New-York tribune., 1918-12-15

the inveterate artist. He is slight. has
mild, childish eye and sports red Van
Dyke. The most unsophisticated would
hardly imagine he would make a good day
laborer., But men were needed; the GOV
ernment employment agent was taking no
chances, and the applicant was referred to
the company which was making the secret
device on Lafayette Street.
There the superintendent was inclined to
be doubtful Probably it was the red
whskers. However, the artist was per-
trying. So the superintendent decided to
make the experiment.
"Although," he said, "Ill tell YOU frank
ly that don't figure on your lasting more
than half a day.
That was the superintendent's mistake.
The dexterity which, if the superintendent
only had known it, is the heritage of every
trained artist stood the villager in good
stead. Inside of a week he had been
placed in charge of important assembling
work, and was in the way to get raise
in his starting wage of 40 cents an hour.
In the village manner, which is that of
all vagrant and poverty-stricken societies,
the word was passed around. William
Friedman, who is a composer, got a job
at the same plant. The digital dexterity
acquired in conquering arpeggios proved
equally valuable in sorting screws, and
Friedman became an assistant foreman
Two free versifiers went down together
one day and were placed at a hydraulic
testing machine. The report is that they
voted 1T the sweetest concordance of sound
they had ever heard outside Of a boiler
shop. At any rate, one of them is still at
work in the plant and the other received
such inspiration, either from the testing
machine the unaccustomed experience of
eating regularly, that he has since under
gone productive period" and has book
coming out this month.
Another prominent villager who got
job at the plant and held it was Watt
Williams, who runs sort of perpetual ex-
hibition, entitled "The Paint Box'-admis-
sion 10 cents. He doubled the previous
rate Of production for the job to which
he was assigned within a week after he
entered. Fred Booth, poet and dramatist,
secured a rating as a skilled workman.
| And there were many others. After all, 40
cents an hour, with compromise of ones
artistic principles involved, was 40 cents
an hour 1t wasn't question, either, Of
| deserting the village. One had only to
stroll over to Lafayette Street and go to
work. Then at night, if one chose and
was not too tired, he could join with the
rest of the village in Strengthening out the
marital relations, striking the last chains
from the harried workman, interpreting the
Bolshevik to an insistently stupid world,
meditating the postwar future Of neo-
impressionism and releasing the MONEYS.
AS result of all this there has been un-
precedented prosperity, food, warmth, bath
tubs and receipted bills in the village.
To-day only few of the villagers are
still working in the plant. The others
have returned to the pursuit of their vari-
Gus arts, equipped with sufficient funds to
last them for some time and the pleasing
knowledge that if they run out, they can
| probably go back to work again. But, Of
course, they won't unless they have to-.
| For, after all, the function of art has ever
| been to interpret labor rather than to do it.