Evening star., 1926-01-07
THE NORTH WINDOW
By Leila MechLiyi.

a fortnight or more ago. announce
ment was made that Mr.. Munsey,
newspaper man and publisher, nau
bequeathed the greater part OF ms
estate of 100000 to the Metropol-
itan Museum of Art in New YORK.
We have got used to million-dollar
beauests and gifts, they have become
quite usual but SO many mflIons ioi
art, and from one who was not COL
lector and who had not evinced speciai
interest in the subject-it was duH-
founding.
According to a press report
Roman Catholic priest In Boston Plo
tested against this amount OF moiiey
going to an art institution, declaring
that The piyer must have forgotten the
needs OF humanity when he made MS
will obviously it was the needs OF
the body that the priest had In NINA
the so-cafled charities which proVloe
food and raiment, shelter, meolcai
care. the burial of the dead. But nave
we not the best authority for declaring
that life is more than ralment, ana
that man doth not HVe pg pIeao
alone? Do we not often forget tilaI
physical life is of no value Whatso eo
ever without the spiritual attrlputes!
More than year ago the Cdrne6ie
CORPORATION of New York, one OF tnose
great foundations which nave as tiieli men
object the spending of large Sums loi
the betterment of mankind, undertook
an INQUIRY into the place of art IN our
American life AS rule, the Gar
negie CORPORATION bestOws its beneli-
cence through the instrumentalty OF
other organizations, but IN thiS case
it instituted a survey on us own H,i- liz
tiative. A group of advisers was cali
ed in. men and women VINO were
either producers in the field OF art or
habitual observers, collectors, WORK
| ers The result, as set forth IN a re-
Gently published report or the pres
dent, Frederick P. Keppel, one-ume
Assistant Secretary of War, is inter
J esting and significant.
| Scarcely was the enterprise unoer
way when it was discovered that lts
scope must be limited. Art being rs
| broad as human life itself" says Mr.
| Keppel. IAN inclusive study of its
place in our American lie was soon
seen 10 be impracticable.' An, there
we have 1t, and never better sald-art
as broad as human life itself. not
something to be confined in fixed di-
mensions. hung on the wall, set forth
| in gallery or museum, but part and
parcel of human life. differentiating il
| from the life of the beasts which per
| ish, The crude painting on the wall
of the primitive people, the design OF
the woven fabric, the piece of jewelry,
the house and it's furnishings, the lay
out of our streets, the monuments to
our heroes. the altar to our God-art
! is part OF all of them. And yet, how
| little does the average man recognize
| the necessity of knowledge of the
| fundamental principles which govern
all are,
Oddly enough, the actual result of
the Carnegie Corporations inquiry was
! to disclose the weakness along these
! lines in our present-day college cur
| ricula. There has been no end of com
plant from thoughtful people in recent
years that our colleges were not turn
! ing out educated men and women, and
! by this is meant men and women with
cultured minds, as distinguished from
specialized knowledge The lack. ap-
parently, has been felt not merely by
those from outside, but those within,
and one of the most striking para
graphs in Mr.. KeppelS report states
| that there is no more interesting or
significant phenomenon in recent
American education than the growing
| interest of the students themselves in
art" Contrary to the general i'm
preston" he says, 1.-The movement is
affecting the men in large numbers, as
we'll as the women. In the last con-
ference of the deans of the mems col
| leges in New England attention was
| called to the growing number OF preV1-
| ously somnolent students who wake
up in the classroom of some course IN
the fine arts The demand has come
from these students themselves. aided
and abetted by young instructors, for
more competent teachers and for bet
ter equipment in this field
| X
| The Carnegie Corporation is re
spending to this call by inauguratins
| a system of scholarships and fellow
ships to enable candidates of promise
Ito prepare themselves as college teach
ers of art, and by setting aside a sum
of 500, 900 to provide sets of teaching
material to be offered to a selected list
of colleges in the United States and
Canada which now lack adequate arts
equipment BY doing this it hopes to
accomplish substantial results, which
will be felt later in the schools and in
everyday life: for-and here is a star
Ting culation-"wheneVer 10 pei
cent of our students get some concep
tion in college of the normal place OF
! the arts in human life, we shall have
an army of more than $4,000 going
-, out each year as q. leaven to work IN
the community at large" What an
army and what an opportunity! But
on the other hand, how neglectful we
| have been, how shamefully we nave
kept closed the gates leading to those
avenues of supreme delight which
should be free to all!
| The normal place of the arts in
human life does not signify stressins
one subject at the expense Of another
of lessening the students earning ca
| pacity by feeding his Imagination
quite the contrary. The late Frank
Munsey, it is said. went to New York
as a young man with forty-or was Il
four hundred?-dollars in his pocket
and died at the age of II worth $40.
600 900. No one can say that he was
an impractical man. Who are they
who have built up our great art col
lections, who have brought to this
country the great treasures Of art OF
| Europe, but the men who have earned
their way In most instances, who have
been successful in the field Of bust
ness and have turned for their chief
pleasure, their real recreation, to art:
! y
Ramsay Mcdonald, former prime
minister of Great Britain, representa-
tive of the Labor party and a laborine
| man at one time, in an address t
workingmen in London a year o.
more ago, described an educated mar
in these terms: A man, he said, with
certain subtle spiritual qualities which
make him calm in adversely. happy
when alone, just in his dealings, ra
tional and sane in the fullest meaning
of that word In all the affairs Of life.
That little phrase, happy wher
alone" is unusual and significant.
knowledge of art is one of those thing.
which contribute to this happiness
and this Is one reason why 1t SHOULD
| 1~o Ia1 IN, - 1l,