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The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought

Contents

Articles

Tax Reduction: A Defense

Johnson in Scotland: New Life Amid the "Ruins of Iona"

The Musician as Performer

Quiet Voices, Unquiet Times

The Language Invasion: Words in the Museum

When Kansas Said Yes to "Right-to-Work"

Verse

Gentle Rain

Spring

Moses Not Good Enough

Low Mass for Hyannis

Sonnet: Chicago and Hydrostatic Spring

Jamil

Roller Skating Rink

A Poem for Home

A Poem for F. B.

Abstract

in this issue. . .

OBVIOUSLY, controversy is characteristic of most discussions of questions of contemporary importance. While the editors of THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY deliberately selected controversial articles for inclusion in our last (January) issue, it was not our aim or objective to make this issue controversial to the same degree. Examination of our table of contents, however, and closer examination of the six discussions therein, will undoubtedly disclose and generate as much controversy as our last issue. It may be that questions arising from Dr. Samuel Johnson's visit to Scotland (just before the American Revolution broke out) will not engender very many passionate outbursts from our readers, but editorial comments on the other five discussions here published indicate a number of points of view somewhat at variance with those of their writers. And that, in the editorial view, is the way it ought to be.

TAXATION, with or without representation, is a reliably controversial subject, as MORRIS L. STEVENS asserts in the first paragraph of his defense of the Kennedy Administration proposal for tax reduction. At the suggestion of the editors, Professor Stevens late last fall began a careful examination of the subject, and as the winter progressed, his conviction became stronger that the proposal was a sound one. As anyone who reads newspapers and current periodicals is aware, there are those who passionately disagree with his findings. Despite this, his analysis of many of the major aspects of the problem is recommended because it represents a point of view widely held by professional economists. Recently promoted to professor of economics here, the author has studied various forms and problems of taxation for many years. He first appeared in this journal with an article on the problems of full employment in our issue of January, 1960.

WHILE STUDENTS of eighteenth century English literature naturally make the acquaintance of Dr. Samuel Johnson and his inseparable companion, James Boswell, the vast majority of our readers may well have forgotten that the two toured Scotland (or at least "The Western Islands") in the year before the declaration of American independence from Johnson's England. MICHAEL L. LASSER, who teaches American Literature and a survey of drama at Rutgers Preparatory School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, enjoys enduring interest in the eighteenth century, and certainly Dr. Johnson looms large in the literature of the period. Mr. Lasser did his undergraduate work at Dartmouth College and has a Master of Arts in English from Brooklyn College; he is gradually working toward a Ph.D. in literature at Rutgers University. His articles haye appeared in The Literary Review, The Journal of the Rutgers University Library, Explicator, and Discourse.

MUSICIANSHIP is a subject rather removed from the general run of experience, and the editors were uniformly enthusiastic when MERTON T. SHATZKIN, associate professor in the department of music here, read a paper last summer before the faculty Liberal Arts Seminar, directed for the past several years by our own Theodore M. Sperry. Professor Shatzkin's subject was "The Musician as Performer," and we prevailed on him to translate his lecture to the essay appearing in this issue. From his vantage point as an experienced performer in numerous concerts and recitals and as a member of some five different symphony or philharmonic orchestras, he speaks with real authority on the complex problems of accurately performing the music of past centuries. Professor Shatzkin joined the faculty here in 1960; he teaches violin and plays in the faculty ensemble, and this season is presenting three programs involving the complete Beethoven sonatas for piano and violin, an extremely ambitious endeavor. A native of Pennsylvania, he received a diploma in violin from the Juilliard School of Music in New York in 1950, and the masters and Ph. D. degrees in the theory of music in 1958 and 1961, respectively, from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. He has considerable orchestral experience behind him, having been a member of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, concert master of the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra for two years, and a member of the Rochester Philharmonic during his Eastman School period. In the summer of 1959 he played with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D. C., on a three months Latin American tour, and currently he appears with the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra.

LAST SUMMER a manuscript came up from Texas with the rather overwhelming title "Major British and American Poets of the Twentieth Century." Editorial criticism tended to concentrate on the title; the substance won quick approval and even enthusiasm. Its author, ARTHUR M. SAMPLEY, is professor of English at North Texas State University, Denton, and he was immediately agreeable to our recommendation for a shorter and more attractive title. Not every reader will agree with his judgments, but he does make a good case for the four poets who emerge at the top of his list. Most appropriate, in point of time are his paragraphs dealing_ ~with the American poet, Robert Frost. Professor Sampley's critical articles have appeared in Publications of the Modern Language Association, Studies in Philology, College and Research Libraries, College English, and The Shakespeare Quarterly. His verse has appeared m The Saturday Review, The Georgia Review, The University of Kansas City Review, The New Mexico Quarterly, The Arizona Quarterly, and Prairie Schooner, inter alia.

STRANGE THINGS are going on in art museums these days, according to JAMES STEEL SMITH, professor of English at San Fernando Valley State College, North Hollywood, California, and he is not exactly happy about them. Neither, for that matter are several members of the editorial board, particularly those who' have visited museums recently. One editor commented tersely: "I have a year of museum-going fresh in my memory. He is right. I would like to publish this." At the risk of losing whatever subscribers we may currently enjoy in the ranks of museum curators, the rest of the editors generally agreed. Certainly Professor Smith has a fresh and energetic approach to the question and is not at all inhibited in expressing himself. His doctor's degree is in English from the University of California at Berkeley, and his articles have appeared or are soon to appear in The American Scholar, The English Journal, The Art Journal, College English, Criticism, The South Atlantic Quarterly, and Harper's Magazine. His verse has been published m Harpers, Poetry, Experiment, and elsewhere. In addition, he is co-editor of two college textbooks, has contributed children’s stories and poems to various magazines and anthologies, and paints. As his article indicates, he has more than a casual interest in methods of presenting art to the general public.

LIKE TAXATION, labor-management problems are guaranteed to provoke controversy, no matter what the time, place or circumstance. Last January, before the Kansas State Legislature had been very long in session, the question of possible review or repeal of the so-called “Right-to-work” amendment to the state constitution (enacted in 1958) came up for discussion. This suggested to us that a manuscript we were then examining which dealt with the right-to-work campaign of 1958 might possess more than ordinary interest. Its author, LEO SANDON, JR., was born in Coffeyville and is a graduate of Baker University at Baldwin. From his graduation in June, 1957, to September of 1958, Mr. Sandon was resident minister of Blue Mound and Selma, Kansas, which provided him with the occasion for his interest and involvement in the right-to-work debate. In the fall of 1958 he went east to study philosophy and theology at Boston University from which he received the bachelor of sacred theology, cum laude, in June, 1962. Currently, he is a special student in the Harvard Divinity School and assistant pastor of the Original Congregational Church of Wrentham, Massachusetts. He is a pastor-theologian whose interest in American history and politics "naturally converges in a concern for Christian ethics and social responsibility," a point of view readily apparent in his article herein.

CONTINUING flood-tides of poems make possible the generous offering of selected verse in this issue. Of the eight poets whose work appears in the following pages, only three are new to THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY. BARBARA DENHOLM of Garden City, New York, modestly calls herself an "apprentice in the craft of verse-making" with "no degree and few accomplishments." She has had a few poems published, she admits, but "in a few very small magazines--the sort that promptly go out of business." Undisturbed by any fear of her jinxing us, we have scheduled two more of her poems for our July issue. . . . DONALD EULERT, a native of Paradise, Kansas, has his bachelor and masters degrees from Fort Hays Kansas State College and has done doctoral work at the University of Kansas where he won the Carruth Memorial Poetry prize in 1961. He currently teaches creative writing and modem poetry at Wisconsin State College, Platteville. In 1960-61 he was editor of The Western Poet and is currently an editor of the new American Haiku magazine. His work has appeared in Caravan, The Carolina Quarterly, Fiddlehead, Hawk and Whipporwill, Kansas Magazine and Statements. . . . NILS T. PETERSON, teaching assistant in the English Department at Rutgers University, has come to poetry rather late, and his only other verse appeared in The Beloit Poetry Journal. He has had some stories published in Fantasy and Science Fiction.

OUR OTHER five poets represented in this issue are or ought to be pretty well known to our readers. EDSEL FORD of Rogers, Arkansas, has appeared in our last two issues. His present offering, "Low Mass for Hyannis," won the John Gould Fletcher memorial award at an Arkansas Poetry Day dinner in Little Rock last October. This award was established some three years ago by Fletcher's sister, Mrs. D. D. Terry of Little Rock. Incidentally, Edsel won the award that first year. . . . EMILIE GLEN of New York City joined the ranks of MIDWEST QUARTERLY poets back in October of 1961. Her verse has appeared in a variety of journals including, most recently, the winter issue of The Georgia Review. . . . MARY OLIVER's first work with us was included in our winter issue. She is a (somewhat homesick) Ohio native currently residing in London. A volume of her poems will be published there next fall. . . . MARION SCHOEBERLEIN of Elmhurst, Illinois, has had four of her poems previously published in this journal, the first in July of 1961. Her work has appeared in a variety of magazines, and in late January The Atlantic Monthly accepted one of her poems for appearance later this year. . . . TRACY THOMPSON of San Francisco (where he edits Sun, a monthly poetry journal) is easily our most prolific contributor. To date, we have published four of his poems, and as many more are scheduled for later appearance in our pages.

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