WILLIAM J. GAYNOR 



MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY, igog-1913 



AS is known not only to his own city but also to all great cities of 

 the civilized world, William J. Gaynor, Mayor of New York, died 

 suddenly at sea September 10. This man who because of his work 

 as supreme judge and as mayor of New York City, will stand in the future his- 

 tory of the politics of America as one of its most forceful figures, honored the 

 American Museum as a member of its Board of Trustees for the three and 

 a half years of his mayoralty. To be sure Mayor Gaynor's engrossing 

 political work through his interest in both city and national problems 

 allowed him little time for consideration of educational questions — which 

 is unfortunate, for it is certain that he would have brought to them the same 

 quick grasp that he had for the core of a problem in law or politics, the same 

 clear vision of means to end, and strong terse words and abundant courage 

 for expression. 



Mayor Gaynor however did not need to take active part in education to 

 have influence there. He had a large influence because of his personal 

 example. He was always a student. He continued reading the old and 

 the new in law, history, philosophy — and his farm is practical proof of his 

 interest in agriculture. This influence moreover will continue through his 

 speeches and letters, a small number of which have just come in book 

 form from the press of the Greaves Publishing Company. 1 What he has 

 said in these letters will be remembered when what another man may have 

 said is forgotten, for he did not choose words to please but to express 

 fearlessly and effectively what he thought. It is a pleasure to quote the 

 following from an address to the Politics Club of Columbia University, 

 March 13, 1913: 



See whether you are going into politics really from high motives or not. Are you 



going into politics to help the community or to help yourself? It is very easy to deceive 

 ourselves. But my advice to you is to go into politics only after a firm resolve that your 



whole and only motive is to help the community in which your lot is cast Do not give up 



your studies. Keep reading when you go out of here. If you are studying mathematics, con- 

 tinue the study of it. It is one of the greatest drills for the mind. I don't mind saying that I 

 like now to take a problem of Euclid and pore over it and do it again, and think I am as smart 

 at it as I was when I was your age, which of course I am not. And the same with your reading. 

 Pick up especially works of the philosophy of history. There was once a great professor here 

 in New York who wrote "The Intellectual Development of Europe," . . . .But read books like 

 that. Read Lecky. Read Hallam. Read the book of Emil Reich, "Success among Na- 

 tions." Read Green's "History of the English People.". . . . And then, of course, other books, 

 like the Bible and Shakespeare, and works of autobiography, like Franklin and Benvenuto Cel- 

 lini You are not doing much more here than learning how to learn. Unless you acquire 



the studious habit here you might as well go home to-morrow. And do not be under the de- 

 lusion that you can get to anything great in this world without preparation Do not rely 



upon your genius. I know you are all geniuses. But nevertheless do not rely on it. It has 

 been said by a man who has sense that genius is two per cent inspiration and 98 per cent per- 

 spiration Get ready and you are a genius. But if you think you can do it without getting- 



ready you are more fool than genius, I can tell you that. And you cannot do that without 



keeping up your thoughtfulness and your study The saying is that no lawyer ever came to- 



fame with a straight back or without a pale face. That tells the whole story. To be great in 

 anything, you have to toil terribly, in the language of Sydney Smith. There is no other way- 

 to do it. You have got to pay the price; and if you are not willing to pay the price you can- 

 not do it. 



1 Mayor Gaynor's Letters and Speeches. New York: Greaves Publishing Com- 

 pany, 1913. 



261 



