MEETING OF THE WOODSTOCK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS
JULY 8, 1930
by Martin Schutze
The Woodstock Historical Society originated in the realization that an important period in the history of .Woodstock, with its characteristic personalities was passing and that the memory of that period and those persons would soon be lost in the rapid pace and the confusion of the present (the present is always confusing! ) unless a proper record were made of it.
It is even now difficult, except for those who were here at the beginning of the new era of Woodstock to realize the extent and significance of the changes that have taken place in the last thirty years. And of those persons, many have already passed.
The period now about to close began with the founding of "Byrdcliffe" by Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead, Hervey White, Carl Eric Lindin and Bolton C. Brown. The history of 'Byrdcliffe," and, beginning a little later, that of the "Maverick" are essentially chapters in the history of Woodstock.
But Woodstock is a comparatively old community. It was founded in 1787. At the beginning of "Byrdcliffe" it was a cozy-established village, beautiful and settled, with a definite life and character. To preserve the memory of that character and the stages of its growth is another task worthy of a concerted effort.
Why should we be interested in history? The present is so insistent, so absorbing, so apparently different from the past and so self-sufficient, that the effort to grasp it might be more than enough for our powers. Those who are concerned with doing the practical work of the moment, are so full of it that they are prone to see virtue, or at least proper economy of time and strength, in ignoring the past. The past has not that instant urgency, that coercive practical and emotional potency characteristic of the present.
But has not every generation had a similar feeling towards its past? Is it even consistent to permit our interest in the present to submerge that in the past? Is not the very vitality and urgency of the present a sufficient reason for wishing that it might be preserved from the fate of slipping into the unrecorded past, into the irretrievably forgotten? The present is such only for the moment. Even these words that I am uttering, one by one, as you hear them, fade into the past.
The present is not self-sufficient, except to those who are still enjoying the few privileged years of first love. After these brief years life must become aware of continuity of effort and growth.
Progress, to be foot-free, does not have to be severed from the past. On the contrary, to be real it must be continuous of the best in the whole previous life of a community as well as of an individual.
The proper function of history is to support, strengthen and point out true progress by preserving the vital elements, and the sense of a growing whole, and the permanent values slowly and laboriously created in the past. History gives power and authority to conviction, stability and breadth to our judgment, and firmness and constancy to our better purposes. Without the wider perspective, the patient sense of the working of the mills of God, which we gain from history, energy becomes too often violence, vision a blind fanaticism, idealism a feverish disregard of reality, and conviction harsh coercion. If one is accustomed to the large views of history, to the slow pace of enduring progress, one is less easily confused by new conditions, less hastily alarmed and excited by the threats of trouble and corruption. One knows that if one holds firmly to that which has shown itself as permanent, the false and annoying things will soon of themselves reveal their true nature - and the more noisy and insistent they are, the sooner they will do so - and perish in their brief season like weeds. Thus one gains time and strength to concentrate one's undivided efforts and convictions on the best and enduring only.
On the other hand, history will also teach us to distinguish and preserve the good which may be hidden in the apparent evil. Change is the law of life. Only death is - at least in theory - without change. The person living in the present only is prone to test the value of change solely by his own immediate private interests. If an invention or innovation is made - no matter how beneficial to the whole - the man who loses his income through the change, unless he takes the wider view of history, will exert himself to prevent the improvement. The man without the enlarged view of history is likely to become the bitterest reactionary. The greater the progress, the sharper will be his opposition.
History can teach us to turn change into true and permanent progress, by giving us standards for separating from the deleterious and destructive in change that which bears a promise of greater fullness of life and happiness.
History is impartial. It is no agent of anyone particular purpose or conviction or desire. It does not enter directly into the conflicts of the day as a protagonist. It tries to understand in the light of what preceded and what may follow. It tries to view the present and the probable future in and accurate perspective of continuous development.
History is the record of what later generations intelligently and sincerely believe concerning the past and wish to join to their own present, thus enlarging, enriching and deepening their own lives.
But why should we choose such a wide perspective in regarding the life of our little Woodstock? Is it not pretentious, like aiming at a seagull with a naval gun? I hope it is not so. I believe that the promise of Woodstock is as great as that of any place in the past which has become a high seat of civilization. I do not believe that there is in this or in any other country a village which has achieved in less than one generation a richness and comprehensiveness of culture and cosmopolitan importance as this little village in the Catskills has achieved. And I hope that our Woodstock Historical Society, by recording and preserving all the best in this continuing progress, will have a vital share in the rise of Woodstock as a historic center of a great civilization
