Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-08-21

rrASHINGTON, D. c., Aug. 1.-THE conscrip-
wv ton of aliens will mean a feeble musical
w season this winter. Our Italian opera, our
Russian symphonies, our French orchestras and our
Hungarian sosts will many of them depart for
training camps leaving a gloomy prospect of closed
opera houses vacant halls, empty theaters ana
quiet streets For the greater part of the musical
talent that the United States has coaxed to its
shores is of military age.
Such is the discouraging picture drawn for the
American public by persons who live by the pro-
duction of music. They predict every sort or dis
aster from Faust sung entirely by women TO
the disbanding of the local masculine choir OF
Milwaukee, if musicians, especially alien musicians,
are taken in the draft Moreover, the musicians
themselves, moved by the thought of a world with
out music. have intmated that it might be well 10
follow the example of other countries and, as FAR
as it is just and possible, to exempt musicians as
a whole.
ministers and theological students have been
exempted as whole" says one prominent must
clan whom Americans have adopted as their own,
'yet ministers as class do not give anything to
their country. They merely propagandlsts,
preaching that which someone else has given. But
every real musician is real composer Inc
RHYTHM within him sooner or later Will ma ex-
preston in some sort of composition suppose
thew had taken Beethoven and Wagner before they
were thirty and sent them to war? All, 1t is
enough to cause one to shudder! Yet there may
be several embryo Beethovens in the United states
today
This idea that musicians should be spared on
account of their value to the country Is not new
WoDv famous musicians are in the armies of the
beIIgerent countries of Europe, with perhaps the
exception of Germany but it has been the pohCy Oh
each government to put them in positions where
they are out of danger
In Germany according to the best reports, they
have not been put into military service at an. ger
MANY is extremely proud of its musical reputation
and If intends to protect 1t. During the whole
period of the war Berlin has kept up It's opera; II
has kept open its musical conserVatorles, anu ma
left its teachers and composers in satety. me
same is true of Munich, Bayreuth and otner large
German cities.
Occasionally, one of borrowed must
clans has gone back to fight for his country, but
It is interesting to note the speed with which he
was discharged from military duty the moment he
was wounded. At the beginning of the war, for
example we all heard with a pang of personal loss
that our great American violinist, the Austrian
Fritz Kreisler, had gone back to fight and had been
wounded But it was not very long before he was
back again. his leg trfe stiff, but his left wrist
in it's usual famous working condition.
One authority has attempted to point out that
the various countries protecting their must
clans not because they are musicians, but because
their physical health was such as to make them un-
desirable as military material. There is one flaw
in this argument, however The musician of to-
day is usually healthy specimen.
There is story to the effect that Albert Spauid-
ing was once caught playing tennis by his man
aeer who Immediately raved, tore his hair and
insisted that no American audience would ever
tolerate an artist who was also sportsman. Mr.
Spaulding however, seemed to feel that his own
physical health more necessary to his art than
was this particular idiOsyncracy of the American
audience so he refused to relinquish his morning
hours on the tennis court But today, every artist
has his own little pet outdoor sport. Pasquale
Amato is not afraid that his love of swimming
and fishing will affect his voice; the Imbalist
family revels in all outdoor sports from hunting to
golf the Gabrilovitch has even cut his hair and
gone in for surf bathing this summer.
No there would be no difficulty in obtaining