The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-12-09
THE NEIW IGNORANCE.

Exchange in world thought is as far beloV
par as exchange in money is deranged. MOT
and more this has become forced upon the COZ
seriousness of those who deal in thought an
ideas as the trader does in sugar and floul
Drawn took it's tribute from the orgy OF slaugh
ter and misery; thought became lmpoverlshe
when frontiers ceased to be lines that men cross
ed eagerly to exchange new ideas for old and be
came lines of demarcation where hatred wa
bred and mental stimuli We're shattered. 10th
rop Stoddard calls this intellectual poverty o
the day 1.-The New Ignorance and crystalline
the thought of many persons on the subject Il
the December issue of Scribner's. It is true
as he says, that every civilized country sever
years ago contained large and active lntel
lectual class whose constant output OF Idea
was at once communicated to it's fellow citizen
and to the world by means of the printed page
Learned men came and went ceaselessiy to dis
cuss and debate with each other. Every dis
covery was dssected in a thousand clinics Nov
with stationary or diminished incomes tn
thinkers have sunk to a social status and con
dition below that of the manual laborer. Ih
incident to be related may be an extreme Illus
tration Of the times, but it points to condl
ion of supericiality that seems to prevail
Throughout lie country, tLlu Is looItlcu ny el'
class of ''literature' that finds Judgement IL
our magazines and between the covers Of some
of the books that have attained sales figured II
the hundreds of thousands. 1t is vouched for
however, by a we'll known writer, and here i
is, the scene being laid in New York City:
1t was the afterdinner hour. Chairs
drawn up in circle and cigars lighted All were
in immaculate dinner dress end their expressions
order. The
sation drifted literature Some person spoke of
Ivan MussOVitch, the great Russian reaist
"A great writer who has never been received
All heads nodded in approval. Seeming sympathy
the speaker-a novelist hmself-continued to
sound the praises of the mighty Russian Others,
he said, have only grazed the surface of life
but Mussovitch has gone to the heart of things
shown us our emotions and revealed the things
We knew were true, yet which we feared to look
upon"
Il wondering the other day said Of.
the group-a magazine writer the age of Musso
witch. A to have written with his under
standing have lived number of years
"Mussovitca,' said the admirer, will be so
years old the 3rd day of December, and while
that subject is up think it is fitting that We who
know of his great work shall in way
nemorate the suspicious day. Let it be
Ivan Mussovtch day and let the of
American letters get together and pay him trib-
ute
No dissented. All agreed that it would be
a splendid thing do A temporary chairman
the novelist who brought up his and ad
nired him so--was appointed. Later perma
organization TO be formed
That was, however, far as it has gone The
story has just leaked out and have the word Of
the responsible practical joker that it is all true
There is Mussovitch, far he knows
The writer manufactured his name on the spur
the his theory that among a
group of writing men no one will ever admit they
have not heard of any writer. However, most any
Of the crowd will now admit, if asked that
never heard of Ivan Mussovitch. And he will
throw in a couple of bushes to boot.