New Britain herald., 1930-12-12
IIdIIUH.
 Marital Relations Changed

Marital Relations Changed These writers assume the rela- tionship between husband and wife is the same in an apartment in a 1 30-story palace today - with three motorcars below and five books on l the library shelves and a divorce inn minent-as similar relationship in five-room cottage in 1880" I Lewis recalled that the awarding 1 of the Nobel prize to himself the 1 formal ceremony was on Wednes- day) was not altogether popular in America" He then praised the work of Theodore Dreiser, Eugene O'Neill, | James Branch Cabell, Willia Gather, Henry L. Mencken, Upton Sinclair, Joseph Hergesheimer, Ernest Hem- | ingway, Sherwood Anderson.
 Tt would have been almost as evil to have chosen one of them as myself, but as a chauvinistic Ameri- can I rejoice that they are my countrymen," he said.
 While industrialism. finance and science flourish in America. the only respected art is architectural, Lewis said.
 "Must be Decorator or ClOwn' | "The American artist is consider 1 ed a failure without butler, mo- tor and a Palm Beach villa where ] he often is permitted to mingle all 1 lmost on terms of equality with the ] banking barons,' the author said. | ' :, iet iro ornracSn5 hy p- i thing worse than poverty. He IS op- pressed by the feeling that what he i creates does not matter and that readers expect him to be a decora- 1 tor or a clown.'
 Remarking that the artist in the United States is without an institu- | ton to which he can turn for inspir- 1 ation and acceptable criticism or valued praise, Lewis said the Amer ican Academy of Arts and Letters "has no relationship with American life and aspirations"
 He said the academy included a l few excellent members, such as Nicholas Murray Butler and Edith Wharton, but he deplored the omis- sion of Dreiser O'Neill and 16 other writers as the exclusion of most Of our few giants" On the other hand, he said, the academy found room for bad poets, insignificant play vrishts and two gentlemen known only because they are presidents of universities.
 "CoIlcges Divorced From Reality" | Most universities and colleges in the United States are divorced from reality. he said,
 These and the American musical emporiums, schools for teaching of theology, plumbing and sign paint i ing are as thick as motor traffic. he ] continued. Students in America cv- eryUhere are equally ardent about avoiding the disadvantage of becom- ing learned and about gaining social prestige or a bachelor Of arts de- gree
 Ridicuics College Football He ridculed what he termed the inflated importance" Of college foot ball and told his audience of scholars that "a great college football game is passionately witnessed hy S0,000 ! persons who paid five dollars apiece and motored ten 10 a thousand miles for the ecstasy of watching 22 men chase one another up and down q curiously marked field.
 "A capable player nearly ranks with our greatest and most admired heroes, even with Henry Ford Her bert Hoover or Colonel Lindbergh," ," he said,
 Condemns |. s. Writers
 He condemned the usual courses in literature at American universi- ties.
 American professors like their literature clear. cold, pure and very dead" Lewis said. Criticism in the United States, despite wealth Of talent, lis chill activity pursued by jealous spinsters former base ball reporters and acid professors"
 He referred to Hamlin Garland the American novelist and drama tist, as the inspirer of his own youth but he said he was afraid Garland would be acutely annoyed to know he enabled me to write of America as l see it"
 Lewis speech was written during his ocean voyage to Sweden to re. ceive the Nobel prize.