Short Story-Writing - An Art or a Trade?

Professor Arlo Bates in one of his talks on writing English once said: “Given a reasonable intelligence and sufficient patience, any man with the smallest gifts may learn to write at least marketable stuff, and may earn an honest livelihood, if he studies the taste of the least exacting portion of the public, and accommodates himself to the whim of the time.” It is the business of my profession to dedicate its services to the promotion of the production of this “marketable stuff,” and to elevate its own calling it has blatantly labeled this product as “literature.”