were carefully laid, and during the season of 1919 every visitor at Chautauqua was called upon to make his contribution.