Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-03-28
THE CITY'S PRIVILEGE
TO HONOR WHITMAN
Coming Centenary OF Unique Poet
Should Stir Phiiadelphias
Intellectual Titality

| N
"A page as to just what form Phiadel-
phia's celebration of the Walt Whitman
| centennial would take This has called
| forth a good deal of lively comment. Walt
| whitman is not dead by any means and
| 1t seems that the enthusiasts are planning
| various events in his honor.
The University Extension Society, al
ways among the first to show intellectual
hospitality to any currents of thought that
are of more than passing moment, arranged
! for series Of five weekly lectures by Prof.
Duncan Spaeth, of Princeton, which began
last night. Harrison S. Morris tells us that
he hopes a memorial meeting can be held
i'll the Masonic Temple in Camden, where
whitman was entertained years ago 1t
is also interesting, by the way that in
series of books now being issued in Italy
to tell Italians about Americas great men,
the first five volumes planned deal with
Lincoln. Grant. Jefferson, Whitman and
Longfellow. OF these. three have been
written by Philadelphians: Grant by owen
Wister, Walt Whitman by Harrison Morris
and Lonsfellow by Felix Scheing.
A MOST interesting suggestion that has
come to our ears is that of Homer
Pound, that the projected bridge to Cam
den should be called the Whitman Bridge.
But the most valuable feature of any
Walt Whitman celebration will be to learn,
if possible, to what extent Whtman's mes
sage has been absorbed by the younger
generation 1t was upon that hope that
Whitman himself based his confidence of
lasting usefulness. Just as the state of
esteem of Schillers poetry in Germany
has always been an accurate barometer of
German liberal-and democratic thought so
the appreciation of Whitman may be re-
sarded as kind of index of our ability to
grapple with the tremendous spiritual
problems Of the coming age.
MANY poet is celebrated in trium-
AVA phant centennial who is largely for
gotten by the time the two hundred mark
comes around. We doubt whether there
will be any vast hullabaloo for James Rus
sell Lowell in 20l9. whereas we are conf
dent that the Whitmaniacs of that year
will have a great deal to say. And it
will be worth saying.
MY volume is candidate for the fu-
ture," Walt said. He said it would take at
least hundred years to show whether
Leaves OF Grass was on the way to ac-
compllsh its mission. But many things
have happened to make backward glance
at his mind and work timely and healthful
just a this time He is the creates poet
of the world war The lapse of Years has
not invalidated a single line of his tri-
umphant paean. We have heard a news
paper writer, man compelled to deal only
with matters of daily and pressing import
say. There are only three books | cannot
get along without and have to keep on my
desk. They are Shakespeare. The Pill
grim's Progress and Walt Whitman
ntR own impression is that the great
" outburst of tumultuous and untram-
meled poetry in America in the last ten
1arr hon
Whitman. Frost, Masters, Amy Lowell,
Sandburg, Lindsay. Oppenheim, Eastman
and many others have gone to Whitman
as a vast energizing force. Much of our
younger music has been acrd, inchoate
crude and cropping. But it has had one
| great virtue: that of trying to see and
| tell the truth. Which is the first and last
| of all virtues.
We think that Philadelphia's intellectual
vitality at the present time may very fairly
be gauged by the response she makes to
the Whitman centennial.
| THE city as rule is not given to saying
| l. much about literary figures connected
| with her history This may bespeak a
commendable antipathy to boastfulness.
| but none the less it can work Injustice
| concerning names richly deserving of
| honor Boston is rubber-stamped as a
literary Shrlne, yet Philadelphia can
| warrantably be proud of Bayard Taylor
| Charles Godfrey Leland, Horace Howard
| Furness and Henry c. Lea, the latter one
! of the most remarkable and authoritative
| of historians in his special field. The CEN
! tenaries of the births of these gifted writ
ers are approaching Taylor's is only six
| years off.
A change in the whole attitude of the
| community toward great talents which
| ha- l,o,r ;,
| The Whitman celebration could most hap
| pily initiate the reform