Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-07
architecture on metric system, on method
of making nominations and on the relation
of architectssto the contracting system.
Form Of Competition Contract.

Form OF Competition Contract.
An important matter considered with the
reading of the reports was form of com
petition contract authorized by the insti-
tute, including general principles of COM
petition agreement, the code, the judges
the procedure, the contract, the program.
the competition charges, the schedule OF
costs and the ethics of competition.
In the report of the nominating commit
tee John NJ. Donaldson. chairman. warned
against the making of nominations viva
voce; He said I'VE recall one instance in
which a gentleman was nominated for
president after he had left Washington,
and the assurance was given that he had
consented to the use of his name. Later
he denied having done. and. disclaimed
any intention of being candidate at that
time.
I'VE believe that nominations should
represent as far as possible the sentiment
of members of the institute whether at
tending at the convention or not
Mr.. Donaldson made number Of sug-
gestions in his report which will be consid-
cred later.
Ralph Adams Cram. chairman of the
committee on architectural education,
stated that architecture is defined as a fine
art with three aspects: as a manifestation
of pure beauty, as an enduring and trust
worthy language that voices the existing
best in civilization, and as an exact science
through its structural relationships.
An architect was defined as one ranking
and refinement. differentiated from the
others of his class solely by his functions
as a creator of pure beauty, as an expo
men, through material forms of the best
secular intellectual and religious civiliza-
ton of his time, and organizer and
director of manifold and varied indus
tries and activities.
From these assumptions, it was added, it
follows necessarily that the object of
architectural education must be the breed
ing of gentlemen of culture, learning and
broad sympathies. who understand the
dignity and the significance of art both
as beauty and as language, who are per-
fectly proficient in the technique of the
art they follow. and who can inspire, or
ganize and direct widely different classes
of men.
With Broader View.
Mr.. Cram offered statistics to show the
number of student architects at the diff
ferent colleges. He added:
1--WE believe that on the whole. architec-
ture is being taught in America with a
broader view, and in certain respects more
effectively than in any other country.
Through coordination. unification of
Standards and cooperation, we believe that
in a few years the education offered in this
country might be looked upon as final, ex-
cept for the absolutely necessary element of
study and cultivation through travel and
research among the inimitabe monuments
of the pagan and Christian past We OBJ
ject to considering our own schools merely
a. feeders for the Schools of Fine Arts in
Paris, and we look forward to the time
when great post graduate course shall be
possible in America through a great central
school of fine arts in Washington. To make
this possible, we must first of all achieve a
certain amount of coordination uniticaton
and cooperation between all our now some
what aggressively Independent schools, and
we. believe that the first step in this direc-
ton would be the acceptance by all of the
principle of general competitions, and the
establishing of an official, central and repre-
sentative body that should put this principle
into practice.
The report of the committee on applied
arts and sciences was then read by Irving
X. Pond, chairman. He said that in order
to overcome the unsatisfactory condition
due to the Severance of the intimate rela-
ton once existing between architect and
craftsman, ii is quite necessary to under
stand the nature of the original conditions
underlying the change.
Apathy of the Public.
The intense apathy. Mr.. Pond said. of the
great public toward art. the general lack of
knowledge or care to what constitutes
art or how art touches life, the utterly COM
monplace and devitalizing attitude on part
of public and designer, of seeking the line
of least resistance. of barking back TO some
thing which is well known and can be rec
ogniZed on the instant-aN of this conspires