New-York tribune., 1918-07-28
What ''Kultur' Has
Cost AIlies-Gains
Promised In Recon.
struction-Triumpho OF
Civilization

have just alluded, may not be so be-
guiling as in days of yore. On the
other hand, for human beings living
on the spot the provinces now ZEN
dered noisome and deadly by the
Hun promise ultimately to be among
the most healthful, most livable in
Europe.
1t is not the only solace we have.
From the beginning German evil
has had curious way of defeating
itself. 1t does incalculable damage
God knows, but in the long run il
falls short of it's foul purpose. The
crimes of its armies have only
served to raise up new hosts in the
path of their triumph. The bombing
Of hospitals and the sinking of Red
Cross ships, the murder of civilians,
the torture of prisoners, the cree
ton of treachery and falsehood into
the cornerstones of a kind of Ho-
henzollern religion, over which the
Kaiser presides with obscene mouth
ings-all this has profted the Hun
nothing in the task he set himself:
to break the soul of decent man
kind. The killing of men, women
and children, the reduction of mate
rial destruction to a science, have
landed him, after all, in tragic fu-
tility. Witness, as one bit of evi-
dence, his harmlessneas on the spir-
itual side of the world of art. Ger
man frightfulness was to stop the
clock-but the clock has gone on
striking the fruitful hours.
Almost the first thing the war did in
the realm of artistic things was To
bring the righteous passion of Louis
Raemaekers to the fore. If ever
criminal has had his Nemesis in his
tory the Kaiser has found his in this
Dutch cartoonist People ask some
times if the war is going to produce
anything remarkable in art It has
done so already, in Raemaekers-
Nothing like his vitrioIic drawings
has ever hitherto been produced by
any war. Beside his whitening por-
traits of the Kaiser, the Crown
Prince, Hindenburg and the rest
the savageries of GiIlray and Row.
landson in the Napoleonic period
seem but the crude exaggerations of
amateurs. It is interesting to note,
however, that Raemaekers, the one
great gift that has come to us in
this time, is a master Of ideas,
not of style. His craftsmanship,
though entirely adequate, IS not byi
itself an object 20 excite unmeas-
ured admiration. Forain, Il veteran
in the pictorial satire of Europe,
still remains king Of them all. In
respect to style, indeed, the war has
produced no new figure. I cannot,
for the life of me, see why it should
be expected to do so. The wind
bloweth where it Isteth. Genius
appears regardless of cataclysms.
Shelley and Byron, Wordsworth and
Coleridge, all drew fertilizing
thoughts from the French Revolu-
ton; but it would be nonsensical to
attribute to that upheaval the ele-
ments of genius by virtue of which
they live to-day.
An Affirmation
And a Protest
French art, then, has yielded no
portents since the war began. But
the important point is that neither
has it been put to death by fright
fulness. When some one asked
Sieyes what he had done during the
Terror he replied, simply, 81 lived"
1t is a proud enough boast for
French art now to make. Thou
sands of her youngest and most
precious sons have perished in the
conflict, but she stin maintains her
steadfast carriage. This year the
Salon has been opened once more in
Paris, the first Salon since the war,
and, as M. Henri Lavedan says in
''LIllustration," it is unique be-
cause it is, in effect, more than a
manifestation of art; it is a mani
festation of esprit, of character, a
national act. "This Salon." he says,
rs at once an affirmation and a. pro-
test. 1t is an affirmation of life, OF
health, of confidence and hope. 1t
is protest against the villany Of
an enemy, who, piling up all man
ner of crimes, has found Joy in the
destruction and defilement of beau
ty." These observations accompany
voluminous sheaf of pictures and
sculptures. 1t includes no master
pieces, and, as l have indicated
above, nothing new, nothing arrest
lngly original. It's real significance
goes deeper. What the Salon testl-
ties to is, as NJ. Lavedan says, the
national fidelity to ideals of art.