The Public Forum and the College
F OR a number of years the two communities of Fargo, North Dakota, and Moorhead, Minnesota, have maintained a public forum during the winter season. These two communities on either side of the Red River of the North are closely knit together in their social, cultural, and educational activities. Forwardlooking citizens formed the FargoMoorhead Open Forum, and drew as liberally as they could upon the funds and the facilities of foundations, local colleges, and other institutions, supplemented by a local budget. The open-forum idea was certainly well understood and was liberally patronized up to the winter season of 1938-39In August, 1938, the North Dakota Agricultural College and the local committee sent out a number of invitations to near-by communities requesting that they participate in a more extensive forum program. The local forum committee agreed that the program for the year should be under the direction of the College, and suggested that invitations be sent to neighboring towns to participate. This invitation was accepted by Fairmount, a town of about six hundred people, which is fifty-five miles south of Fargo; by Wahpeton, the site of the State School of Science and a town of three thousand, which is fifty miles to the south; by Kindred, a rural community of five hundred people to the southwest; and Mayville, a town of twelve hundred, fifty miles to the northwest, and the home of one of the state normal schools. It was interesting to note that the public schools, institutions of higher learning, women's clubs, the American Legion, churches, and commercial clubs were quite active in sending representatives. At this meeting the whole program of the open forum was discussed at length. It was the unanimous opinion of those who attended that the Federal government should be approached, through the Office of Education, with a request that these five centers be established as a part of the demonstration program then being conducted by the Federal government. The request was sent in and an immediate answer informed the committee that a demonstration center would be established with Fargo as the headquarters. This word was conveyed to the five communities involved with the request that they call a community meeting and discuss the whole program. The final plan provided one forum meeting a week in each of the five com-