Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-25
EDUCATION IN ART
An Eminent Sculptor Says
1t is a Necessity Now.
WHAT FRANCE DOES
her ACTIVITIES IN THIS DIREC-
TON ARE ENORMOUS.
II All Were Lovers of the Arts Every
thing Would I'M
prove.
WHAT FRANCE DOES


Copyright. 1902, by ]. O. A. Ward)
Written for The Evening Star.
From material standpoint alone there
Is nothing so important to our people at
this time a thorough education in art.
We have become the greatest agricultural
and manufacturing nation on earth. We
raise more corn and wheat and beans and
barley, we turn out more steel rails, steam
engines and bridges than any other nation
the face of the globe. In that respect,
then, we have reached the ultimate. The
only field in which development remains
and / repeat l am now speaking from a
material standpoint only-is art. In that
we still lag and in that there lies more
wealth, more comfort and more enduring
greatness than in all the other pursuits be-
side. France today is great nation only
because she is a nation of artists. Her cen
turtles of education in art developed a hun
dred great and profitable industries that
without this education would have been i'm
possible. Her feather workers, milliners,
silk weavers, all owe their existence and
prosperity to the fact that art took a strong
foothold in France long before any of these
industries were dreamed Of They are
simply an offshOot, or, rather, an evolution,
of the art sense that was inculcated in the
masses through the example of the mas
ters.
Lei our people dS Il RUE become ART low
ers. and our conditions and relations in life
Will be improved and beautifed. The surly,
brutal policeman will pass away He can
not survive In such an atmosphere. Even
the complaints of bad street car service,
overcrowding. underlighting, the barbarous
worries Of city, etc, will disappear.
But it is in our industrial life and pro-
gress that the greatest Improvement will
come. AS an illustration Of what can be
"done by applying art and art sense to
ordinary avocatons | can think of no bet
ter example than that of well-known car
rage builder. This carriage builder found
that in order to get really handsome car
riages he had to import his trimmings and
finishings from France. He could build as
good a carriage as any man IN the world,
but he could not compete with the French
artistic finish. So he brought over a French
man who was an artist in his line, and set
this man TO work teaching the rudimentS
of the art to the workmen in the American
shop. The result is that today the manu-
facture of carriage trimmings Is great in
dustry in the United States, employing
thousands of workmen and cutting off
practically the necessity of importing from
France. This is practical art.
All this bears on the material aspect of
art. Quite important is the intrinsic
value of art in developing and enlarging
and improving mankind. II literature BEN
ehts mankind. and If music benefits him
and if general knowledge benefits him. then
art certainly benefits him. OF course, there
is bad art and harmful art but so there Is
vile literature and harmful music and bad
knowledge. But wholesome art Is one OF
the great factors in eIevating the human
character. The foolish assertion that art
weakens the character OF a nation, an as
sertlon that has at times been advanced,
Us so utterly absurd that 1t should hardly
be seriously discussed. 1t has been ponte ed
out that when art was at It's highest in
Greece the state was at its lowest; that the
love of art had begotten sensuousness and
fndulgences; that all forms OF vice were
rampant and that the manhood of the ma
hat oil
have their duration OF life Just as Individ-
uals, as the trees OF the forest have. The
sensuousness OF the decaying energies of
the Greeks debased their art, instead OF
their art debasing them. Greece became
decadent not because OF art. but in spite OF
II. The love of art maintained her for
long time at her best. The nation in its DO
litical. commercial and industrial develop
ment had come to a standstIll. Art alone
remained to offer a stimulus TO make pos
sible progress. When the acme was reached
In art then began the retrogression which
had been arrested and stayed by art alone.
No nation, any more than an individual.
can stand still.
A people must go forward or else back
ward. 1t was so with Greece. 1t Is so with
every nation. But what monument has
Greece left behind TO testify to her great
ness? Is there any trace left Of her COM
mercial or Industrial development? Even
In engineering are there examples that tes-
tify to her skill there? No. The things
that remain to us OF the highest civilization
ACdShco ny the TTSekS are the production
of her art and literature They alone en-
dure Therefore 1t must be manifest how
important factor art Is. The entire world
has beea influenced and nodded by the work
along these lines OF the old Greeks And so
we Will influence and mold the people who
come after US, the rising generation. II we
surround them with works of art.
We will elevate their ideas. We will make
OF them better men and women, nobler Cit
liens. Every statue that Is erected To a
great man Is in itself an inspiration to the
right-minded boy. He doesn't know whether
II Is good art or bad He sees that the peo-
pie have honored a man who did his duty
who made sacrifices for his country and his
fellows. and he Is inspired to do likewise
We have fine pictures, good statuary and
other productions OF art, and the eyes of
our people are trained involuntarily so that
they become better workmen in their own
line bringing to bear a finer sense of the
beautiful. This sense win impress itself
upon the most ordinary things that these
same people may produce Almost before
We know 1t, II we beautify our cities with