teachers breaking away from the dry and formal manner they once cultivated and cherished. We find art teachers who are paying more and more attention to questions of constructive utility. Have we not reached the point where we may insist that the two branches are properly one, to be conjoined in the lower grades, to be differentiated in the upper grades - perhaps in the seventh and eighth-and in the high school? Admitting and asserting this oneness, we have immeasurably strengthened our case for a general recognition of the economic value of our work. With better front we can exact from school boards and from the public the support that is due to one of the most vital movements in modern education. Most of us have been thinking along this line. We want only to carry our thought to its logical conclusion.

To unite all the manual arts, the handicrafts, by a common aim, a common policy, is the task that lies before us, half-done and advancing to completion. The barriers erected by the theories of classificationists are being rapidly burned away in the white heat of practical experience. It is becoming increasingly evident that the pupil cannot profitably undertake to do things artistically in the art class and inartistically in the shop; that there is no sharp line of demarkation between the useful and the ornamental, between the free and the mechanical. Art may enter into the working drawing of a locomobile and be conspicuously absent from the academy picture. Not subject but motive determines artistic quality. The unthinking machine may be constrained to evolve beauty at the behest of man, the thinker.

We need, too, to remember that the phrase "manual training, manual art," is one to conjure with. Many people to whom painting and sketching signify merely a nice accomplishment for squirrel-headed young ladies are willing to concede something to industrial drawing. From this. side is the approach to their interest and understanding. Thence, if from anywhere, must come the argument which shall convince them of the identical origin of all art processes in the central ganglion of aesthetic law. Divisions and subdivisions let us have where they are an aid to our own clear thinking, but let us not be bound by them. May not the art teacher insist that all manual work from the kindergarten thru the university be regarded as an art work subject to the fundamental laws of space-relationships? The ultimate aim of it all-paper-cutting, drawing, modeling, painting, shop-work, perspective, and the rest—is, or ought to be, the training of the imagination along lines of good taste. And people are beginning to recognize everywhere that imagination is one of the modern man's most valuable assets. The power to foresee the steps by which an object desired shall be reached, to discern the imago before the thing's self has put on corporeal form, is one of the firm conditions of notable success, equally essential to the artist and to the manufacturer, to the literary man and to the promoter of great enterprises.

Statistical arguments regarding the importance of art to industry should be part of our panoply. We need not fear that such argument has grown trite. There are whole sections of this country where it is only just beginning to be heard, whole classes of our population to which the thought is new. Art is the very life of our industries. We have lately seen great manufacturing concerns of New England, when their business was threatened by competition of states where labor is cheap and raw materials easily accessible, bend all their energies to enhancing the value of their product thru rendering it more delicate and beautiful. Their success in thus utilizing the skill and feeling of the artist is saving for them their share of the home market, and bettering their chances in the markets of the world. Textiles, shoes, and furniture - what is true of them is ultimately true of all our industries. All signs tend to show that civilization is getting tired of its own ugliness. The class of people is growing larger that believes in the cheapness of good things.

ness.

In the education of adults to an appreciation of the value of our work, there are two classes of men that we ought especially to cherish for the aid and comfort they can give us. These are the business-men and the professional artists. In all ages it has been the privilege of well-to-do men to be the patrons of art. Only in this age and in this country has the privilege been deputed away. American money-makers, with some notable exceptions, delegate the patronage of fine arts to their wives and daughters. Differentiation of employments has gone to the limit. The man buys stocks in the market with the help of his broker, in order that from his winnings his wife may buy colonial furniture with the aid of the antique man. Each takes pride in knowing nothing of the other's busiAn agreeable arrangement, we might say for the sake of gallantry, but as a fact it works to the disadvantage of art and art education. It is throwing upon women the whole responsibility of appreciating and sympathizing with the efforts of the artist. How well they respond is evident from their attendance at exhibitions and from the attention given to art subjects in the programs of women's clubs. Yet the need of man's presence is felt. There has been a certain emasculation of art. It is important that the business-man be convinced both that art is something more serious than an agreeable but expensive foible of his wife's, and that the instruction in public schools is something more than a necessary concession to the spirit that animates the women's clubs. In the language of the day, it is up to us to show him that art education is a paying proposition. Our argument, tho it is winged to rise at its height to a consideration of the glories of Florence and Athens in the great days of old, will have always to take its flight from Spotless Town.

A great artist, Mr. George De Forest Brush, has said:

Where a person has the general desire of studying art, but does not know exactly what he is going to do, he will wisely in most cases spend a little time in an art school,

just to make up his mind. As for the education of young children in the public schools, I have often questioned if the effort is not altogether vain. From my own experience in teaching children I derived the impression that the task demands of the trained artist almost superhuman powers. And of this I am sure: I would rather receive into my classes in the art school a pupil who has never drawn a line than one who has learned to do the kind of thing I have seen at school exhibitions.

When leading artists thus express themselves, the need of cogent argument is apparent in bringing them to a true understanding of what is being aimed at, what done, in the schools. They stand aloof. Yet may we not fairly maintain that the time has come when every serious artist ought to consider himself called upon to help in the movement for popular art education, not to stand off, contemptuous of the efforts of others? Many whose names will readily occur to all of us have pressed forward to give of their time and thought to this work; but many more are ignorant, not only of its aims and accomplishments, but even of its existence. If they have heard anything of the art instruction in the public schools, they have heard simply that it is something far removed from art. Many an artist, narrow in his range of interests, will wonder what it is all about, what the use is of teaching drawing to every mother's Is not this a profession that is always overcrowded with men who cannot earn their living? Why put ideas into children's heads?

son.

Against so parochial a view we must needs set two strong demurrers. The aim in public-school work is not, as we so often say, to teach those merely who will become artists or artisans, but that much larger class that will thru life passively appreciate the active efforts of other men to produce noble art.

And this, too, must be contended that, where talent is discerned in a school child, and he is sent to the art school to become painter or sculptor or illustrator or designer, his accession is a gain to the artistic fraternity; and that every artist in the country ought to be thankful for the talent that has been uncovered. Each strong young man or woman who enters a profession contributes to the welfare of its members. He takes no bread from the mouth of any man. There is no permanent wage fund to be divided among artists. It is not true that there are too many artists. You and I know American cities as large as Athens in the days of Phidias that cannot boast a single strong artist. Plenty of room there is for many artists, but for artists who can help to create a demand for the thing they produce; who can demonstrate practically the economic value of their vocation.

The artists ought to learn the story, to all of us familiar, of the development of the movement, starting from its inception under English auspices, tracing the influences upon it of the kindergarten thought, then of the nature-study methods, and finally of the conception of art as an affair of transpositions from the world of flux and flow to the world of stable space relations. It should be known to them that the leaders of

this effort at general art education are abreast of the age and keeping in touch with the best that has been thought and drawn. Their influence is making for appreciation and comprehension on the part of the public of those large truths of form and pattern for which the artists contend, many a one with the conviction that he is a David pitted without allies against the most gigantic Philistinism the world has known. Nothing can more materially enhance the dignity and seriousness of the artist's calling than the work of education that is going on in the schools, and the artist is the especial beneficiary of all moneys expended upon the teaching of art. This the artist ought to see, and as he is getting most of all men in the community, so he may be expected to give most. Nowhere has the school work reached perfection. Everywhere is there. room for expert advice. Let us hope that the present supercilious attitude of many clever artists toward education may be replaced by a thoro belief in its value and a spirit of willingness to co-operate in it without. disdain.

One more point in closing. The value that can be put into the work of art education is conditioned by the value to the community of the whole public-school system. As the esteem in which education is held is enhanced, so the opportunities of the art teacher are increased. Of this we may be sure if the ambitious plans of some of the educational leaders of today for a complete reorganization of society around the schoolhouse as a social center shall come eventually to achievement, art will be the gainer in manifold ways. With the schoolhouse as the social center of its neighborhood, flocked to by young people and adults for amusement and instruction, the way will lie open to arouse a broad appreciation of art. The walls of the school center will be made interesting with the best that is available. Not only reproductions of the great masterpieces shall we see there, but in many an instance the owner of an original work of art will prefer that it hang upon schoolhouse walls rather than in the seclusion of a private house or the semi-seclusion of a museum. Something of the spirit that animated the wealthy men of Greece may be predicted-a feeling that it is a disgrace to enjoy exclusively a work of art that was intended for humanity. This country, thru its boundless wealth, has already come into possession of some of the greatest treasures of the world, and more are to follow. If the schoolcommunity plan is realized, most of these will, thru force of public opinion, be directly available for the adornment of the common schools.

With educational conditions rendered favorable; no ill-fed, illgroomed children in the schools; no public apathy; no sleek indifference to the welfare of the schools; but rather a live interest, a civic pride, in the possibilities of education-under such circumstances the work of art instruction will more abundantly justify itself by its results than it now can hope to do. Then it will be cherished as one of the fundamentals

of the whole round of instruction. Properly correlated, upon no merely ancillary basis, with the other work of the schools, and including all the handicrafts, it will be held in highest esteem by educators; and, being adequately correlated, on the other side, with the great industries outside the school, it will have the respect and constant solicitude of the leaders of the state.

In that day no one will be found to raise the cry of "fad."

RHYTHM AS AN ART PRINCIPLE

MISS HARRIETTE RICE, DIRECTOR OF DRAWING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PROVIDENCE, R. I.

In claiming for the domain of visual art a principle which has hitherto been reckoned to belong chiefly to music and poetry, it may be well to defend the claim with its definition as given in the Century Dictionary, or with as much of that definition as may be compassed within reasonable limits of time and space.

Rhythm is defined as "flow, and, by development from this sense, uniform movement, perceptible as such, and accordingly divisible into measures."

Flow, uniform or measured movement, the movement that is perceptible to the ear in the regular repetition of sounds, is recognized by the eye in a regular repetition of shapes and forms, whether in simple spots, more complicated figures, or the stately architectural elements which we find in the beautiful temples of the Greeks.

Just as the primitive music shows a greater development of rhythm than of melody, so primitive ornament shows a great sense of the rhythm which comes thru regular repetition, tho it often lacks refinement and beauty of line.

The very limitations of primitive handicrafts aided the development of simple but rhythmic ornament which we may trace out for ourselves in weaving, basket-making, bead-work, and some of the finer needlework like the Mexican drawn linen, or the cross-stitch embroidery that is done by the Russian peasants.

Children have a natural fondness for rhythm. The drum is a favorite musical instrument with them. They like the repetition of sounds in the simple nursery rhymes like "Old Mother Hubbard," and they love to repeat these in a "sing-song" fashion, because in that way the rhythm is more marked, and they often sing their spelling lessons, to satisfy their love of rhythm, tho it may lack rhyme and reason. In the motion songs of the kindergarten the rhythm is emphasized by movement. Many children show an instinctive sense of rhythm in their arrangement of the material which is given them for occupation work at their desks, and it is