' Report on the Competition
THE result of the competition for inscriptions on busts of Miss Earhart, Signor Mussolini, Mr. Coolidge, Mr. G. Bernard Shaw, Mr. H. G. Wells or Mr. Charles Chaplin is a little disappointing. Few of the inscriptions seemed to fulfil the required function of being " historically intelligible to future generations " : for example, Shaw," excellently brief and adequate as it is in 1928, would not, we think, mean much to those for whom Mr. George Bernard Shaw will be only a name, represented by a row of books and a number of gramophone records on correct English pronunciation. Nor does " She took a pair of wings and showed Columbus how to get back home " strike quite the right note of dignity, though this was certainly the best inscription submitted for Miss Earhart.
The. Editor has decided to award the prize of five guineas to Mr. George Baker for his neat aad explanatory tribute to Mr. H. G. Wells :— H. G. WELLS.
TIME was too short for him ; Space was too small for him ; Art was too cramped for him. He dreamed of men like gods, Of God as King of men.
But Man it was he served ; Man's Tale the best he wrote, Ere Death was overmuch for him.
Other attempts are a somewhat prejudiced inscription for
BENITO MUSSOLINI.
A TYRANNY he founded ; 'twas his pride
To vaunt himself the great liberticide : Such had he been—could Liberty have died.
J. Emrich GEORGE BERNARD SHAW. Communist and Vegetarian. His Admirable Principles were That Nobody should Eat what he did not like ; And that He should have all the Money he wanted While The Rest of the World should share In Strict Equality Whatever Happened to Remain.
E. F. BENSON (ecriptrit at dedicavit).
and a fair if not quite neat enough summing up of Mr. Charles Chaplin submitted by R. F. Gore Brown:—
CHARLES CHAPLIN,
who moved more men to Mirth than other Conquerors to Tears. His Sceptre was the Slapstick of Harlequin, never the Whip of the Satirist. He introduced Humour to Hollywood.
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