Opening his series of Harvard University Godkin Lectures, Professor Charles E. Merriam of the University of Chicago, noted authority on modern government, will lecture today on the subject "On the Agenda of Democracy."

The lectures will be given at the auditoriam of the Littaner Center of Public Administration at 8 o'clock, and are open to the public without charge.

Subsequent lectures in the series of six, to be given this week and next, will be: Wednesday, "The Consent of the Governed"; Friday, "Democracy and Common Counsel"; December 9, "Democracy and Administrative Management"; December 11, "Elements in a Democratic Program, II"; and December 13, "Elements in a Democratic Program, III."

On National Resources Board

Professor Merrlam has been a member of the National Resources Planning Board, president of the Social Science Research Council, and president of the American Political Science Association, and has been chairman of the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago since 1911.

In addition to being Godkin Lecturer, he will conduct courses here as Visiting Lecturer of Government during the second half of the academic year.

Besides his university work and his services to the national government, Professor Merriam has entered politics in Chicago, serving as city alderman for six years, running as candidate for mayor, and serving as chairman of the Commission on City Expenditures.

Written Many Books

Among Professor Merriam's many publications in political science are "The New Democracy and the New Despotism", 1939; "Political Power," 1934; "The American Party System," 1922; "American Political Ideas," 1921; and "History of American Political Theories," 1903.

The Godkin Lecture Foundation, one of the most famous here, was established in 1903 in memory of Edwin L. Godkin, editor of the New York Evening Post and the Nation magazine, "for the delivery and publication of lectures upon the essentials of free government and the duties of the citizen or upon some part of that subject."