The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-22
Renaissance in England
Fly CAPT. B. S. TowNRoE.

London, April A.--In the past century the importance of art in industry. The lottery made by Josiah Wedgwood, and the furniture created by Chippendale are still famous throughout the world. Re- gently, however, a soulless commercial- ism, aiming at dividends, has turned out ] tern, at the cheapest price, regardless of aesthetic quality or artistic design.
 Industry, careless of the traditions in-
 herited from the craftsmen of former 1 generations, has divorced craft Those
 who are guiding British industry during
 the present period of reconsideration and
 reconstruction are determined to bring
 the unhappy couple together again in the
 national interests.
 | brief study of the steps which are
 being taken to encourage manufacturers I to use the imagination and art of the craftsmen will not be without interest to 1 those Americans who have studied John l Ruskin's efforts in the mid-Victorian era Ito secure that the cheapest machine made articles of trade be designed with I art He wrote in 1859:
 Let it be for the furnace and for the loom of England, as they have al-
 read richly earned, still more abundantly to bestow comfort on the indigent civil ization on the rude, and to dispense,
 through the peaceful homes of nations, the grace and the preciousness of simple adornment and useful possession" Already in England and Wales there are some two hundred schools of arts and crafts, which it is hoped will be the backbone of training in the application of art to industry. These schools are influencing furniture manufacturers to depart from the sham antique, textile weavers to turn out beautiful designs, and glass and dress and china to be made in good styles. In fact, citizen ship and workmanship are advancing to- gether. At the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, for example, scheme has been introduced both to raise the standard of English musc-engraving, and to develop a trade which up to the war was largely in German hands. Un-
 der the new British education act there is ample opportunity for the establish ment of day technical schools to provide for boys and girls between 13 and IS years of age a pre-apprenticeship educa ton in a craft.
 Unfortunately there is the same diffi-
 culty in Great Britain as occurred in the United States in 1910. In that year the report of the American commission CT of labor stated that 'the old system of apprentices has died out,'' and the present system of specialization confines a beginner to one machine, or one op- eration" ''The individual worker finds
 his life narrow and monotonous, his work
 a mere round of drudgery instead of means of self-expression." In America this crisis was faced ten years ago; the
 British are only beginning to face it to- day. Education is aiming at making
 the artist a better craftsman, and the craftsman a better artist, and, equally
 as necessary, at teaching the middle man and the shopkeepers to understand
 what they sell, and to desire a higher standard. Yet ultimately a nations trade ing of an educated public can influence production. Purchasers have to be taught not to take nasty things home and live with them, but to create a demand for good work.
 There are definite agencies at work to foster this better spirit. for in the future employers and employed are to be brought into cooperation on the Whitley coun- cils, new democratic conferences now being set up in all parts of Great Brit ain. Similar committees have existed in certain trades in the north of England for some time, and have improved the designs in book production, jewelry and kindred trades In addition design and industries exhibitions are touring the country with specimens of fine workman ship, and a recent private exhibition this spring has already had a far-reach-