The American Architect Vol. CXIV Wednesday, July 24, 1918 Number 2222
Use of Government Money for House
Building
With a Short Preliminary Discussion on Beauty
By William Roger Greeley
nln a eSrAmumcation to Mr. Greeley the editors suggested discussion of some practical topic of current vmrest. BMr. Greeley replied, enclosing the manuscript of an article, and accompanying it by a letter th$ is practical a discussion of what is widely considered as an impractical subject, that it is printed heVewithXas an interesting foreword to the excellent article following.
The Editors, The American Architect.
The Editors, The American Architect: Y
OU know that there is but one practical potent human quality, Beauty.
There are those who look wisely through
their tortoise-shell rims, and, steeped in mechanics and chemistry, proclaim that we must be practical and forget the impulses of the imagination. There are such people. Most of them are apostles of Potsdam.
They are the exemplars of practical wisdom in its every branch and detail. They are men of science and of scientific calculations. They are going down to a crushing defeat at the hands of— what ?
Of Beauty. The idealists are fighting them, the prophets of all that is unscientific and unpractical and beautiful. They bear the banner of democracy —the inefficient government which is nevertheless a great brotherhood. They bear the banners of individualism—the stumbling-block of the organized state, but the breath of life to the spirit of man.
The puppets of practical Potsdam have knowledge, science, skill, efficiency and the power of organization. Why then are they not civilized? There is only one reason. They are blinded to all Beauty.
Sinking merchantmen is not so much uncivilized as it is ruthless.
Poison gas is merely a clever weapon. Starvation of prisoners is cruel.
But to destroy wantonly what is beautiful, whether it is the masterpiece of nature or of man,
puts men outside the pale of civilization; they are by that sign barbarians.
There is no other practical, powerful, universal, civilized impulse. Men differ in religion—a hundred theologies clutter the globe. The only tenet common to Socrates and Isaiah and Paul and Swedenborg and Ingersoll and all the rest is the aspiration for a beautiful life. Each strove to describe that manner of living which appealed to him as most beautiful.
Men differ in all practical affairs. Systems of government and finance rise and are soon discarded. Some wise men are to be found on either side of all practical questions, but, since the dawn of history, all nations and all peoples have striven to express in all its most perfect forms their ideal of beauty.
Moreover, whereas in practical affairs you cannot be loyal both to monarchy and republic, income tax and single tax, or peace and war at the same time, in the realm of Beauty no style or period is excluded. You can admire the stately Classic without disloyalty to the Gothic, and in every variation and interpretation of the classic, whether by Brunelleschi or Wren or Bulfinch (the American Wren), you can find beauty.
The universality of art is its great credential.
In this country the architectural profession is called upon to develop housing for new industrial communities. Each section of the country has its own little rules in regard to gas ranges, set tubs, bulkheads and water pipes, and there is always room for disagreement and dispute. The effort is apparently to get the most efficient house for the
Copyright, 1918, The Architectural & Building Press (Inc.)
Use of Government Money for House
Building
With a Short Preliminary Discussion on Beauty
By William Roger Greeley
nln a eSrAmumcation to Mr. Greeley the editors suggested discussion of some practical topic of current vmrest. BMr. Greeley replied, enclosing the manuscript of an article, and accompanying it by a letter th$ is practical a discussion of what is widely considered as an impractical subject, that it is printed heVewithXas an interesting foreword to the excellent article following.
The Editors, The American Architect.
The Editors, The American Architect: Y
OU know that there is but one practical potent human quality, Beauty.
There are those who look wisely through
their tortoise-shell rims, and, steeped in mechanics and chemistry, proclaim that we must be practical and forget the impulses of the imagination. There are such people. Most of them are apostles of Potsdam.
They are the exemplars of practical wisdom in its every branch and detail. They are men of science and of scientific calculations. They are going down to a crushing defeat at the hands of— what ?
Of Beauty. The idealists are fighting them, the prophets of all that is unscientific and unpractical and beautiful. They bear the banner of democracy —the inefficient government which is nevertheless a great brotherhood. They bear the banners of individualism—the stumbling-block of the organized state, but the breath of life to the spirit of man.
The puppets of practical Potsdam have knowledge, science, skill, efficiency and the power of organization. Why then are they not civilized? There is only one reason. They are blinded to all Beauty.
Sinking merchantmen is not so much uncivilized as it is ruthless.
Poison gas is merely a clever weapon. Starvation of prisoners is cruel.
But to destroy wantonly what is beautiful, whether it is the masterpiece of nature or of man,
puts men outside the pale of civilization; they are by that sign barbarians.
There is no other practical, powerful, universal, civilized impulse. Men differ in religion—a hundred theologies clutter the globe. The only tenet common to Socrates and Isaiah and Paul and Swedenborg and Ingersoll and all the rest is the aspiration for a beautiful life. Each strove to describe that manner of living which appealed to him as most beautiful.
Men differ in all practical affairs. Systems of government and finance rise and are soon discarded. Some wise men are to be found on either side of all practical questions, but, since the dawn of history, all nations and all peoples have striven to express in all its most perfect forms their ideal of beauty.
Moreover, whereas in practical affairs you cannot be loyal both to monarchy and republic, income tax and single tax, or peace and war at the same time, in the realm of Beauty no style or period is excluded. You can admire the stately Classic without disloyalty to the Gothic, and in every variation and interpretation of the classic, whether by Brunelleschi or Wren or Bulfinch (the American Wren), you can find beauty.
The universality of art is its great credential.
In this country the architectural profession is called upon to develop housing for new industrial communities. Each section of the country has its own little rules in regard to gas ranges, set tubs, bulkheads and water pipes, and there is always room for disagreement and dispute. The effort is apparently to get the most efficient house for the
Copyright, 1918, The Architectural & Building Press (Inc.)