A victory in war will be gained at a sad price if educational matters are permitted to languish. The development of the young people, for whom the sacrifices of war are being made, and who are to carry on the work of the world, is a first consideration. We must meet Germany’s strength in the practical arts of living as well as those of destruction.

The rapid rise of museums of art and of art schools all over the United States has not been a matter of 1uxury but of a felt necessity. In the stress of the gigantic struggle now going on, still more is it laid upon us in America, and in the West, to “carry on” in matters of education and of the arts.

The European countries are alive to the necessity of the preservation of artistic training, even in their dire straits.

The following is from an appeal by the Art Institute of Chicago: “The
British Government is recalling artists, even, from the trenches. The French
Government is filling the nation’s art schools with girls and subsidizing [sic] every form of legitimate art as generously as before the war.”

The New York Times says: “It is time to develop our own arts and be prepared to ask the European nations to recognize the beauty of native designs and the excellence of our native manufactures.” Later on in the article is a quotation from a French publication: “Art represents a capital which must be put at the service of the nation. None of our industries may hence, forth be conceived without its aid or cut loose from its support.”

Art is for inspiration, but not only for the ideal; it has an intensely practical side, which makes for good work and right living. The Portland Art Association stands for the spread of standards of sound art through its collections and exhibitions. By a happily practical co-operation on the part of the School Board, six thousand of the children of the public schools are, each year, given an insight into the things of art at the Art Museum, and a knowledge of the privileges and duties of citizens in regard to beauty in a city.

The Art School of the Association annually teaches some hundred young people and children the broad principles of art, draftsmanship, painting, composition, designing and craft work. The advantages to any manufacturing city of well trained art students is becoming daily more evident.

We must, in a whole-hearted way, stand behind all the solutions
of the problem of civilization, and of these, art is important.