Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-11
ROAD TO CULTURE
SHOWN INSTITUTE
How to Attain 1t in u. S. Amid
Jazz-HoWling Radios
Suggested.
ny THOMAS X. HENRY.

UNIVERSITY. Va July 11.--WayS
for America to attain a higher culture
amid -howlmg radios, smokestacks
and snappy story magazines were as
cussed before the Institute of Public
Affairs here today.
encouragement Of the development
OF local cultures such as those oi
Virginia or New England, instead VI
one for the whole nation. was urged
by John Gould Fletcher, English poet.
The different sections. he SAID. nave
different attitudes based on different
race memories" and there Is no use
asking those types to merge their po-
tentialitieS in certain kind OF mixed
coSmOpolitaniSm. That way leads not
to profundity, but to Shallowntss. III
leads TO tabloids in place Of good news
papers. crime club fiction III place VI
the novel and Syndicatcd bunk III
place OF philosophy
I'VE have applied to culture which
Ia e spiritual matter" Mr.. F-!cher con-
unueu, our prevailing atmosphere VI
intensive induStriallSm. Regional cul-
ture cannot flourish III such an at
mosphere If We value more and bet
ter universities, more and better books,
plays poems. music AIT and archl-
lecture. We must stop valulng more
and better factories. Broadway sue
cesses Edgar Guest lyrics. jazz bands
and Hollywood byproducts.
Places for ParrOting Facts.
"I see no reason for Supposing that
merely by putting up elaborate buildings
and acquiring expensive school equip
ment you are going 10 produce cultured
individuals. That Is the same sort ol
a thing AS the suppOSition Of Henry
Ford that by improving the machinery
Of his factory he can produce happy
workmen. After all. the Ford factory
is school OF some sort, differing from
other schools in that the pupils are
paid to attend and that they have to
lose their individuality i'll order to be
successful. Most schools in America
today are simply places for parroting
facts
The ideal OF democracy We are told
Is life. liberty and the pursuit OF hap
pineSs. In place of this ideal we have
come to believe in routine conformity
and the pursuit of whatever made
thrill We can get from the by-wayS Of
life. The only cure for our Ills is n
return TO more thOroughgolng
regionalism than any Of us dare praC
tice today. We must decentrallze and
desvStematiZe ourselves"
The struggle of Virginia to save her
historic culture from "a wave of
militant and evangelical progress that
no grown-up in his senses really be-
lieveS in, and swarm OF so-eetters
was the subject OF an address by
Strin2fellow Barr editor Of the Viz
Einia Quarterly Review.
This cannot be done, he said by
wealthy persons buying up the old
plantations and trying ~ live the life
Of old times. which has been destroyed
forever by economic changes. 1t will
require, he stressed recognition Of the
hollovness of many Of The accepted
American values.
Few Like to Think.
And this. he continued, will involve
thinking, which is even less popular In
Virginia than in other parts Of the
world. No great number of people
anywhere like to think. particularly
those who have been through the
American public school. We VirgIniunS
have better alibi than most folks.
Many OF us decided long ago that
thinking was Yankee Trick. ike SELL
ing wooden nutmegS. This il one OF
the reasons why So many post -Dtllum
Virginians took to drinking instead
The Virginian did not take 10 the bot
tie merely to avoid the appearance Of
midGle-claSS morality. Even II the
middle class thought drinking respect
able l believe lac would have sun got
drunk. Actually drinking was his one
form of thinking, OF of avoiding
thought. A recent constitutional
amendment, backed up with Federal
Shotguns. has reduced the quality VI
drink. so bad drinking may drive uS
back to thinking. This is hardly i'll
tended as a defense VI prohibition"
Thinking. he said viii show Vir-
einlanS that a culture can be preserved
only through persistent revision In
terms of the times. rather Than "a futile
effort TO keep up the spirit VI the past
to preserve the atmosphere VI the
slave plantation III the day vi The
tractor. II VlrglniAns would look
around he said. they would md many
Mort hernerS and WesLeruers protest
ing against the very things that they
have branded AS Northern ideas.
If Virginia he said, would look upon
their culture III THIS way we would be
saved on the one hand from set of
sentimental defense nlecAAnlsmS and
on the other from swallowing ii bait
meaning modern lnduStrlallsm-our
more experienced Northern cousins ar
beginning to look On with very tiShy
eyes. We would be saved the sorrow
OF watching swarm " go-getterS
organize juvenile Jehad against the
very things that have always made
human life most worth living.
The breakdown OF regional groups III
the present American industrial pattern
was stressed by Prof r. ID. Mckenzie
OF the University Of Michigan.
The increasing mobility OF popula-
ton" he said, has disrupted the ira
ditiOnal bonds OF security and conlr
and created new problems Of adInini-
stratiOn and Welfare organization. The
life OF the average individual is DccOm-
ing increasingly Insecure. lie lives III
an eternal present, >hOrn from the
supporting traditions OF The family and
neighborhOUd and forced 10 change las
domici!e III response to a h!ghl$ stnai-
tive economy, over which lac has no
control.
1t is serious indictment OF th2t
economy that the masses OF our CIti-
zenship have recently becu precIpilately
tossed frlm the highest Vel Of ndlti-
dual income HnOWn To our country into
condition Of GeStltutlOn which sur
passes former records
Mosaics of Racial Groups.
The population Of the biz American
city. he said Is c.mpCS.> largely OF
migrants. Ain. l.csn clJIls he con-
tinucd. are outstanding Tor the COM
p,e:;itY Of the!r population. BUTT u,
they have been. largely from immigrant
peoples. they @le Virtual mo aics of Cul-
tural and racial groups.
There IS nDthlng to iAGi cate that
our different rati'l groups are D'Iom-
inc more evenly GlSpcrocd through cur
cities or thai diler> ut Income CLASSES
show a declining ttnaeucV to~ II
segregation. The widest culture dif-
feren"es :"e not between the country
and the but between dliI crent res
GENITAL a. within the city its'lf.
/ mis- mosaic pattern Of residential hV-
ing has to BE- accepted as natural
phenomenon. Tn. city cannot b. re-
garded as uniform biological and