than sham battles and unearned victories.

There is only one way in which popular standards and preferences can be
improved. The men whose standards are higher must learn to express their
better message in a popularly interesting manner. The people will never
be converted to the appreciation of excellent special performances by
argumentation, reproaches, lectures, associations, or persuasion. They
will rally to the good thing, only because the good thing has been made
to look good to them; and so far as individual Americans are not capable
of making their good things look good to a sufficient number of their
fellow-countrymen, they will on the whole deserve any neglect from which
they may suffer. They themselves constitute the only efficient source of
really formative education. In so far as a public is lacking, a public
must be created. They must mold their followers after their own
likeness--as all aspirants after the higher individual eminence have
always been obliged to do.

The manner in which the result is to be brought about may be traced by
considering the case of the contemporary American architect--a case
which is typical because, while popular architectural preferences are
inferior, the very existence of the architect depends upon his ability
to please a considerable number of clients. The average well-trained
architect in good standing meets this situation by designing as well as
he can, consistent with the building-up an abundant and lucrative
practice. There are doubtless certain things which he would not do even
to get or keep a job; but on the whole it is not unfair to say that his
first object is to get and to keep the job, and his second to do good
work. The consequence is that, in compromising the integrity of his
work, he necessarily builds his own practice upon a shifting foundation.
His work belongs to the well-populated class of the good-enough. It can
have little distinctive excellence; and it cannot, by its peculiar force
and quality, attract a clientele. Presumably, it has the merit of
satisfying prevailing tastes; but the architect, who is designing only
as well as popular tastes will permit, suffers under one serious
disadvantage. There are hundreds of his associates who can do it just as
well; and he is necessarily obliged to face demoralizing competition.
Inasmuch as it is not his work itself that counts, he is obliged to
build up his clientele by other means. He is obliged to make himself