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ciple here is that when we have good
men, they must be supported. Help the
people that need help, and stay out of
the road of those that don't. This is
the difference between supervision and
snoopervision.
A third bucket of paint for keeping
our white houses white comes in the
fact that we must always look for rea-
sons why we can do things instead of
reasons why we cant. Just this differ-
ence alone spells the difference between
bigness and small ness, success and fail-
ure.
Fourth Bucket
Finally, in this day of doubt and
frustration we must remember that
there is no market for cynicism. Our
people have never been so cynical, and
perhaps have never had so much to be
cynical about. We are so fed up with
the tax scandals, fur coats, investiga-
tions, probes, and "fixes" that the aver-
age man on the street has become con-
vinced that all public officials are
crooked. I think the greatest victory
that communism has yet won inside
our walls will be found in the feeling
of frustration which now prevails
among our people. They are convinced
that our system is not working; that it
does not come up with the right an-
swers, and it does not elect the people
who can find the right answers.
Order is Heaven's first law. When
people are in disorder long enough
they become desperate. Then is when
someone comes along and offers to re-
store order—at the price of freedom.
We have an enormously important ob-
ligation now to distinguish between
public servants who are honest and
competent and those who are not. Let
us turn the rascals out, to be sure, but
let us not let the feeling grow that all
public servants are crooked. Why do
good, competent people ever serve in
public life at all? Certainly it is not
because of the financial compensation.
Any good man in public life is under-
paid. What, then, is the reward? Al-
ways in the past it has been the feel-
ing of satisfaction that comes with
service, plus the dignity, honor, and re-
spect which the public has accorded
those who so served. Now, if we take
away the dignity, honor, and respect,
how are we going to get capable peo-
ple to serve us in public capacities:
The answer is that we shall not, and
our public offices will then surely go
to the incapable, the dishonest, and the
unfit.
Personally, I am alarmed at the feel-
ing of indifference that our people
have toward the war in which we are
engaged. People laugh sardonically
and remark that this not a war, but a
police action. There is a feeling of
total detachment, so far as the average
citizen is concerned. This bodes ill for
our country. In my judgment the man-
agement of the total war effort has
been just plain bad. I do not know how
we could have more botches per square
inch than we have had. We took the
army out of Korea and then sent it
back. We didn't help the Chinese Na-
tionalists and let them be pushed off
the Mainland. We said we would not
protect them in Formosa, then we
changed our minds and sent the fleet
there. We finally decided to fight, but
for some strange reason we decided not
to win.
Yet, despite all the blunders, the fact
remains that there are few of us who
did not say repeatedly between 1945
and 1950 that this thing of Joe Stalin
stealing country after country in the
world had to stop. We said there has
got to be a time and there has got to
be a place where we say right here is
the line beyond which you do not go.
In spite of all the blunders in man-
agement and shifts in policy, the fact
remains that the geographical advance
of communism in this world has been
stopped at the 38th Parrallel in Korea.
Then whose war is it? Is the war the
responsibility of all the folks, or is it
just the burden of the fighting men and
their folks. If you do not like the
management of the war and the foreign
policy, then change the management.
But in Heaven's name let us not for-
sake the boys who are doing the job
which we all said had to be done.
In our America we cannot afford to
go sour on human nature. We must re-
member the great lesson taught us by
the Master Teacher, the Master Execu-
tive, the Master Salesman, the Master
Statesman, the Great Leader of All
Time. He taught us that when you are
dealing with people you can always
change the answer and you can always
change it for the better. There is the
heart and soul of our whole system. If
we lose that, we have lost all. The kev
word in our democratic way of life
is Opportunity. Our republican form
of government was never intended to
guarantee results; it guaranteed oppor-
tunity. Opportunity to do what? To
always change for the better. That is
the life blood of our free competitive
enterprise system. Men strive because
of the chance to improve. Take that
out of our America and we have lost
the central concept of free enterprise,
democratic form of government, and
the Christian religion—all at once. Let
us not go sour on mankind; let us not
sell short our basic institutions of free-
dom. We must keep striving in the
knowledge that mankind is not funda-
mentally bad, but can climb to the
stars when inspired and led by those
of great faith.
CONVENTION
(Continued from Page 6)
sic Conference, who told how the Con-
ference came into being in July, 1947.
He pointed out that the Conference was
actually formed five years ago, the
same week the Convention was held
this year, and stated: "Looking at it
from a viewpoint we all appreciate—
dollars of sales—we find that the retail
volume of this industry in 1941 was
about 90 million. In 1950 it was about
235 million. This year it is expected
to be just short of 300 million. This
represents a gain over 1939 of about
230%, a gain over 1950 of about
25%. These are clear signs of progress
and in sharp contrast to pre-war
trends."
In pointing to the organizing of this
Conference, Mr. LeMair paid a distinct
tribute to W. A. Mills who was en-
gaged as its first Executive Secretary.
"Mills' contribution," he said, "to the
development of the A.M.C. organiza-
tion and particularly to the working
out of its present program was very
important. Under his direction we re-
cruited a field staff of music specialists
to work with music educators, city and
community leaders, recreation groups,
church organizations and others to ad-
vance music. The first member of this
staff was Forest McAllister who is now
publisher of the 'School Musician'
magazine. He was followed by the
present staff men, Edgar Borup,
Marion Egbert and Edward Kalb.
He then spoke of the fact that the
organization was fortunate to obtain
the services of Dr. John Kendel as
Vice-President, who was a very highly
respected past president of the Music
Educators National Conference. He
paid a tribute to the outstanding con-
tributions which have been made by
members of the Board of Trustees in-
cluding the late George Bundy, and
and those who are still active, Edward
McDuff. Max Targ. Jay Kraus. Jack F.
Feddersen. Frank Reid. Bob Helfrick.
Lucien Wulsin. Bob Smith. Frank Con-
nor. Reuben Rolfing. Nelson Jansky.
William G. Heller and Robert A. Hill.
He pointed out the administration
over the brief period A.M.C. has been
in existence has won the active support
of the Music Educators National Con-
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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, AUGUST, I952