Evening star., 1923-02-17

I without any organized government
| encouragement. The time has come
! when the American public can no
longer afford to boast of scorning the
eSthetic.
If we are a practical people" then
we must know that in the competition
Of the world, that which Is both useful
| and beautiful will always win favor
over the ugly or crude. Every first
class nation of Europe has it's de
partment of fine arts as Il feature Of
it's government. If America had ONLY
Il bureau of art, under the Secretary
of Public Welfare, II would he long
step toward modernization. and would
be influential in perfecting standards
of taste and methods Of training III
all kinds OF art, which would soon
be reflected in improvement in Amer
ican manufactures, as well as build
ings and monuments.
x y x x
once more the House has registered
opposition to the free seed graf
! which for many years has taken hun
dreds Of thousands Of dollars annual
ly from the Treasury for scattering
seeds of kindness and radishes and
onions and cabbages over a suffering
nation. Not that our statesmen cared
a hang about what grew from those
free seeds, so long as votes ripened
1t was a alf-million-dollar bribe OF
the gullible voter-that's all. No az
ricultural society, no farm paper, no
Secretary OF Agriculture ever in
| dorsed the graft. 1t was never agri-
culture-always politics.
The appropriation was voted down
some months ago. but Representa-
tive Langley of Kentucky offered
new bill making an annual and per
m RF
the same purpose. and that was de
feated by a tie vote. That gives en-
Couragement for future attempts to
renew the abuse of public funds, and
it may be expected that the attempt
will be repeated next session.
OF course, it would be the hcigh.
of effrontery for an ordinary lay
man-civilian-to undertake to crit
cize trained naval experts upon any
subject so technical as the running
OF a man-of-war. During the wal'
Edison offered forty-fvc inventions
for use in the Navy. Edison is a civ
val experts to snub, and SO not one
OF his forty-fve new ideas was ever
tried out by the Navy.
But Thomas Edison IS not Il tyro il
science. He has made some world
revolutionizing inventions of a mos
practical nature. To assume, there
fore. that the SNUG, orthodox "navai
experts" were justified in rejecting
all of his inventions, which he offered
solely from patriotic motives. is So
stamp the Navy with petrifcation Of
common sense or pure patriotism.
Professional jealousy had no right To
jeopardize lives and the state itself
in time of war. That most of the in
ventions were radically different from
anything already in use was all IL
their favor, for they would have beei
all the more battling to the enemy.
of the impenetrability of officialdonl
OF the Navy with new ideas. The
same spirit has cropped out in til.
Army also. 1t is traditional.
= = !:
While there was not much news in
the report OF the commissioner of
education Of Pennsylvania regarding
what he had found to be the cond.-
tion of Washington schools. il is in
teresting to note that this expert on
such matters does not mince words
in setting forth our school shortcom-
ings. 1t ought not TO be necessary -
call upon experts. like Mr.. Thomas T..
t1negan, to tell Congress that Wash
ington schools need more capacity
so that every child of school az.
should have a seat during full school
hours, and that teachers and office RS
should be paid adequately. The nation
expects it's capital TO be a model city
especially in such qualities as max.
for good citizenship. 1t cannot be
such II It's children are neglected dur
ing their years OF development
Copyright p v Collins. Iao31