Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 Read online

  THE UNITED AMATEUR JANUARY 1918

  REPORTS OF OFFICERS

  PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

  Fellow-Amateurs:--

  The dawn of the new year discovers the United in what may, consideringthe general condition of the times, be called a very enviable position.With a full complement of officers, and with the recruiting machineryfairly under way, our course seems clear and our voyage propitious.

  The November Official Organ deserves praise of the highest sort; andwill remain as a lasting monument to the editorial ability of MissMcGeoch and the mechanical good taste of Mr. Cook. It has set a standardbeneath which it should not fall, but to maintain which a well-suppliedOfficial Organ Fund is absolutely necessary. If each member of theAssociation would send a dollar, or even less, to Custodian McGeoch,this Fund might be certain of continuance at a level which would ensurea large and regularly published UNITED AMATEUR.

  The publication of lists of new and prospective members should arouseevery amateur to recruiting activity, and cause each newcomer to receivea goodly number of letters, papers, and postcards. It would be well ifthe line of demarcation between Recruiting Committees and the generalamateur public were not so sharply drawn; for whilst it is the duty ofthe official recruiter to approach these new names, any other membersconfer no less a favour on the United by doing so unofficially. We mustremedy the condition which permits able writers to join and pass out ofthe Association almost without a realization of the fact of theirmembership. How few of these gifted amateurs who entered in 1915-1916are now with us!

  Publishing activity is strikingly exemplified by the appearance of=Spindrift=, a regularly issued monthly from the able pen of Sub-Lieut.Ernest Lionel McKeag of the Royal Navy. When a busy naval officer inactive service can edit so excellent a magazine as this, no civilianshould complain that the present war has made amateur journalism animpossibility! The number of papers expected in the near future has beenincreased by a plan of the Second Vice-President to unite the members ofthe Recruiting Committee in a co-operative editorial venture. It is tobe hoped that this enterprise may succeed as well as similar papersconducted during former administrations. Of great interest to theliterary element will be Mr. Cook's contemplated volume of laureatepoetry, containing the winning pieces of all our competitions from theestablishment of Laureateships to the present time.

  The Association extends its heartiest congratulations, individually andcollectively, to ex-Pres. Campbell and Treasurer Barnhart, who were mostauspiciously joined in wedlock on Thanksgiving Day. Its heartfeltsympathy is transmitted to relatives of the late Rev. W. S. Harrison,whose death on December 3d left a vacancy in the ranks of stately andspiritual poets which cannot be filled.

  A final word of commendation should be given to those more than generousteachers, professors, and scholars who are making "The Reading Table" sopleasing and successful a feature of the United's literary life. Theidea, originated by Miss McGeoch, has been ably developed by Messrs. Moeand Lowrey, and is likely to redeem many of the promises of realprogress which have pervaded the Association during the past few years.

  H. P. LOVECRAFT, President. January 2, 1918.