Show The Poets of Industrialism I j I jI 4 I A AN N English literary magazine magazin recently Undertook undertook un- un 1 a discussion of American poetry After long consideration it concluded that America does not breed poets and has today no no poetry really worth mentioning A country that cannot produce songs is IS' ISina in ina a bad way But leaving the defense of the home-bred home poets to our own literary critics we can an call to mind a little story told by Otto H. H Kahn famous New York banker and ana art patron in a recent address Mr Kahn told of taking a dist distinguished European visitor to see the late E. E H. H Harri- Harri rn n railway magnate who was supposed to tobe be an extremely hard-boiled hard business man After the interview the the- European turned to Mr Mi Kahn and said I r Why that hard-boiled hard Harriman of yours is Js a great poet only he rhymes in rails a great many men like Harriman Hardman Harriman Harri Hard man men men who ho are born poets but who l weave Veave their harmonies out of steel and con con- crete The land is covered with their master master- pieces nieces They have taken the nation and shaped it into a mighty epic in which h the cantos are tales of cities that were built mountains that were cut in in two ri rivers ers that were harnessed and deserts that were spanned What is isa a poet anyway Is Is he not a aman aman man who has greater vision than the rest restI I- I of ofus us a man who rho can see harmony where i f we can s see e only discord who can look beyond beyond be be- yond ond the confusion of the present and s see se e turmoil resolving itself into peace who can detect meanings where we can see only chaos And who of all men in America does exactly this this but but the business leader This does not mean that Ford could have Been Deen a Shelley if he had tried or or that Rockefeller Rocke Rocke- feller ller is a Shakespeare in disguise It does not me mean n that a great painter was wasted when J. J P. P Morgan entered his fathers father's banking bank bank- ing hg house or that Samuel Insull should have pent spent his youth in a conservatory of music But it does mean this every nation in every very age has produced certain outstanding gifted men who were able to sound the chord to which their fellows would respond And Andin ih in this country today those these men are the industrialists 4 It It is our fate to make our poetry our poetry out of materials instead of words Ir lis is our destiny t to lb be in tune with the harmonies of factory mine an and railroad Let us make the most of it ft We Ye have our poets Some day the world Mil b begin gin to appreciate the meter in which sing they 1 |