The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-10-01
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM A TON
BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
Washington, D. C.
MUSIC MILITANT.
Washington, D. C.

Washington, d. c., Sept. 2s.-Hun-
dreds of protests are now being re-
ceived from musicians all over the
country by those redoubtable gentle
men of congress who have prepared
the new revenue bill. The musicians
are not only sore; they are hurt and
disappointed. For the first time, sew
eral OF the more notable ones have
thrown down their slaves and conde-
scended to discuss mundane and non
esthettc things, such as politics. A
few have even come>to Washington
and surprised their representatives by
the flow of their eleduence and their
ready grasp of political considerations,
which are not uncomplicated.
The item in the revenue bill which
has caused this sudden activity on the
part of musicians is that which in
creases the tax on admission to con-
certs from 10 to 20 per cent. For
large portion of the population music
is not a luxury but a necessity, they
assert; and the proposed increase in
the tax will make it prohibitive to
many. The tax on musical instruments
/ is also objected to-
After all that music has done to
help win the war, it is unbelievable
that the government should fail to
recognize its significance in our ma
tionai life" declared well-known
musician recently. And one of the
most Interesting things about the con-
| troversy is that with many of the gen.
| tlemen up on the hill. the musicians
seem to have carried their point
| Undeniably, music is playing an inn
portant part in the war. If the noise
| of the cannon has eusted it f.om its
old place on the field of battle, it has
gained in Importance back of the lines.
| 1t is the band which arouses the pa
| tr1otism of every man as he goes up to
the trenches, making the weight of his
TASK a. little less; and it is the band
| that greets him on his way back to the
| billets. applauding him as a hero and
making him forget the experience he
has just been thru.
The influence of music on the psy-
| chology of the soldier has long been
recognized. 1t can keep him cheerful
| in the face of depressing obsta cles; it
can turn him into a savage, or it can
| soothe his irritated nerves. Napoleon
ascribed his defeat in Russia partly
| to the Russian army music 1.-The
weird and barbaric tunes of the Co.'S
sack regiments" he said. simply in
| furiated the half-starved Muscovites
and they wiped out the best regiments
| of the French army
| Today, the United States navy has
regulation which requires the band to
| play while sailors are coaling ~rips.
Our jackies have a special hatred for
| this job; but when the 1aD r is YER
formed to the strains of a lively one
| step it is not so bad. And, incidental
ly it has been found that about 80 per
cent more coal can be but in the bunk
e-s during a specified time when ac-
companied by music.
According to Walter Damrosch, the
famous orchestra leader, who has just
returned to this country after spend
ing three months in France, Gener-1
Pershing is also greatly impressed
| with the value Of music in war and
| % Ia inp
lean musical forces. when the mu-
! sicians of the American army return
| to this country at the termination of
the war, we shall have a musical force
as large as the whole United States
| arr was twenty years ago. said
Damrosch in an interview recently
given out TO the press. and General
| Pershing intends to make it a force
so perfected in its art that when it
returns its music will be an over
military training"
| A training school for American mil
itary musicians has been established
| in an old mill near the headquarters of
the American Expeditionary Forces,
and there Mr.. Damrosch trained over
two hundred band leaders during his
sojourn in France. Many talented
musicians were found among the
American forces; but there was a
\ shortage of instructors until the
d
of famous French instructors from its
army, and turned them over to the
American training school. At the
same time several makers of band in
struments were released from the
army to supply the school with the
necessary instruments. When the
American bands were first sent across
they contained practically no oboes,
bassoons or French horns. Since then,
however. congress has authorized the
To-
AZ pieces, and these instruments will
be added as soon as they can be pro-
cured from the French makers.
THE British have learned the value
of music as a stimulating force" says
Mr.. Damrosch. land their bands ac-
company the men nearly to the outer
trenches when they go up to the front.
We are also learning that men who
come back from the trenches need
music-need all the music we can give
them, not only to wipe out from their
minds the experiences they have gone
thru, but to brace them with the men,
tai stimulus, the spiritual force; which
is quite unrelated to war, but which is
: the great factor in building a cheerful,
confident army"
! When Mr.. DamroSch first went to
Paris it was his intention to make a
tour of the American camps to enter
tain the soldiers, but this proved i'm
possible owing to transportation limit
ations. Instead, the famous leader
gave a number of concerts in Paris,
with the assistance of noted French
concertists. where, according to his
own words. they played to veritable
sea of khaki
Mr.. Damrosch is not the only one
who has brought back reports of the
American soldiers craving for music.
In the Y. NJ. c. A. huts, the pianos
and Victrolas are always laundering
| forth American tunes, and the singers
who occasionally manage to stage a
tour thru the rear lines of the war
zone are usually overwhelmed by the
enthusiasm of the soldiers praise. In
the German prison camps, moreover
music has proved a great solace. Many
of the boys have managed to buy Ger
, man musical Instruments and to learn
to play them. and several bands and