Shortsightedness and Extravagance
Johnson inherited from his predecessor the dubious practice of making excessive claims during his high moments of good feeling. At the unveiling in 1924 of John Adams, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and such others as Alice Freeman Palmer, Joseph Eads and Joseph Henry, the Director said in a sudden excess of enthusiasm, “It is not too much to say that the names here recorded and those to be added will for all time be the pride and inspiration of the American people.” It turned out to be too much to say.
Henry Mitchell MackCracken and Robert Underwood Johnson, we agree, looked like Old Testament prophets well groomed, but some of their prophecies now sound a rather sad echo. Johnson wanted no “national incorporation,” with powers such as those exercised by the Federal Arts Commission, “whose decisions . . . are final . . . No such delegation of control is necessary for the Hall of Fame.”
The final sentence of his book Your Hall of Fame is its saddest:
“New York University may be depended upon for continuance of its devoted supervision. and for wise administration of such funds as may be given or bequeathed to it for maintaining this national shrine.”