Transcription:
327 Lexington Avenue, N eW Y ork , April 19, 1914. Dear Muir: I am to-day giving a note of introduction to you to my
friend Cass Gilbert, the distinguished architect, builder of the great Woolworth building, the N.Y. Custom House, a lot of
State Capitols, etc, etc. Gilbert is also a member of the national Fine Arts Commission, and it was he who suggested that
we should try to get the Hetch Hetchy matter referred to the Commission, as the beautifying of the Canal Zone was. You will
find him very sympathetic and a thoroughly good fellow. Mrs. Gilbert, who goes with him to San Francisco, is also very agreeable.
They leave April 21. Confidentially, I believe that he will be the next member of the Academy to be elected next fall, as
a dozen of us are exporting his nomination. Mrs. Harriman, who has just gone abroad for a month, has written me twice expressing
sympathy with the aims of the Academy in its effort to promote literature and the arts. I have told you that we have had a
gift of a fine site (200 x 100) and of illegible 100,000 to begin the endowment fund. We want nine other persons to give us
the same amount, and I hope she will be one. If we carry out our plans - and I have reason to think that three other persons
of large means Will help, and I am hard at work soliciting - the Secretaryship of the Academy will be my chief work henceforth.
Everybody in the Academy who knows of it is delighted at the fine beginning that I have made. The difficulty is going to be
to keep my head above water till I've obtained the money, as I have a lot of fixed charges to meet and I can't get anything
from a friend who owes me 3000. Do you think of anyone in California (not Mrs. Hearst) whom it might be worth while to approach
as a possible donor or founder of the Academy? If so, let me have the name and address. It will be an honorable and distinguished
thing to do, and we should of course celebrate the founders in the building and otherwise.I'm glad my friends the Frieses
have seen you. They report you improved in health. May the Spring have restored you completely before this letter reaches
you. I think of you continually, and always with affection andesteem. Faithfully yours, R. U. JOHNSON BR BR 05740