Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1915-01-13
By n. G. WELLS

to have entered upon an entirely new
phase in history. in which contention
as distinguished from rivalry has al
most abruptly ceased to be the usual
occupation and has become at most
subdued and hidden and discredited
thing. Contentious professions cease
to be IN honorable employment for
men. The peace between nations is
also peace between individuals. We
live in world that comes of age. Man
the warrior. man the lawyer and all
the pickering aspects Of life pass into
obscurity: the grave dreamers. man
the curious learner and man the crea-
tive artist, come forward to replace
these barbaric aspects of existence by
a less ignoble adventure.
There is no natural life of man. He
is and always has been sheath Of
varied and even incompatible possibil-
tiles, palimpsest of inherited dispo-
sitions. 1t was the habit Of many
writer's in the early twentieth century
to speak Of competition and the narrow
private life of trade and saving and
suspicious isolation as though such
things were in some exceptional way
proper to the human constitution, and
as though openness of mind and pref
erence for achievement over possession
were abnormal and rather unsubstan-
tial qualities. How wrong that was
the history Of the decades Immediately
following the establishment of the
world republic witnesses. Once the
world was released from the hardening
insecurities of needless struggle for
life that was collectively painless and
individually absorbing, it became APP
parent that there was in the vast mass
of people long smothered passion to
make things. The world broke out
into making, and at first mainly into
aesthetic making. This phase of his
tory, which has been not inaptly term
ed the 'eft1orescence," is still to a
large extent with us. The majority
Of our population consists of artists
and the bulk of activity in the world
lies no longer with necessities, but
with their elaboration. decoration and
refinement. There has been an evident
change in the quality Of this making
during the recent years. It becomes
more purposeful than it was, losing
something Of its first elegance and
prettiness and gaining in intensity, but
that Is change rather Of hue than of
nature. That comes with a deepening
philosophy and sounder education.
For the first joyous exercises of fancy
we perceive now the deliberation Of
more constructive imagination. There
Is natural order in these things, and
art comes before science as the salts
faction Of more elemental needs must
come before art, and as play and pleas
ure come in a human life before the
development of a settled purpose.
For thousands of years this gather
ing impulse to creative work must
have struggled in man against the linn
itations Imposed upon him by his so
cial ineptitude. 1t was long smolder
ing fire that famed out at last into all
these things. The evidence of a pa
thetic, perpetually thwarted urgency to
make something is one of the most
touching aspects Of the relics and rec
CrdS Of our immediate ancestors There
exists still in the death area about the
London bombs region Of deserted
small homes that furnish the most H.
| Eliminating comment on the old state
| OF affairs. These homes are entirely
| horrible, uniform, square, squat, hide
| ously prOpOrtiOned, uncomfortable, din
gy and in some respects quite filthy;
| only people in complete despair Of any
thing better could have lived in them,
but to each is attached a ridiculous lit
tie rectangle Of land called 1.-The gar
den,' containing usually prop for
drying clothes and loathsome box of
offal, the dustbin, full of eggshells, Gin.
ders and such like refuse. Now that
one may go about this region in COM
parative security-fOr the London radi-
atoms have dwindled to inconsiderable
proportions-it is possible to trace in
nearly every one Of these gardens some
effort to make Here it is poor little
plank summer house, here it is q
Mountain Of bricks and oyster shells
here ''rockery," here "workshop.'
And in the houses everywhere there
are pitiful little decorations. clumsy
models, feeble drawings. These efforts
are almost incredibly inept. like the
drawings of blindfolded men. They
are only one shade less narrowing to 8
sympathetic observer than the scratch
lngs one finds upon the walls Of the
old prisons, but there they are. wit
Messing to the poor buried instincts
that struggled up toward the light
That god of joyous expression our poor
fathers ignorantly sought our freedom
has declared to us.
In the old days the common ambition
Of every simple soul was to possess 6
little property, patch of land. 8
house uncontrolled by others. an lin
dependence" as the English used t.
put it. And what made this desire
for freedom and prosperity 50 strong
was very evidently the dream Of sell
expression, of doing something witt
it, Of playing with it. of making q per
sonal delightfulness. distinctiveness
Property was never more than means
to an end. nor avarice more than {
perversiOn. Men owned in order to d.
freely. Now that every one has hi.
own apartments and his own privac.
secure. this disposition to own ha!
found its release in new direction
Men study and save and strive tina
they may leave behind them a seriel
of panels in some public arcade, a row
OF carven figures along a terrace,
grove, pavilion. Or they give them
| solves IN tho nonotro tion ~ soroo S<i1