Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1924-12-04
RTSHOULD
Be AMERICAN

architect gave the address. He
said in part as follows:
1T is seldom that an artist
takes his fellows into his conf
dence; still more seldom that his
fellows take him into their con-
fidences. 1t is a pity. Both need
that confidence, and I am going
to try to tell you what the artists
point Of view is and what he
thinks he is trying to do, or ought
to do, if you would let him. Every
real artist has a message that
makes him a missionary in the
right sense.
"He believes in the divine gift,
but he believes it to be magma
tion-that faculty in him that
makes or unmakes his world. that
makes him creator not a crea,
ture
'Imagination\is the working of
that interior power-that is Man
and only lately are we learning to
give it a true place in our ideas
of life, to realize it's significance.
To exercise the divine art of
Imagination is the divine gift
there is no other All we have we
have got through that exercise;
all we shall get we shall get
likewise.
"This sense of ain interior pow
er as distinguished from a power
we have set up outside ourselves
is symbolized in various ways.
The artist sees on every side a
change coming that will put the
whole matter up to the man him
self. Then enters the sense of
integrity, of interior made exter
ior; all things becoming trus
things.
what a man is in himself is
what his life will be and it will
become what he in his heart
wishes it to be. And what he
does will be profoundly real-per-
fectly natural Those who be-
lieve in beasts will become beasts,
those who believe in exterior gods
and a hereafter may be lost,
those who have faith and trust
in men, will become men.
This interior thought OF in
tegrity as a quality of life is the
great need in the expression Of
modern life. believe. This idea
that everything made by hands
Isl a truth or a lie ought to be
fixed in our minds. Chairs or
buildings, or books, or anything
we use or put our work into four
work ought to be our life in its
best, sense) can lie and cheat and
steal and can react upon and de-
moralize us, or all can be clear ex-
pressions of truth and react upon
us favorably to our spiritual
health and growth, which is hap
piness. Thoughts are deeds, any
thing we make is a thought and
the human heart is so made that
happiness never yet came to it
through discord or any kind of
falsehood or decay.
'On the contrary the life of the
mind (and there is no other) is
poisoned by ugliness in any
form. SO the first question we
should ask as to the quality Of
any work of mans isis it true
or false? Is it a mere expedient
made in ignorance and haste-to
get by? Or has it in itself the
quality of integrity, of means to
ends?' That is the first condition
of all beauty"
Mr.. Wright elaborated upon the
above ideas during his discussion
Of the subject. He held that Am
erican art should be American, not
borrowed from other countries.
He deplored the fact that the
/
state capitol building in Madison
is so Roman, borrowed from an
other country and another CEN
fury. When superintendent A. c.
Kingsford asked Mr.. Wright
what he would mace there i'm
stead of the present structure, he
gave no definite answer except
that it should express some Am
erican idea. He referred to the
low. roughly eroded hills in the
desert section of the United States
but did not say just how he would
transform the desert elevations
into a capitol building.
Mr.. Wright is an entertaining
and ready speaker with pleasing
personality.
He was accompanied by Leon
| Herald, poet who read some Of
his own productions. Mr.. Herald
is residing with Mr.. Wright al
| the present time.
u U nithr1nar nresided and the