Arizona republican., 1914-10-04
Official Organ of State Federation of Clubs.

| EeQeraClOn or ClUlDS. 1 War" is the thought uppermost in every mind at the present time. What ever the discussion, it invariably turns to this vital subject that is. stirring ev cry nation today. Glaring headlines in the newspapers telling the latest war news, articles by prominent men in the ! business world relative to the effect of war on the market, have kept the in
 terested public closely in touch with existing conditions. Little has been | written of the wars effect on art and literature. Mrs. A. w. Morrill,, presi- dent of the College club has contrib ] uted q paper on this topic to the club department of The Republican this morning. Phoenix is especially inter- ested in these questions not only i'll i the bigger broader sense but because an effort Is being made by the Wo
 mans club to encourage a study of art and literature and to assist local art
 ists and authors by means of eXhibi
 tions, contests and readings.
 The Effect of the European War on Art and Literature
 BY MRS. A. w.. MORRILL,
 In speaking of the effect on art and 1 literature of the present gigantic 1 struggle between the great powers of
 the art that is to be, and the writings
 that are to come. Only too la mentably have we been made to re-
 alize it's effect on the art that we al-
 ready possessed. The mere thought ! of the present condition of some of Furopes art treasures-say the lovely cathedral of Rheims with it's splen- i didlv carved arches, it's beautiful rose windows, it's carved-stOne screens, and all it's ancient beauties,-is enough to Fmake ones heart sick. It lies a tum-
 bled heap of ruins. All that skill, all that patient and loving care, all that reverent interest through two cen turies could add of beauty, went into
 that House of God. And for no strategic reason whatever, that which should have been a glory to sue ceeding generations, has been utterly demolished. The cathedral at Lou IT., fered the same fate, that at Ant werp is likely to approach it.
 There, they are removing the great Reubens altar pieces to cellars, so
 that the danger from shells and
 crumbling walls will be less. In
 Brussels the burgomasters gave lpeaceable entrance to the city rather than risk the destruction of the treasures of their art galleries, for
 works of art are not got out by the
 thousand, or even by the dozen. Each
 piece is unique and when it is des-
 troyed the thing we called mas
 terpiece is gone.
 Well what is gone, is gone," one lsays. but more will follow And lone remembers the high lights in art land letters who seem to have drawn
 their inspiration from the battlefield.
 Missonnier, who paints a battlefield
 with the detail of the miniaturist.
 Alphonse de Neuville whose Genre
 pictures are never so successful as : when they depict some little 'human
 interest" war scene; Thomas Camp
 bell whose "Culloden" and "HOhen- linden" stir the blood; Beranger with ' Ihis gay wit and his tripping nea-
 sure, so often set to martial themes Wilhelm von Saulbach with his mighty Cossacks and Huns and other fierce peoples These men would have suffered had there been no wars.
 But, though in the past art has not
 hestated to seek in arms and battles,
 fitting themes for it's high uses, a
 feeling has been growing lately
 among thinking men and women, that
 such will not be the case always. lThe world no longer thinks that war | is glorious It knows, as Richard
 Harding Davis says, that war is
 waste: that where there is no chance 1 for personal valor, where desperately
 efficient long range guns, sometimes
 armed with chemicals which explod-
 ing in the air. kill whole rows ot
 standing soldiers so instantly that , their hands still support their guns when death chills them into immo- bility, where death turks above, be- low and between things, there war cannot be glorious. It can only be 4 a horror.
 Proficient militarists assure us that in the present war, the personal bravery and stamina of the various armies count for very little. The things men fight with have been per fected to the point where the de-
 fense has an advantage so muct above the offensive that the aggres sor must have an overwhelming 3u- | periority of numbers in order to dc ' anything more than get it's armie:
 slaughtered Numbers and field gum decide the battles more than evel 'before; cavalry charges are nt