New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-31
A MARKET for Mind.

age is that which contemplates an Organi-
cation of Industry, whereby every human
being able and willing to do anything use
ful shall have an unfailing opportunity
therefor secured to him, while those who
as yet have no such capacity shall be en-
abled surely and promptly to acquire it.
We have endured and sacrificed somewhat
for this idea, and mean to do more for 1t.
No matter whether this or that particular
mode of accomplishing the end should prove
the right or the wrong one, the end itself
must be achieved. 1t lies directly In the
path on which the Human Race must adj
vance to that condition of general intelh-
gence, independence and happiness which
prophets, poets and sages have foreseen-
for which philanthropists have lived and
martyrs died.
Thus far, while something has been done
and good deal said in behalf of the Or
ganization of Manual Labor on some sys-
tenn of mutual helpfulness and self-suPPort'
little attention or thought has been directed
to the Organization of Intellectual Force
on the same basis. And yet there is no
class which suffers more for want Of or
panization than that of Inventors and Lite
rary Men. If new invention equal In
value to the Steam Engine, were made
tomorrow by a poor man, land inven-
tons mainly proceed from this CLASSY it is
quite as likely to starve him to death as to
enrich him, and more likely to keep him
bankrupt than to secure him competence.
His prospect is at best lottery, in which
the blanks immensely outnumber the prizes.
In Literature, it is still worse. An un-
known author who should write a poem
equal to Paradise Lost or Childe Harold
would have great difficulty in finding
publisher who would accept the copyright
as Gift, and might esteem himself for
tunate if he should. While the world
overflows with books devoid of ideas,
wretched in diction and slip-shOd in gram
mar, the best thoughts and the best think
ers of the age can with difficulty find
audience. The man of ideas and of pur-
pose is naturally reserved and silent with
regard to the merits of his own productions;
if not really self distrustful, he is reluctant
to show them up to be judged and priced by
any pOrtly individual who is able to look
from the inside across q booksellers coun-
ter; so his manuscript lies neglected in his
drawer, while voluble and brazen COM
mon-place puts forth volume after vol
ume, and pushes them to second or third
edition.
There is palpable, urgent need of Lite
rary Exchange, wherein the products OF
the brain may be gagged and tested by
other than parental or incompetent Judg-
ment-where the cultivated intellect may
find, if not employment, at least a certain
ty that for him there is no employment
Now, thousands waste years in fruitless au-
thorship who ought to and should have
been told at the outset that there is no hope
for them in that field. A simple Literary
Tribunal of decided and acknowledged ca
pacitv. which, for fair consideration,
would examine and pronounce Judgment on
all manuscripts which might be submitted
10 them, would be of immense service.
simple intimation from such source that
particular work did not indicate the quail
ties which would be likely to attract public
favor, would often decide the future course
of the author, when fifty booksellers ver-
diets would never affect him. Such an Or
oanization as we are contemplating should
have its agents to negotiate in behalf of au-
thors for the publication Of their works on
fair terms, and its office, where ali seeking
employment as Editors, Writers, or IN any
Intellectual capacity, may learn what
chance there is for obtaining it, and on
what terms it may be procured. If this
agency did no other good than to show the
hundreds seeking such employment that
there is no earthly chance for them, it
would still be of far-reaching utility.
The nucleus of such an Organization,
we are happy to learn has already been
formed in this city, and an office for it taken
in Broadway. We shall not here stop to
consider the particular plan Of this Organ
ization, for we do not expect perfection at
the outset. We rejoice that any such
movement has been set on foot, and will