New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-04-07
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
WHITMAN AND PAINE NEXT.

To the Editor OF The Tribune.
Sir: Your editorial OF this morning rela-
tive TO the Hall OF Fame deserves thought
full reading. IL is assuredly difficult TO de-
termine with exactitude the relative de-
grees of Importance belonging to the many
names Of which Americans are justly proud.
BY our personal Affiliations we are led TO
hasty partisanships. which fail 10 recognize
the larger view. On the whole, the COM
nlittee deserves commentator rather than
detractiOn, and the clamor over the adj
mission of some few names, 10 the exclu-
sion Of others deemed more worthy by
some OF US. may well he suffered to die
away. Assuming. then, that former de-
cisions may properly stand approved. II is
most desirable that frank discussion over
the respective merits OF the names not in
Clude1 therein should be carried on with
view 10 calling the attention Of the COM
mittee 20 all possible considerations. SO
far the only public controversy seems 20 be
that which centres around the name Of Poe.
IL is hard 10 see why this discussion should
paTtake of the acrimonious. Let the dead
cuarreIs bury their dead: the last few
years have greatly strengthened the hold
OF Poe on the reading public and ended
such lingering prejudices as prevailed for
some time. The friends of Poe need not
become violent; his exalted literary posi-
ton is now so thoroughly established that
there can be little doubt that he will re-
ceive the need of honor which scarcely any
lover Of American literature will deny to
be his due. Let it be so accepted. and let
the improbable dispute over it's hardness
or timeliness forthwith cease.
While It may probably be assumed that
Poe will this time receive justice, there are
two great names which are less certain to
he fifty honored. The conservative tendency
OF the committee. it is feared, will cause
it to be restrained by certain preIudices
from giving places in the Hall Of Fame to
Thomas Paine and Walt Whitman, al
though their claims rank far above nearly
any others not already in the place of
honor. Whitman, as the most truly Ameri-
can OF our major poets. pioneer Of piO-
neers, the very voice of democracy itself.
the most original genius Of our land, can
no longer be omitted without largely multi
Tying the representative character Of the
Hall of Fame. As TO Paine. not one name
i'll the department allotted to fOreign-bOrn
citizens passes him in intrinsic worth or in
the mightiness of services rendered to the
land Of his adoption. His work for Ameri-
to that OF Washington himself; and he,
more than any other one man, laid broad
and deep the foundations Of our democratic
Republic. As thinker. author, inventor,
loyal servant of liberty. he is
by none. It is a sad COM
mentary OH our gratitude and on our intelH-
gcnce that an infantile and shameless big
Otry should, in the twentieth century, in
woke such a triing matter of personal
opinion as mere religious heterodoxy to
overbalance long train of the most dis
tinguished public benefsctions. And yet we
boast Of our righteous adherence of the
vicious principle Of a union Of Church and I
state, Let us hope that the committee Will
DC sufficiently sensible of its duty to place
historic values above credal prejudices
and to give the authOr-herO OF the Ameri-
can Revolution" the honor which is long
since overdue
JAMES F. MORTON. III.
New York, April A. 1910.