The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-04-08

who came out or a civilization much
like their own. On the farms and in
the houses in the towns the men and
4 women worked together toward the
/ same ends in life. They lived in small
frame houses, set on the plains like
boxes, but very substantially built. The
| carpenter who built a farmers house
differentiated it from the barn by put
| ting what he called scrol1-work up I'M
i der the caves and by building at the
4 front a porch with carved posts. After
4 one Of these poor little houses had
sbeen lived in for a long time. after
ltchildren had been born and men had
dAed, after men and women had suf-
fered and had moments of joy togeth-
| err in the tiny rooms under the low
ROOFS, a subtle change took place. The
houses became almost beautiful In
their 'old humanness. Each of the
houses began vaguely to show forth
the personality OF the people who lived
wfthinl its walls A sense of quiet
growth awoke in sleeping minds. It
was al time for art and beauty to
awake gin the land.
Instead, the giant, industry,
awoke. Boys who in the schools
miles through the forest to borrow
his firstt book, and of Garfield, the
tow-pach Lad who became presi-
dent, began to reaS in the news
papers and maya zines of men who
by developing their faculty for
getting and keeping money had be-
come suddenly. and overwhelming
ly rich.
Then followed the discovery OF nat |
ural gas and tine sudden awakening of |
the people. Farmers owning oil-pro- |
ducing lands went to bed at night !
poor and woke in the morning rich. !
They moved to town and invested their /
money in Industrial enterprises:
A vast energy seemed to come
out of the breast of earth and in
feet the people. Thousands of the
most energetic men in the middle |
states wore themselves out In
forming companies, and when the
companies failed Immediately
formed others. 1t was time of
hideous architecture, time when
thought and learning paused.
Without music, without poetry,
without beauty in their lives or
impulses. a whole people, full of
the native energy and strength of
lives in new land, rushed pell-
NELL into a new age.
Money grew abundant, and people
became financially richer and other
wise poorer. They bought more things
and had less satisfaction. They spent
more money and were farther behind
with their bills. Life grew less labor
ious than in the old days Of grinding
toll, but neither more restfu1 nor more
satisfying: it grew hectic and dissat-
isfied.
These are SOLDERING para graphs, for
these conditions are not monopolized
by any one village or state; ito some
extent he nation has passed through
this period of transition. and the
change is not wholly to our advant-
age.
But art and industry are not of
necessity antagonistic. 1t is possible
to have commercial progress and at
the same time a growing regard for
the finer and higher things of life.
America is committed to program of !
industrial progress: may she not also '
and simultaneously be committed to
a quest of the highest and best things?
There are in every community choice
souls to whom this suggestion may be a
a call to service. 1t is not impossible l
for a nation to be at once commercial s
ly prosperous and artistically and in c
tellectually progressive. d