The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1905-09-07

uoI OTlnS lnCO CnlS country, BECAUSE
he is unwilling to pay the ''illiberal
and foolish tax imposed by this
tariff"
If this collection could be brought
into the country and added to his
collections here, which almost equals
it in value, and placed where the
student of art could be benefited by
its study and inspection, the result
In the Advancement of American art
from this, would be worth the loss of
the tax that is keeping it out.
1t is said that he contempIates
founding a national museum, then
this tax is working harm to the people
of America, whom it is claimed to
protect.
Nor is it safe to procrastinate in
this matter. When Mr.. Morgan was
elected president of the board of
trustees of the Metropolitan Museum
OF Art of New York, European art
centers were in state of great eX-
element, for time, fearing that they
were to be stripped of their art
treasures, until they remembered Mr..
Morgan's objections to the tariff, and
his delay in bringing to America his
own art collection because of this tax.
1t did, however, cause international
agitation abroad to prevent art objects
going to the United States; and if
this country delays action on this
subject much longer, then when it is
ready to remove the wall it has built
up to keep out art, they will find that
foreign walls have been reared so high
that even our multi-milliOnaires can
not get over them or around them.
Much of the opposition to the
removal Or revision of the tax on art
arises from the fact that art here has
been wrongly classified among the
luxuries OF life, when in reality, if we
comprehend the true meaning of the
word, the force with which it enters
into every industry, we find that it is
one of the necessities. 1t is too often
confounded with the fine arts, paint
ing and sculpture, which are but the
perfect bloom of the plant that came
from the tree of knowledge.
Goethe says: cart is called art
because it is not nature.''
In the Garden of Eden Adam and
Eve, children of nature, knew not art
until they ate of the tree of knowledge
from which they obtained the divine
spark that taught them to initiate
nature. They wove themselves gar
ments of leaves. This is the first
work Of art recorded of man, the art of
the wool and the warp, as they plated
the stems of the leaves. From this
simple art has grown the great textile
manufactures of today. These are
good, poor or Indifferent according as
this art has been encouraged or
developed. Next came habitation and
we know the art culture of people by
their architecture. Then Adam put
his hand to the pillow and agriculture
progressed and gave us the artificial
fruit and grain of today, for not only
has man by the art of tilling the soil
impraved upon the natural products
of the land, but he has created through
the cultivating of this art, new fruits
and flowers that never grew on earth
before.
Savagery, barbarism, civilization,
these are the three phases of life, and
the latter owes its prominence above
the others only beca use OF the perfec-
tons of it's arts. Tha higher the art
sense the more perfect Their produc-
tons. If one art is developed at the
expense of the others, perfect civiliza-
ton is impossible and destruction
comes, but whatever is really necessary
for the betterment of mankind is
never wholly lost, although all that
made it great perishes
Once in the history of civilization,
the fine arts reached a certain state of
perfection never since equaled by any
nation. Art became top heavy, the
fine arts Overshadowed all other art,
it needed to be cut down while the
minor arts got a chance to grow. Art
of government was one of these and a
great horde of sturdy barbarians who
knew nothing OF the fine arts, had
been cultivating, all unconsciously,
the germ of this art. 1t was the voice
of the popular assembly, the will of
the individual. The old German
tribes elected their chiefs out of
particular families, but merit alone
recommended them as the public
choice. The power of these chiefs
were limited, and the decision of all
leading questions, though subject to
the previous deliberation of the
chieftains, sprang from the Stree"
voice of the popular assembly.
That was the superb art that these
rough, uncouth ancestors of ours were
learning while Greece and Rome
flourished and from which was to
spring a new civilization.