The sun., 1896-02-03
IUNICIPAI ART.
A Speech In Opposition to the Acceptance
OF tho Hetne Fountain, Delivered Before
the Compnittee OF the board OF Aldermen.

L
of the Heine fountains quality as work of art.
The report Of the Sculpture Society Is sufficient
to close the mouth Of any layman When the
last speaker spoke OF going TO Germany and
getting favorable opinions there for submission
before this committee-of course that can be
| done. You can go into any country and get
something said In favor of anything which is
debatable. l do not understand that this as
against the formal and official report of our
National sculpture Society, is serious evidence
before the Common Council of New York. The
question here Ia not now so much one of art
OF municipal administration.
Tho chief bureau Of public art Ia the Park De-
partment In the organization of the city 1t was
! intended that II should be. Substantially all
city land suitable for decoration Is in the do
main of the Park Department Certain por-
| tions of the city controlled by the Board OF AL
dermen may be capable Of holding statues, but
that is true in respect OF several other divisions
OF the Government. Tho Dock Board has land
susceptible of this treatment: 80 has the Depart
ment OF Charity not to mention other bodes
| Does this official ownership give any one of
these Boards the right to put up statues or
other works of art. in Indifference to their
| merits. aud with arbitrary contempt for those
| competent to pronounce upon them? That
| would be akin TO the vandalism which reck-
lessly defaces beautiful things already standing.
| Whether the Park Department or tho Dock
Department or the Common Council has to de-
eide eupon the acceptance of piece Of sculpture.
| 1t Is rigidly bound to consult with artists and
| to weigh their opinion with due respect. II
| would have no right to subordinate the best
| judgment obtainable to the importantly of cit
| liens happening to prefer request for this.
| that, or the other object.
| 1t has been foreshadowed by one of the speak
ers that II this Board does not see fit to grant
! their desire they will appeal to tho Dock
| Board or to tho Charities and II
/ essary try every department of the city Govern
ment in the hope of inducing one of them to do
| thing which the natural tribunal for such
| questions, on the most weighty evidence. has
refused to do. You easily appreciate what
a vicious precedent it would be IL n project
having been thus considered and condemned.
! could be carried before all the various depart
ments Of the city's administration to obtain
different result. We might we'll have two
| Mayors, or two Common Councils. II 1t should
| be shown that appeals could be taken from one
division Of the Government to another, you
might bo sure that the Legislature would be
asked to draw new lines of Limitation between
them You cannot have two bureaus of art.
If the Park Department should be abolished.
and all its great property added to that con-
! trolled by the Aldermen, the latter would be
bound to administer it on precisely the same
lines. That stands to reason. and certain argu-
| ment for it is found in the law constituting the
| Park Department That law makes no mention
Of how park lands shall be administered; It
contains no instruction whatsoever as to the
degree Of respect the Board shall pay to artistic
learning. Art cannot be we'll put into legisla-
| tion Its problems must be left to the common
sense and good faith of officials. In the same
way. land is given into the custody OF the
Common Council in reliance upon their good
! faith and competence to use it in tho proper
| manner. So. il instead of coming to the usual
, tribunal, the Park Board the Heine commit
tee had first offered the fountain to us through
the Aldermen the latter would have been bound
TO do precisely the thing done by the Park
Department. namely. get the best advice pos
sible and in this city that is to be found in the
Sculpture Society and the Fine Arts Federation.
The ability of these critics to decide upon the
fountain simply on the evidence Of photographs
has been challenged. The President of the Fine
Arts Federation has already disposed OF that
! point. 1t was challenged, though. after an ad-
verse decision only and this application has
! been made to the Board Of Aldermen without
the submission Of any photographs whatever.
The Common Council Is asked to erect it in
New York upon the mere dictum OF certain
gentlemen that they have evidence that it is
good. The Park territory Is perpetually men,
aced by similar efforts to persuade the Park
Board to repudiate the veto of their expert ad-
visers upon private schemes, and yield to the de-
sires OF their promoters. The application before
this Board is an aggravated case OF such i'm.
portunity. 1t is nothing less than affront
to the people of the city.
I have no comment TO make upon the pro-
posed action of Baltimore or Chicago, which
cities. are told. ready to take the fountain
II New York refuses it. They owe us no al
leRiance whatever. But there must be allies gance
| hat ri do rfne nd thors han
they have jurisdiction over the same matters.
| The opinion of the Sculpture Society. which is
before this Board as 1t was before the Park De-
partment, must be accepted AS conclusive unless
evidence can be produced against it which is
absolutely overwhelming. or unless it can be
proved that 1t is the result OF prejudice unfit
ness to decide upon the question at hand. The
Park Board must be sustained. or we shall have
chaos. In a particularly offensive form.
This application comes partially. l believe.
from some citizens living north of the Harlem
River. urging that they be considered inde-
pendently from the rest of tho community.
They want this Board to nulify for them the
decision of another Board acting for the entire
city. Theirs Is monstrous proposition. Ger
tain sections OF New York might as well ask
for their own laws Us to ask that n standard OF
art. not approved generally. be applied to them.
II n request of this character can succeed. and
eide for its own territory matter of essentially
general interest, then a body of property owners
surrounding public square will next seek to
erect in 1t what statue or fountain pcases
them. and to impose their own taste upon it.
The great property owners living on Central
Park could with equal justice claim share In
the regulation of the Park. limit the hours for
the public to enter it, or the height of the trees
about it, or seek privileges superior to those OF
the public in endless ways. Ii any park to be
closed to portion OF the public. or to be made
undesirable it? Shall portion of the city be
made offensive to people from other portions,
Rs under the circum tances the erection of this
IIeine monument would inevitably make it?
statues are not the property OF any section. A
statue anywhere stamps the community where
in 1t is located as low high in its appreciation
of art. Every citizen in town has direct, per-
sonal, and equal interest in everything that is
set up in public places. The right of u citizen of