The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-09-11

Principal j. j. Maehling says they
were more interested in the prog
ress of the picture than in their
lessons.
The murals strike you as you
enter the building. The one on
the south wall is intended to
suggest the chaos of modern So
ciety. 1t contains Is interviewer
motifs and yet has strange unity
of composition. It's colors are
generally bold, as are its charac-
tiers.
GONE of the characters are
~ Terre Haute citizens. For
instance, the central figure is of
w. T. Thurman, professor of art
at Indiana State Teachers Col
lege, Terre Haute. His black tie
is over his shoulder. He is sur
rounded by laurel
Directly above him are the
masked and bullying demagogues,
looking into a battery of radio
micrOphones, standing beside the
symbol of Fascist Italy. Shown
near the demagogues are row
upon row of regimented people.
To the left and below are hands,
gaunt expressive hands, reaching
for a veil of black called Relief.
They are in tiers, the ones near
est Relief the dead ones, the ones
just beginning to reach for it
showing some traces of the
warmth of the sun. The artist
says that by the time they get
relief they have waited, struggled
so long they are near death, either
physically or spiritually.
A war profiteer is a greenish
yellow face to Mr.. Wilson. The
two of them. top hated and be-
diamoned, standing at the bottom
center have been turned on by the
very soldiers they sent to war,
and are about to be bayonetted.
Another, unaware of the fate of
his companions, still can be seen
waving a slightly used American
Flag at the bottom, and carrying
a newspaper calling War"
The fat, pink hand of the profit
motive even graSps the hand of
the scientist near the upper right,
and prevents it from administer
ing relief to the disease -wracked
hands that plead eloquently to it
in green-yellowS and Sickly grayS.
u
ND Mr.. Wilson have trouble
- after he had his mural on the
wall? Did some people object to
his ideas?
Yes indeed. One of the men,
bers of the Board of Education
attributed one of the inscriptions
to Eugene v. Debs, another Terre
Haute man who did some social
thinking
And even when Mr. Wilson
showed the oojector that the in
Scription was not Mr.. Debs' at all,
but was taken from the Declara-
ton of independence, he still
thought they were too radical.
Mr.. Wilson did his murals in
chalk, and they could be erased
easily. But instead the school
has hired a chemical firm to eX-
pertinent with transparent sub
stances to find way to fix the
chalk and make it permanent.
The north mural is dominated
by strong figure of man in a
white laboratory coat. He has six
arms: two are outstretched to
keep back the idiotic tangle of ma
chinery; one is clenched over his
head, one holds a microscope, and
one encircles a youth. who is fol-
lowing with his eyes the sixth arm,
outstretched and pointing ahead.
OF this mural, Mr.. Wilson
" writes: The giant white
figure is Science or organized
knowledge this north mural
is not preaching that machinery
is wrong. or that machines must
be halted. 1t is the wrong use OF
machinery that must be stopped.
Production for insanely selfish
profit is what causes machinery
to become an evil instead of a
boon to mankind, hence the
monstrous animation Of the steel;
hence the skull with its implica-
ton of tragedy; hence the belch-
ing cannons signifying ruthless
destruction"
Well. there they are. those two
murals of Gilbert WilSon'sl He
put them there to get a scholar
ship so he could study more. 1t