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One word more before leaving this subject. Literature has not until recently enjoyed that degree of attention from the public press of Pittsburgh which it deserves. It ought to be the concern of every human unit in the nation to receive honest guidance in the development of literature; for literature, once again, is the written record of thought and action. Mobs will melt away when the units in the mob begin to think, and they will think when they read. Then will the law be paramount, and then will our institutions be safe. Thousands of our serious people annually subscribe for literary reviews of one kind or another in order that they may follow the rapid expansion of the written record of the thought and action of the world, when the whole department might be covered so admirably by our daily newspapers. Should not the newspaper give each household practically all it needs in criticism and information outside of the printed books themselves? How easily we could spare some of the glaring and exaggerated headlines over the daily record of crime, misconduct, and false leadership, which inflame the mind and the passions with evil fire, and how joyfully we would welcome instead an intelligent, conscientious, comprehensive, discriminating, piquant—in short, a masterful discussion from day to day of the written record of the thought and action of the world as unfolded in its statesmanship, its oratory, its education, its heroism, and its literature.
Allegheny Observatory, University of Pittsburgh