Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-01
WOES OF LITERATURE
Rudyard KipIing Tells Why
Authors Are Underpajd.
LIVING AND DEAD COMPETE
Yet the Naked Phase Is the Power,
He Asserts.
MAKES AND UNMAKEs EMPIRES
Speech at Dinner Of Fund That Aims
to Nullify Mere Whims
Of Time.
MAKES AND UNMAKES EMPIRES

LONDON, June l-Rudyard Kipling
presided recently at the annual banquet
OF the ROYAL Literary Fund. the we'll
known charity for authors. and his speech
in proposing the toast of the evening was
worthy the attention Of a larger audience
He said:
IF you go no further back than the
Book of Job you will fipd that letters.
like the art of printing. were born per-
feet. (Hear. hearD Some professions.
law and medicine for example. are still IN
state of evolution inasmuch as no ex-
pert in them seems to be quite sure mat
he can win case or cure colo. On
the other hand, the calling OF letters car
ries with it the disabilities from which
these professions are free.
when an eminent lawyer or physician
is once dead he Is always dead. HIS
ghost does not continue to practise in the
| law courts or the operating theater. Now.
| 1t cannot have escaped your attention
that a writer often does not begin to live
| till he has been dead for some time. In
| certain notorious cases the longer he has
| been dead the more alive he Is. and the
more acute is his competition against the
living.
Heavy Hand 1s Dead Hand.
II do not ask you to imagine the feel
ings of barrister exposed to the compe-
tition of all the dead lord chanceliors
that ever sat on the woolsack. each de-
livering judgment on any conceivable case
at Cd per judgment. paper bound. / only
ask you to allow that what lawyers call
the dead hand'-in this case with a pen
| in titles heavy on the calling of letters.
I'm other callings of life there exists
| convention that what q man has made
shall be his, own and his chtldren's after
| him. With regard to letters the world
| decides that after very short time all
| that a writer may have created shall be
taken from him and. shall become the
property Of anybody ard everybody ex-
| cept the original maker.
This may be right 1t may be more
| important that men should be helped TO
think than that they should be helped to
live. But those on whom this righteous
ness is executed find 1t difficult to es-
they find II difficult to feed one.
That letters should be exempted from
the law of continuous ownership seems
TO constitute another handicap on the
calling. Most men are bound by oath or
organization or their natural instinct not
to work for nothing When his demon
| urges a man of letters to work he may
do SO without any regard to wages or the
| sentiments of his fellow workers This
may be incontinence or inspiration.
Sacrifices Of Authorship.
Whichever 1t is we must face the fact
and its consequences that at any moment
a man of letters may choose, to pay not
only with his skin. but in cash and credit
for leave to do his work-to say the thing
he desires to say. This. is perhaps not
fair to himself or his fellows but 1t is a
law Of his being. and as such constitutes
yet another handicap.
rs II not more reasonable to hold that
the triple handicap l have mentioned and
not SO much individual folly is responsible
fo- the high percentage Of casualties
among men of letters? Men perpetually
past: men debarred by law from full pos
| session of their own works in the present:
uen driven from within to work whether
their world desires hat work or not:
such men must always enjoy the privilege
accorded to minorities. They must suffer
Much of this suffering is inevitable.
but some OF it the fund. by your good
help. can reach and alleviate as few
other institutions can. 1t has had over a
century's experience of all the chances
and misfortunes than can overtake men
and women. Its work Is done. we
would desire 1t to be done in our own
| case. with silence and discretion, and for
that very reason It is difficult. the re-
port says, 10 DFlH& nome lHe value vi Tic
work to the public.
True Test Difficult.
perhaps this is not the only case where
the public is difficult to persuade. Few
people seriously believe that the public
success or failure Of any work has neces-
sa-ily any bearing upon its real value. II
1t had the public would be as gods know
ing good and evil. 1t Is difficult to find
true test: but suppose that men and
women at large could be compelled to re-
member and realize TO themselves, and to
say honestly what writer's of their time
had most directly Influenced their inner
lives. The answers might be unfattering
to such of us as think that we make or
shape thought. We should come across a
thousand instances of good work-faithful
loving and inspired work-already forgot
ten and always unacknowledged. except
by the very few 1t was destined to reach
I'VE might also discover cases where
the blessed canons of art would seem to
have recoiled upon themselves-puzzling
cases where the apparently fragrant pot.
boiler had turned a man from destruction
| quite as effectually as an angel with q
| flaming sword: cases where piece OF I'M
thinking buffoonery had steadied a man
| through the ten vital minutes of life's
crisis where cheap sentiment and rank
melodrama had helped to lift some poor
soul to humility or sacrifice or strength
tiidt lie knew not ne possessed
| Il am making no excuse for medioc-
| rfty. ] only say 1t is possible that If
the full record of unacknowledged inf'u-
| ences were ever revealed we might end
| by believing that in the kingdom of let
| tiers also there is neither first nor last.
Mercifully that record will never be sub
/ mitted.
Qualified as Judges.
But we. the first matter OF whose
work. great or small. must be the human
heart-we can frame our own Judgments
Being craftsmen. we know where we our
selves have been helped in insight. SYM
pathy or suggestion by the work of our
| fellow-cratsmen. For the same reason
We can trace the influence of their work
on the lips and in the minds Of unsus-
pecting men and women the world over.
| Though the writer is supposed to love
the writer not mere than the potter loves
the potter. yet in everything that touches
the mysteries and the perils of the craft
all writer's are one. BY virtue of the
| burdens which press on us all equally
when we stand upright we know what
weight a brother must endure when he
| falls. We know how much OF his soul
| may live in the sunshine: how much OF
1t must step apart to be master or serv-
ant to shadows.