Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-01-13
proportion to the original cost.

ticle: Business Buildings made
Beautiful - he points out how con-
Germs that are interested in increasing
their business and extending it in
every way, are utilizing beautiful and
artistic surroundings and decorations
as means to this end. If such a
policy pays in the city of New York,
where business competition is as keen
as anywhere on this continent, it will
pay in every other community in this
land The Hausmannizing of Paris
during the Second Empire was one Of
the most successful investments in CT
vic effort ever made by government
Paris constitutes the greatest store
house of civic experience in the world
1t has clearly demonstrated that when
d city wishes to clean out a certain
quarter and increase the value of the
real estate in that section, it can pro-
duce the quickest and most effective
results by proceeding to make small
square and putting into it flower gar
dens and a fountain and a statue or
two approximately fitted to the en-
vironment. Usually as result of such
a process the whole quarter becomes
eiuioiCi ihCh, Oiu uOuSCo are supple
mented by new and more beautiful
ones; the whole population changes in
character. Moreover, viewing the
matter from the purely business point
| of view, the taxable value of the real
estate increases, and the increase of
taxes in short time pays for the
land appropriated for the park, and
for the fountain and the statue.
1t is rather interesting historical
fact which we sometimes overlook
that when art was at its highest tide
the artists best patrons were great
corporations, the syndicates of that
time. For some reason art was al
lowed to decline, and the divorce be-
tween art and business became COM
plete. 1t looks as if the opening de-
cades of the twentieth century would
be marked by the reuniting of these
two natural allies. The developments
in New York certainly point in that
direction. Likewise, the civic under
taking in Washington. All the great
cities of the country are planning vast
improvements, involving the establish
ment of great civic centers the. re-
modelling of their whole municipal
plan on artistic lines. AS competi
ton and rivalry between great COM
munities increase their desire to i'm
prove, their surroundings should in
crease in arithmetical progression.
Not long since this country was Wis
tied by an Educational Commission
one of the members of which spoke
of our artistic poverty in the de-
singing of American household ar
ticles and manufactures generally.
Such a criticism a number of years
ago might have been well founded, bu
as the Architects and Builders Maya
Yin" pointed out, there has been a
very remarkable movement in the di-
rection of improved artistic design
and decoration of housefurnishings to
be seen everywhere from New York
to San Francisco. Never before has
there been so sharp competition
among manufacturers to invite trade
by improving their products in regard
to durability and beauty of design, and
this competition has compelled the
employment of high order of artistic
and expert skill. The great steel and
iron workers have discovered the ne
cessity of securing art as an ally, and
the same lesson has been learned by
cabinet makers, furniture manufac-
turers manufacturers of silk, rugs,
carpet, textiles, books and an infinite
variety of arts. Craftsmanship and
| nd