The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-03-03

point of view and from the literary aspect and the scientific viewpoint he thoroughly despised it.
 Some have wondered how this is, but therc is nothing to wonder about the matter at all.
 Day by day, week by week and year by year as the present system of society prevails, the main incen- tive socially speaking becomes more firmly set upon the shoulders of society. That is the quest for pro- fits. Literary ability of any kind does not amount to a row of pins unless it can be coined into dollars and cents, and the final determining influence over novelist, essayist and thing written will sell and pay well. An exceedingly clever English Australian cartoonist became the ad- mired of two continents and was sought by admirers from all over the world in his home in London. Phil May, that was his name, had certainly a wonderful pencil and q still more wonderful gift of humor. In Australia he had been a mGch1n- ist and was very glad to discover that as cartoonist he could make more money than by lathe work CT
 mechanical drawing.
 When at the height of his popu- larity, well known American who had somewhat hankering for art on the higher plane, and made po- pular a lot of gibberish about local color etc, and was quite a believer in art of arts sake, visited May and May and he had good time together, and went around the clubs and the slums and theaters until they finally supped together when the American proceeded to discuss art. May promptly cut him short inviting him to "cut out this art gulf; we all know" said he, that it's the money in art that gives it It's standing with the public as well as with ourselves.
 It is not g. very elevated way of regarding a gift that is not very common, but it is a common sense view and it is certainly the true one Nor can mon likc May be blamed The incentive that capital ism furnishes is the money -ncen- tive. It enters into every social ac- tivity whether literature, music or art.
 It is what sells that counts, and the Cohen who writes ragtimc is al- ways a much more prosperous and popular and happy man than the Wagner who writes grand opera. It is not the deprGved taste of the public; it is the depravcd influence of money that prevents any such thing as good taste and apprecation be lavished on the work of those who are not carried away by this mad incentive.
 Just take up the average maga- zine or monthly and note it's wilt ings, it's stories, articles and so forth. Then turn to radical monthly like the Masses and ob- serving the superiority of the latter, a strictly proletarian paper. brimfu, of the genius of radicalism. spark ling with wit, humor and good sense, consider that tho reason such papers as the Masses are few and far between, like an oasis in desert, is because there IS no money in such a paper to speak Of. The Sunday Supplement with Happy Hooligans secures dollars, the Mas ses with its terrific ability secures hardly cents.
 It is a fact therefore that the genius of any age is found in the revolutionary movement. The great est and most valuable work is the work that moves ahead of its com peers, that strikes out in new fields and opens up new ideas. But it has to be confessed that these do not pay. Thoy are not popular for the very simple reason that those who control the situation and make the ideas for the people, as the people | make the money for them to con trol, look with scant favor upon any form of thought that changes the system that has done so well for