OUR COUNTRY AND OUR CULTURE
293
shown a piece of real, living beauty like
Lady Chatterley's Lover,
they profess a horror that shows the filth of their own minds."
There
is
a good deal more to this preface, but that
is
enough
to give a pretty fair picture of what I felt. The keynote of the whole
thing
is
that the United States, as a social and political entity, was
considered to be completely materialistic, without respect for the
artist, and opposed to any social reforms. Since then a good deal has
happened. The depression happened, to
begin
with, and then the
early Roosevelt administrations, during which, for the first time in
American history, government aid was given
to
painters, musicians,
writers, and even actors. The whole atmosphere of the country
changed. There was a man at the head of it who,
if
he wasn't a
friend of Monet, was at least a friend of Robert E. Sherwood and
Archibald MacLeish. The smug self-satisfaction of the booming
twenties died and stayed dead. And in the meantime, in Europe,
dictatorships increased and freedom faded. Today we see the arts
and letters, together with political liberty, existing precariously in
France and Italy, and losing ground almost everywhere else. There
is
very little doubt left in hberal minds that the United States of
America is the chief hope for the future of the world in this century.
However, there are still forces at work here which make it
difficult for the artist in any art to produce greatly. First of
all
there
is the pressure of the population itself, the democratic pressure,
which tends to force even the radical artist to become radical in
the same way in which other radical artists are radical. Secondly,
there is the economic pressure which makes it very difficult for the
average artist, or intellectual, because of the extremely high cost
of living, to spend
his
time in the few centers where he may meet
and mingle with others of his own craft, and fmd a market for
his product. And thirdly, there
is
that mental attitude, unfortunately
still prevalent, which withholds respect from all activities which fail
to show an immediate result in good hard
cash.
There is a way to correct these evils: more support for the
arts
by the government, as well as by wealthy individuals. There ought
to be a national theater in Washington, and a state theater in every
one of the forty-eight states. There ought to be a national school
of painting and sculpture, and a conservatory of music. And above
all
there ought to be a great--conservatory, let us call it-of the one
