Farsightedness
Johnson saw clearly and frequently the financial stress to come. He deplored the idea of holding an individual ceremony for a single bust; they were cheaper by the dozen. He once wrote in desperation to Chancellor Brown, “If we are to have distinguished ceremonies we need another ‘angel’ or manna from the present one [presumably Helen Gould.]” That year, 1922, gifts to the Hall of Fame amounted to $13,185, of which $12,000 was from Mr. and Mrs. Shepard. The next year the total was $6,781 from various organizations for busts and pedestals. Johnson probably tried harder than any other director, except the last, to raise money. One NYU president called him a “persistent beggar.” He know both success and failure and sensed trouble ahead. “The need of sustaining funds is manifest,” he wrote more than fifty years ago.