| Show r About Our New Crop Culture t 1 l tl IN J 1847 a play by an American author was produced in a New York theatre It was the custom then as long since for Americans themselves to believe that that which represented represented represented I purest culture must come from over seas Before the curtain rose on this new play the leading actor stepped before the footlights and read a prologue poem-prologue which scoffed at the idea that an American could write a drama and then rebuked the sneer by emphatically declaring declaring ing that an American can The audience greeted the patriotic plea and the play with cheers Since that da day dad many Americans have written many great plays An American culture has expressed itself as well in iii the field of fiction poetry and philosophy in art music musie and in inI I 1 science I I Culture is just as much a crop as corn It is the refinement of the product of the cultivated field Growing great crops producing great j i bulk we have refined our output into the best makes of food and clothes the world has ever everi i known From the earth we dig both gold and andi andiron andiron i iron ore and through the refining processes 1 we produce the delicately intricate watch II The genius that can dig out the hillside and andi i convert it into a watch can find the melody of t I the brook in the the- string of the violin An American pianist who had acquired international international international inter- inter national note went vent abroad to play With the skill of 1922 she had the frail faith of 1847 1847 and had to go abroad to discover America In her first performance only once once and then for an encore did she play a composition penned by an American composer The critics rebuked her We know what European music musie is they said We came to get your message We came to rejoice over the harvest of your crop of culture Give us not that which is ours give us that which is yours t America is developing an architecture as distinct distinct dis dis- and as secure as that of Ancient Greece or Rome One of our greatest sculptors found his art on the parched plains of Utah One of our greatest painters came from a little town hidden in the foothills of the Adirondacks He has pictured for the future historian the romance romance ro ro- romance mance of the opening West O. O Henry the master artist of story short-story writing in the English language found his fic fiction c- c tion in the ranch life of Texas When a prize was recently offered for the best contributed movie scenario it went to an unknown writer from Apalachicola a small smaIl town with a big name Brains are found on Main Street as well as on Broadway The phonograph the radio and the moving picture screens are building not only appreciation tion but the creative genius to which appreciation tion bon responds d s. s We need no longer look east for the finer things That east is looking westward for that which we have to give We are ripening a crop of culture just as surely as we are ripening a crop of corn |
