The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-14
POVERTY STRIKES BRITISH ARTISTS. IN BUYING SLUMP
Painters, Starving, Plan Sending Unsold Wares
 To America
ikY AssOclated Press. !

To America
 tBy Assoclated Press.)
 LONDON, Dec. 13.-Never before In England has the fabled hand-to- month existence of artists been mode in evidence than today, according to a com mittee of one of Chelsens Artists asso- citations which has been attempting to help its numerous colleagues who can't sell their paintings and who can't find other work.
 Before the postwar slump, it was always possible for artists of any de- gree of ability to find some market for their work. But now, nothing but the products of Royal Academicians have much chance of selling. Only about ten per cent of last years ex. hibits at the royal academy exhibition found buyers, while in the fat years only this per cent was usually left unsold.
 The artists committee has decided that some of the accumulated stocks of oils, inks, sketches and engravings- among them some excellent examples will be sent to America this winter in the hopes that enough buyers will be found to give subsistence to the artists and leave a little over to keep up their fellow workers through this period of hardship.
 Curzon Is Honored
 As the time approaches for the eag- erly awaited announcement of the kings new years honors list, there is a grow ing feeling in political circles that the sovereign's objections to creating anoth- CT dukedOm may be overcome and that Marquis Curzon will be raised to the highest rank of the peerage, thus full. filling one of that statesman's Sfe ann bitions.
 Lord Curzon's friends cl he is entitled to this distinction veral reasons. At the time that St sald- win first assumed the premie lord Curzon was considered in c, tive ranks to be entitled to tl ion by all the rules of the DO ue. He had placed himself at of all candidates by his long, d service in the highest po' :-I able by the various goverI Il this opportunity come
 of years earlier, he perha. won the prize for which L
 all his life. The threate
 of labor in the house of c
 ever, made it essential ths premier should be commoner so kas to face the attack against the laboriHes in person.
 So Lord Curzon was Aassigned to the foreign office, which h& held until la- bor busted the conservatives. With the return of the conservatives to power a few weeks ago, it was geherally assumed that he was the logical .appointee for the foreign office again las there was no other post worthy his dignity. How ever, he did not get thiS position and 1t was generally said it was due large ly to the hostility of Fr.nce to Lord Curzon, who had succeeded in ruffling his neighbors by his austere dealings as foreign minister. There was also the desire to give one of the younger states men a chance at the office.
 Lord Curzon was again asked to step aside and forthwith the report spread he had been promised the dukedom in order to salve his wounded pride. The king is reported to have been vigorous ly opposed to creating another dukedom and this opposition may not be over come, but the politicians rather expect tbe king to accede. Perhaps a not un- important factor in the situation is that Lady Curzon is one of the most beau- tiful and brilliant ladies of the court and is generally popular.
 Movies Hurt Theater
 The variety theater, once almost a national institution in Great Britain and patronized by all classes of society, is being crushed by the vogue of the movies and elaborate revues and by the lure of larger salaries for perform CTS in America, according to Sir Alfred Butt, managing director of the Empire theater in Leiscester Square. The pub lie for high class vaudeville exists, but artists are not to be found, says Sir Alfred, who is turning his theater into a movie house after disastrous five months experimental attempt to re- store it to the status it once had as a west-end music hall catering to the best interests of the British theater- going public.
 His agents, Sir Alfred explained, have combed Great Britain, the continent and the United States for performers hui have been unable to find any who would come to his theater on terms not absolutely prohibitive.
 I've don't breed music hall artists fin this country as we used to-" Sir Al fred declared. ''The vogue of the re- yue has brought young artists under the producer and so killed individual initia- five Many of our best artists, men and women who could star in music hall turns if they cared to, have been Iured away by the gigantic salaries of fered in the United States. One Eng lish comedian was paid $2,5OO week in New York and another is going there next year at a salary Of So,5OO a week. We simply cannot compete with that sort of thing"
 
 trivances to achieve it, resorted to by that indeterminate but large numDer of English damsels and young matrons to whom cruel destiny has denied the slimness of physical contour dictated bv inexplorable fashion, have aroused Sir Harry Edwin Bruce-Porter to wrath ful indignation.
 In a recent address at the City Of London Y. M. c. A., Sir Bruce de- nounced as "damnable" the tight fitting rnhher belts which young women are wearing around their hips to create hovish forms. He declared that fash ;on had conferred a great boon on young girls in doing away with the tight Vlc- forian corset but it had more than nndone its work by re-introducing the rnbher girdle which he maintained would. in all likelihood, produce more serious results than the Victorian mar ness. ..,
 The boyish form, Sir Bruce asserted with vehemence, was unnatural to wo- men. He exhorted mothers to prevent their daughters from trying. to achieve it. The ''appaling rubber girdles, ne declared, had become national danger and danger to the mothers Of the future.
 PARENTS STARVE