what is now the Symphony Literary
Service. We are rather at a loss to divine Mr. Macauley's precise notion
of amateur journalism. He speaks of it as a "tarn", but we cannot
believe he would have it so stagnant a thing as that name implies.
Surely, the United is something greater than a superficial fraternal
order composed of mediocre and unambitious dabblers. Progress leads
toward the outside world of letters, and to cavil at work such as Mrs.
Renshaw's is to set obstacles in the path of progress. Professional
literary success on the part of amateur journalists can never react
unfavorably on the United, and it seems far from kind and proper to
impede the development of members. Why is a professional author
necessarily less desirable as an amateur journalist than a professional
plumber or boiler-maker? But there is one sound principle at the base of
Mr. Macauley's argument, which deserves more emphasis than the points he
elaborates. Professionalism must not enter into the workings of the
association, nor should the professionalized amateur take advantage of
amateur connexions to create a market for writings otherwise unsalable.
This applies to the now happily extinct tribe of "ten-cents-a-year"
publishers, who coolly expected all amateur journalists to subscribe to
their worthless misprints as a matter of fraternal obligation. Mr.
Macauley is an extremist on the subject of amateur rating, a fact which
explains many otherwise puzzling allusions in his current editorials.

* * * * *

THE UNITED AMATEUR for February is the final number of the Daas regime,
and constitutes a noble valedictory indeed. We find it impossible to
express with sufficient force our regret at the withdrawal of Mr. Daas
from the United, and we can but hope that the retirement may prove
merely temporary. The February official organ is wholly literary in
contents, and in quality sustains the best traditions of amateur
journalism. Miss Olive G. Owen's poem, "Give us Peace!", which opens
the issue, is tasteful in imagery and phraseology, and correct in rhyme
and metre, but contains the customary unrealities and substitutions of
emotion for reasoning which are common to all pacific propaganda. "The
Little Old Lady's Dream", by M. Almedia Bretholl, is a short story of
the almost unpleasantly "realistic" type, whose development and
atmosphere exhibit much narrative talent and literary skill. "The
Teuton's Battle-Song" is an a