The sun., 1916-02-06
Endow ments for Genius.

The secretary of the American Acad-
emy Of Arts and Letters, Mr.. RoBrgr
I UNDERWOOD JOHNSON. has urged the
establishment Of an endowment fund
for the beneti' of authors and artists.
Authors who have aspiration but not
inspiration arr not useful members Of
society unless they put their Pegasus
between the shafts of hack work or
make writing m nvoca'ion while
some prosaic Job supplies the bread
and butter. CHclopHdia work l. a
trade more hazardous of unemploy.
ment than engagement in the me.
.clunic industries. Pure literature
pays loftily or not AZ all. Those who
write out Of intellect. involving slow
preparation, in research and laborious
attention 10 detail In execution. learn
the bitter lesson in literary economics
of n "law Of diminishing return"
The scholar works for others. per
haps for posterity. NJ. FAnRE knew
how "baro" pit,ance could be-.
The poet in his garret is profit.
uhi" creature of poets well fed. VII
LoS lived on roguery. Was HEATS
killed by u hostile coalition of critics.
publishers and public Wha, was
Il. Inference between the Chatiprton
boys end and the suicides. nn cpi-
demic. Of several gloomy British au-
thors not mauy years ago. Does
genius "qu'": How commercial ha.
tn" MUSE a right To- be-: How much
doe. the world owc those who write
for II. whether with intent 10 enter
tain IL or to Instruct it:
Mr. JoUN-oN wants II MRconas 10
le priesidium ct dulce declis. not. pre-.
sumably. to H"rutiun> only. il such
there be now upon earth. and In Uncle
SANS plot of it; hut To artists Of
many mouds. II QrINrUs FLACCus
had not lived until this day he would
be writing summer resort booklets
and rhymed "ad>" of soaps, motor
vars HilI i'ii f>lhlf lhC HI> IINiHk'
Poet. laureate "f England are en-
duVcd. Was il worth while with
flESRy JAMES PYE and some more re.
cent wearers Of the laurel Did II
make the fortunes Of TtNNYsoN or its
absence mar those Of his great con-
temporarirsi Would tABLyLE. DICK.
ISs. THACKERAY have done more for
the world WELDING subsidized pens?
The general principle put forth ap-
peals To universal sympathy; rather
more. no doubt, than 10 Individual
possible patrons or to public disburs-
ing agencies. But practical difficult.
ties swarm. Ms: Who shall deter
mine. and how. the merit Of appli-
! cants? Who shall select. and on
what principle of relative appraisal,
the hcnefciurips? The more unde.
serving the applicant the more plaus-
ible, In nll likelihood. would he the
| would inevitably e given without
adequate return upon the investment
and oversight of the truly meritoriOus
might nggravate. not mOllify. the I'M
happiness and waste whose remedy
would he the projects aim. And
what Of that well known sensitive
pride Of writer's and artists, which
Mr.. JOHNSON recognizes? Could the
hencticence be so disguised, so dena.
! tured. as to remove from II the Odirlm
of "charity"? "The endowment of
opportunity" Is a gli,trring phrase
Is Its radiance genuine? But this
sentence bites in:
"lt In somewhat amazing that in all
the discussions OF the obligations Of en-
ployers to the industrial workman very
! little attention Is paid to the relation
ship OF the literary and artistic profess.
sion to the higher life OF the people"
Democracy hates genius. II will
be extremely interesting TO see what
the Academy Of Arts and Letters can