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Considering the need for outspoken criticism at the present moment, and the fact that there are a number of competent men writing on the subject, the tameness of their manner is a little hard to understand. If a girl, after years of arduous and conscientious study, makes a poor début on the stage, the dramatic critics score her unmercifully. If a preacher is extravagant in his language, he is fiercely handled by the press. And this is but just, although the sermon and the play reached but a few, and are forgotten in a day. But when a man, either knowingly or through ignorance, inflicts a permanent eyesore on the community he is treated with foolish consideration, and when the worst comes to the worst, heroic effort is made to find some praiseworthy detail or minor excellence, and the perpetrator of an inexcusable insult to public taste is often flattered into believing himself a genius. It may even come to pass that men of reputation may write him up for "The Great American Architect Series," which is then put upon the news-stands to confuse and deceive the public.

OF

The So-called Architects

F the so-called architects in the United States possibly one-half are doing their best. This is not necessarily the half that has had some sort of architectural training, for, sad to relate, there are many trained men so devoid of pride in their work as to deliberately run plan-factories for revenue only. We can sympathize with the impecunious family man who is forced to make every cent he can, and we can sympathize with the man advanced in years who is utterly outclassed and yet is too proud to allow any one to design for him; but we have neither patience nor mercy for the young "shyster"-sometimes college-bred and well-traveled-who prostitutes himself and his profession by disregarding the established and recognized rules of professional conduct and his better knowledge of design.

He should be hounded down and marked for contempt. And if, as is usual, he does not apply for membership in any architectural society, the fact should be bruited about as evidence of his lack of responsibility in practice.

It is a gratifying thing that there are but few in either the junior or senior societies who are not a credit to the profession, and that those few are beginning to realize their unenviable position.

Since Mr. Robert S. Peabody made it his business to rejuvinate the Institute, a new impulse has animated the better element of the profession. He has the right idea when he says: "Surely, most can be gained in an association of educated gentlemen by offering the hope of distinction by honoring excellence, rather than by chastising the unworthy;" yet, unless the names of the worthy are often in print as such, the public will continue to be dazzled by the magnitude of the "shyster's" much-advertised practice.

Consider such talented and proficient architects as Messrs. Sullivan, Furnace, Eyre, White, Wright, Codman, Stevens and Spencer; such a galaxy of designers as Pope, Magonigle, Gilbert, Warren, Van Pelt, Howard, Pulsifer, Boring & Tilton, Haydel, Seeler, Weyeth, Davis, Lord & Hewlit, Ross, Perkins, Barber and Haskell, and such ebullient enthusiasts as McKim, Meade & White, Frank Miles Day, Carrère & Hastings, Cope & Stewardson, Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, Peabody & Stearns, and Brite & Bacon, not to mention those great firms who handle big work intelligently and in a big way, like Ernest Flagg, Daniel H. Burnham, Eames & Young, George B. Post and so many others in each of

the above classes-consider them either individually or collectively, and we have every reason to feel proud and hopeful of our profession.

To have the sense of creative activity is the great happiness and the great proof of being alive."-Matthew Arnold.

The "Shyster's" Defence THE "shyster's" defence, when he attempts to

make one, is that "brains are cheap ;' that to get the job is the really difficult work; and that bending his own energies to that end he can Does "hire the talent to design it." Can he? he? The results show.

It will be easily understood that he rarely makes an effort to do so. But if he does, he fails, and the reason is not far to seek.

Architecture is, by its very nature, an art in which collaboration of many hands is necessary, and, above all else, it is necessary that they should work harmoniously for the common end. This

presupposes a mutal knowledge, an esprit de corps, and an acknowledged interdependence, which, however cheap brains may be, cannot be bought at any price.

This the "shyster" cannot pick up like an occasional able designer out of work. Unless the office is dominated by a man who has both authority and knowledge; unless his subordinates know more of him than can be learned in a month, and he of them; unless there are officetraditions to supplement and interpret instructions; unless, to use the word again, there is that esprit de corps which cannot be bought or hired ready-made, the result can hardly be more than patchwork.

“Things don't turn up in this world unless some one turns them up.”—James A. Garfield.

Master and Disciple

This brings us to another matter in which there is much room for advance, and in which improvement will come in time as a matter of course. With the recent education of hundreds of young men in the schools here and abroad, there has not been a proportionate advance on the part of the elder generation, with the result that the young men find themselves better educated than their seniors, and while still inexperienced, find few men of both fundamental training and that higher education carried on through years of experience and maturity, to whom they can look as to masters.

In France, throughout Europe, in fact, this relation between master and disciple is maintained until death breaks it, leaving the sometime pupil a mature man, and himself a master to others. In our larger cities there is something like this, here and there, but taking the country as a whole, it is conspicuously absent.

This, too, is why we have no group of men who, without regard to commercial success, are recognized as masters in their art, and enjoying the respect of the public as well as the profession, can be called upon to judge public competition without the distrust and suspicion with which we are often forced to view the decisions of juries chosen with regard to political affiliation or to prominence obtained by material success.

15

in occasional competitions, and surmising that the commissioners or building committee will have a favorite, makes such an agreement as will leave the door open, if they choose to avail themselves of it. He lends his name to the competition, and becomes in reality a kind of "stoolpigeon," as competing architects take it for granted his judgment will be straightforward, on the strength of his name.

Our correspondent suggests that a code is necessary for the guidance of such "experts," and that all universities should be advised not to allow their professors to accept such positions unless they shall have agreed to be guided by the principles laid down; and he makes a further suggestion that especially appeals to us, viz, that the expert's report must be made public, no matter what the commission may do in regard to it.

While this is an admirable suggestion, it is probable that the kind of probable that the kind of "expert" under discussion would in every case be ingenious enough to report as evasively as the commission might desire.

In our opinion there is no cure for dishonesty; though, by publicly branding every offender, it may be possible to teach some that honesty is the best policy.

While the offence complained of may never have been charged to a college professor, the day is past for inviting them to take an active part in professional practice; and, further, we feel justified in our stand by several unbusiness-like but well-meaning transactions they have participated in during recent years.

It goes without saying that there are always disinterested members of the profession, some of whom may have made a specialty of the particular kind of building for which the competition is held, who could better serve in an advisory capacity; at the same time it is most gratifying to note, notwithstanding the rapacity of a few, that year by year professional standing is being taken

more and more into account on both sides of the equation, and that expert advice is now frequently sought.

"An architects' business is to build buildings, not to sell drawings."—Robert S. Peabody.

A Rapacious Competition

THE new building for the Pennsylvania State Capitol has spoiled a good many reputations and has helped none.

It is generally understood at this writing that Mr. Henry Ives Cobb has been dismissed and that a new competition is being held for the purpose of selecting an architect to dispose of a sum

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of money nearly eight times as large as the original appropriation, which was to have covered the entire cost of the building.

It is a matter of surprise and regret to his many friends that Professor Ware should have continued to act as professional adviser after the Philadelphia Chapter had publicly announced that it would consider it an act of treason on the part of any of its members to compete; and in view of the fact that he has allowed his honored name to be used, he has forfeited much of the confidence he has hitherto enjoyed.

It will be remembered with what celerity the T-Square Club rid itself of one of its mem

bers after the awards were made for the first

competition three years ago; and, furthermore, many will agree that the vigorous campaign of protest it started, which ultimately led to action. being taken against the culprits in the Institute, two of whose portraits as such were conspicuously printed in the New York Herald of December 16, 1900, is sure to be revived as soon as the competitors' names are known.

WE

A New Economic Situation

E feel it at once a duty and a pleasure to call the attention of our readers to the high standard of public duty Mr. Andrew Carnegie has set before him in retiring from active business.

In his desire to share his great wealth with his fellow men, a new economic situation is created. In offering at one stroke to supply all quarters of Greater New York with branch library buildings, he has made possible an experiment in communalism which, under normal conditions, must have been deferred for years to come. establishing such a system of distributing points, centres are established for other branch institutions, and we are brought a step nearer to the proper organization of large communities.

By

Each of these buildings should become a centre of a division of about 60,000 population, and as such should be much more than a mere library. They should become the most attractive resort of the entire neighborhood, where public lectures, exhibitions and musicales could be held, for such a number of branches insures the feasibility of a rotation of entertainments at a small cost. And thus the development of the sense of social responsibility could in a measure be inculcated in the mind of the masses.

While the public expenditure necessary for the acceptance of this gift is so great as to raise the question as to whether the city could not spend such money to better advantage on schoolhouses, public baths, recreation piers, etc., the fact remains that an opportunity has been made for the immediate carrying out of a uniform and coherent plan.

"Art strides forward slowly and seriously, produces creatively and constantly, until it attains the ideal of beauty that fully corresponds to the epoch."-Otto Wagner.

Symmetrical Civic Development WHILE the officials are endeavoring to adjust

WHI

matters in order to accept $5,200,000 to build fifty-seven branch libraries, it would be well to consider the organic unity of the system, and, if possible, to provide for the carrying out of all these buildings, with some regard to their relation to the city as a whole, their relation to the great central library from which their maintenance will radiate, and with a full understanding of the opportunity these units will offer to embellish spots about which property should constantly improve. Neither the smallest nor the most remote of these buildings should be treated as a scattered unit, but each is one of a system of units in the civic scheme. Eighty thousand dollars per building, even were it to include its equipment, is ample, for if some buildings may prove more expensive than this average, others can easily fall below it, without inconsistency to the neighborhood, and still conform perfectly with the uniformity we advocate. The opportunity should certainly be seized upon to evolve a New York type of precinct building.

'No one can do his best when his surround

ings are in confusion and disorder. The sur-
roundings react upon the mind, and not only
dwarf its efforts, but are confusing and demoral-
izing."

An Efficient Committee of Experts

WE

E understand in this connection that Messrs. McKim, Mead & White, Carrère & Hastings, and Babb, Cook & Willard have been retained in an advisory capacity to supervise the designing and erection of all the buildings. If so, this is indeed a matter for congratulation, as the preliminaries could not have been placed in better hands. These gentlemen are sure to consider the problem conprehensively, and it is to be expected that they will draw up rules to govern possibly a series of competitions which will insure the best working plan and a certain amount of unity and good taste in all the successful designs.

In fact, without betraying their trust, they may very properly design one or even more than one library, if there are to be different types, in order to establish a standard or proper standards.

"It does not matter so much in art what you do, as how you do it.”—John M. Carère.

WE

Inspiration

E refuse as strongly and as confidently as ever to believe that modern architecture is but a matter of composition, devoid of sentiment and individual charm; we refuse to believe that we live in a prosaic matter-of-fact era; for so long as there are chances for strenuous Presidents in the United States, and so long as Carrie Nation waves her little hatchet, we refuse to be convinced that these times do not offer just as much inspiration to the architects as any that went before.

That haste is a new element in architecture we concede regretfully, and venture to suggest that this is perhaps the cause of our blindness. So long as the next job is a matter of more importance to the architect than the one he is working on, so long may we expect our buildings to be either spurious imitations, or barren straightforward compositions.

At the risk of being taunted with being "always positive and sometimes right," we maintain that these times are teeming with incident, color and poetry. We need only recall the purpose of that cargo of Cuban school teachers who recently visited this country on a personally conducted government tour; or we may remind the reader of Roosevelt's rough riders; or of the colored immune regiment, every man of them having had yellow fever before he started for the tropics on his mission of "benevolent assimilation;" or, again, coming nearer home, let us ask the reader, who has ever walked in the dark through a crowded business quarter of a great American city, where a night-shift has been working fifteen stories or more in the air upon a roofless, wall-less structure, and has listened to the dim sound of rivet-driving, and has seen high against the black vault above a few spectral lines, a few tiny moving figures, and the glare of a few fierce arclights-who, we ask, has looked up at such a sight without marveling? Was there ever anything half so mysterious? We can recall nothing more picturesque and obscure: nothing more inspiring to the architect.

The Victorian Era

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THE age of humanism, marked by its regard

for the individual, as seen in its demand for the abolition of slavery; the strong sentiment toward democratic forms of government, by the enormous extension of free education, free libraries, free hospitals, public parks, recreationgrounds and baths; by its yearnings and efforts toward social betterment, and above all by the almost absolute power held by public opinion, can be identified in no better way than by being called the Victorian Era.

For while other races have accomplished more in special lines, to the Anglo-Saxon, by reason of his love of justice, and by that patience which accomplishes so much in the attainment of justice, it was first given to show that a government based on the right of the individual and deriving its administrative power from the individual might have constructive strength. This made the Anglo-Saxon the mouthpiece of the new spirit in regard to social relations, and made Anglo-Saxon law the model for all nations to whom tidings of the new age had come.

To many of our citizens the mother-country, historically, is not the mother-country actually; but these have come to us to share our heritage, not to bring their own, as when Jacob A. Riis recovered himself from the verge of the grave that he might become an American.

Meanwhile, it behooves us to be worthy of this trust. Time and again England has battled against her own principles, from the time when

"English men and English thought

'Gainst the self-will of England fought" until now, when we see her trying to destroy virtues like her own in South Africa. We too have already built so many bad bricks into our structure that we cannot afford to be careless. because men, being trusted become trustworthy; We must not forget that our nation is strong because interest and responsibility are theirs; because they spend what they have earned for their own ends. Florence earned the money

which the Medici dispensed; but had that great family taken cognizance of the popular will, their structure might have been as permanent as it was splendid. The "Ville de Luxê" of Haussman is dead from the same cause. More splendid and synthetical, with a more obvious unity than that arising from a many-sided popular sentiment, it lacks the vital impulse of the latter, which fulfiling actual needs personally tangible, grow with them, after the fashion of all that lives.

The city which shall survive all those founded on feudal principles, shall, therefore, be a city of the people, made like their government, by the

18

people and for the people; it shall be the city of fulfilled needs, so knit together, without waste and without clash, that it shall be called at last the City Beautiful.

his love for art, which has a sense not only of its power but of its obligation, which puts itself at the service of great and worthy ideas, which appeals to men as men."- Andrew D. White on Tolstoi.

THE

The Influence of Environment

HE last decade of the nineteenth century. added a serious social importance to municipal hygiene, resulting in the opening up and general renewal of old cities and the planning of new ones, with some relations to sunshine and occasional breathing spots.

On this side of the Atlantic we have heard the

echoes of Haussmann's teachings, and tangible results here and there prove they have not been unheeded. To Jacob A. Riis, the Danish-American reformer, we owe much, as it is to his persistent efforts that such obnoxious slums as Mulberry Bend have been wiped out, and a movement set on foot whereby a million dollars a year is appropriated for opening up small parks in the city of New York.

The new birth has come through much preaching, and we share to the full the enthusiasm with which he tells us that "schoolyards and schoolgrounds are quite different things;" that "gutters are perilous playgrounds;" that "jails are much more expensive than schools;" that the ordinary tenements destroy family. life, manhood and patriotism;" and that "if you give him full control over a boy's play he will twist his character," arguing that the depraved are 90 per cent. weakness and only 10 per cent. vicious, and that "if a boy has a chance to blow off his steam in an orderly fashion he is apt to grow up a good citizen."

Thus, it will be seen, that in this country the influence of environment upon citizenship and character is being studied with as much care as municipal hygiene. The logical next step is to awaken architects to a realization of the fact that their attitude towards social problems usually shows crass stupidity; and that until they learn to combine monumental effects with actual social needs, their services can be as well dispensed with as those of the equally stupid. landscape architects who delight in providing the congested poor with "keep-off-the-grass parks."

Under the heading, High Art and and Little Fishes, we publish an article illustrating in our opinion the proper method of embellishing a

city upon an eminently sound foundation. There is no reason why the most utilitarian structures should not be made more beautiful and be surrounded with a sufficiency of open space. Likewise, there is no reaaon why our best architects should shun such problems. To the man who masters them a reputation and an increased income may be counted upon; and further, we go so far as to claim that it is along such inventive lines that the greatest possibilities for advancement lie.

"Many of the most characteristic phases of our modern industrial and social development are less than half a century old. Within that period the curriculum of the American college has been transformed."

Creative Scholarship

"TIN millyon dollars to make the Scotch a learned people," said Dooly.

"Who done that?" asked Mr. Hennessy.

"Andrew Carnaggie," says Mr. Dooly. "He reaches down into his pocket where he keeps the change an' pulls up tin milyon bawbies, an' says he, Boys, take y'er fill of learnin' an' charge it to me,' he says.

Does this not represent a certain type of readymade architect? We know of many young men going into business for themselves without experience and without knowledge of actual conditions; able young men who have been through college, and perhaps spent several years abroad, complacently ignorant of living issues at home.

We feel there is a general tendency in all the schools to overlook, and certainly to underestimate, the significant forces of American life in favor of the purchase of a cumbersome readymade education.

While many deplore the increasing number of elective courses in our colleges and the steadily growing tendency towards business courses, or courses shaped to convert knowledge into an immediate means of earning a living, proving that conditions throughout the country are unfavorable to the development of scholarship, we maintain, nevertheless, there is need of better architectural schools rather than more architectural schools, and that on a purely commercial basis such institutions would attract many students.

Dr. Hugo Muensterberg, of Harvard, hit the nail on the head when he wrote:

"I well remember a long conversation which I had with one of the best English scholars, who came over here to lecture when I had been only a short time in the country, and was without experience in American academic affairs. We spoke