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Mr. Ogden Reid - 3

And as to the critics, Mr. William van Hoogstraten, noted conductor of the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, says: "The Federal Music Theatre is bringing music within the reach of masses of the people who cannot afford opera or the usual symphony orchestra. It is taking the luxury element out of music, which becomes no longer the toy of the very rich, but belongs, as it should, to all people ... I am much impressed by the musicianship of the players." Is there a superior authority?

The editorial declares that the state guide books produced by the Federal Writers' Project have been "badly written and unreliable as to facts". Yet as this is written the Federal Guide for New Orleans is that city's best selling non-fiction book and in every community where guide books have been published to date they have received the universal acclaim of that community.

Mr. Walter Prichard Eaton writes in the Herald Tribune of the recently published Guide Book for New England: "This guide book has achieved rather remarkably both a useful and artistic result and can serve as a basis, in future editions, for something enduring."

No similar guide book have been published in the United States since 1909.

The Guggenheim Fellowships has just been awarded to Mr. Jeremiah Digges of Federal Writers' Project for his "Cape Cod Pilot". Mr. Stephen Vincent Benet, one of the greatest living authors, reviewing in the Herald Tribune the WPA volume, "American Stuff", writes: "Lively, unpretentious and consistently interesting."

The radio division of the WPA Federal Theatre Project has carried weekly programs to over ten million radio listeners. Its "Tish" hour was recently rated the most popular sustaining program on the Columbia Network.

As Administrator of the Five Arts Projects for New York City I am proud to present this astonishing record of the work thus far accomplished by the 8,000 creative artists on the projects and, equally, the overwhelming evidence of its appreciation by the people of New York. All of us connected with the five arts projects would deeply appreciate it is the Herald Tribune would afford us the space for this reply.

Very truly yours,
Paul Edwards
Paul Edwards
Administrative Officer

Mr.Ogden Reid
New York Herald Tribune
230 West 41st Street
New York, New York

A-1064