The New York herald., 1922-04-05
CIVIC VIRTUE GOES
INTO ARENA TO-DAY
Leading Artists to Be Ar
rayed Against Hylan Group
at City Hearing.
GREAT CROWD EXPECTED
Serious Thinkers Urged to
Take Snacks With Them
to Aesthetic Battle.

Groups of serious thinkers desiring to
speak for or against Mac Monnies's Rough
Guy at ths hearing before the Mayor
and the Board of Estimate this morning
at IL are advised by persons in the
know to get downtown early and have
a banana or bag of peanuts or some
thing in the way Of light lunch in
their pockets
Never has there been such rallying
OF the clans in a great public contro-
versy as there has been over the ques-
ton of whether Mr.. MacMonnies' >
vigorous youth is fair and noble SYM
Dol of Civic Virtue" or whether he Is
an ill-mannered roughneck without the
slightest regard for the feelings OF
women.
The Mayor and such as hold with him
have combed the city for strong and
earnest females to rise UP and denounce
the Rough Guy as brute, and Il.
speak of the degradation to all woman
hood implied by the spectacle of great,
rough man creature with his feet
planted on a poor. helpless little woman.
Grover A. Whalen, the beautiful and
the indispensable. has rallied a corps of
Amazons who will talk to the last gasp,
and David Hirshfield. who managed to
ease into the controversy after 1t had
got past him for a week or two. will be
on hand to incite feminine orators to do
their best. On the other hand. the last
two weeks have not gone by without
notable effort on the part of ths artists
of the city. supported by other intelli-
gent people. to mass support for Mac
Monnies and the Rough Guy. Repre-
sentatives OF a dozen we'll known art
lists and sculptors organizations will
be present to-day. and in the crowd will
be men and women of the art world
whose names are known around the
world. The conflict will not be one
sided
Robert I. Aitken. president OF the
Sculpture Society. will lead the fight for
the Rough Guys friends. He will be
supported by William De Leftwich
Dodge mural painter: Jules Guerin
painter and Henry Bacon, sculptor.
among many. 1t was said that Arnold
w. Brunner, president of the Fine Arts
Federation, and Charles Dana Gibson
might show UP IN he ranks Of the de-
tenders.
Among the organizations that will be
represented, 1t was learned, are the Ma
tional Academy of Design, the Institute
OF Architects, the American Water Color
Society. the Society Of American Artists.
the Architectural League of New York.
the American Fine Arts Society. the
Municipal Art Society. the Society OF
Beaux Arts Architects. the National
Sculpture Society. the National Society
OF Mural Painters, the Society of illus
traitors and the American Society Of
Landscape Artists.
Out of these ranks Of art artist per-
sons will rise, spokesman for Mac
Monnies and his work. Their principal
appeal will be that the "Civic Virtue"
group have a chance. that 1t be placed
on its pedestal and that the public be
permitted to Judge OF it's beauty, signif-
canoe and appropriateness.
The Fine Arts Federation sent a reso-
luton to the Mayor on this point. ex-
pressing the confidence OF the associated
art societies in the judgment OF the Art
Commission and requesting that his
Honor the Mayor, the Board of Esti-
mate and Apportionment and all public
spirited citizens defer further discussion
and criticism until the group Is set In
place. and to defer action until every one
has had full opportunity to study the
group when in place in City Hall Park
The big puzzle is, what will the Mayor
and the Board OF Estimate do with the
crowd? The old Council Chamber holds
only few hundred when jammed. The
meeting may have to move into the big
Aldermanic Chamber or go out into the
City Hall Park.