the art and craft of the machine, 1901, 1930

7/27/2019 The Art and Craft of the Machine, 1901, 1930

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5 F. L. Wright, The Art and Craftof the Machine 1901 1930At the time Frank Lloyd Wright (1867- 1959) prepared this address, he and Sullivanwere not speak ing. Sullivan had su mmarily dismissed his assistant in 1893 when hediscovered Wright was ta king on private work during his off hours (they were reconciled shortly before Wright left for Europe in 1910 and remained close thereafter),Wright shared Sullivan's view concerning the debasemen t of the profession , and in1900 he discussed the plight of the architect in a paper read before the annua lmee ting of the Architectural League of America in Ch icago, claiming the architecthad so ld out, that he had made himself a salesman of prepackaged styles. I An evenmorc important indication of his developing philosophy was 'Alright's lect ure, TheArt and Cra ft of the Machine," g iven at a meeting of the Arts and Crafts Society atull House, Chicago, the next year. The way out of the dilemma , \Vright proposed,

was by embraci ng the machine, exp loi ting its potential and deve loping a new architecture on th e basis of this new sensit ivity. l-low this might be done he illustrated indesigns for small Sing le-family houses published at the same time in popular journ s Wright slightly revised this lecture for delivery before the \Vestern Society of

.. Frank Lloyd Wright , The Art and Craft of the Machine ," from Modem Architec-ture: Being the Kahn Lectures Jar 1930 (Princeton, 1930, pp. 7- 23.

t ee Wright's Genius and the Mobocracy (New York, J949). his biographical tribute toSullivan.

I The Arc hit ec t," Brlckbutlder 9 (June 19(0 , 124-2B,~ A Home in a Prairie Town and A Sma ll House with 'Lots of Boo m in It ,' The

Ladies Home jouma l B (Februa ry and Jul y 1901 , pp. 17, 15. These were two of hundreds ofdeSigns jOUTfwl editor Edward Bok requested of man y prominent and rising architects andpublished in the magazine between IB95 and 1915.


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The Searci for Order 65Engi neers in 1901 , pub lished it in the catalogue of the Ch icago Architectural Clu bexhibition of 1901. and revised iI once more for prese ntation before the Daughters ofthe Amer ican Hevo lut ion in Chicago in 1904 . He expand ed on it once again, returning to a challenge he be li eved had ye t to e taken up, to open the se ries of fourlectures he de livered at Princeton Uni ve rsity in 1930.

No one. I hope, has come here tonight for a sociolog ica l prescriptionfor th e cure of ev ils peculiar to this machine age . For I co me to yo u as anarchitect to say m y word for th e right use upon such new materials as wehave, of our great subst itute fo r tool mac hines. There is no thrift in an ycra ft until th e tools are mastered ; nor will th ere e a worth y social orde r inAmerica until the clements by wh ic h Amer ica does its work arc maste red byAmerican society. Nor can there be an art worth the man or the name untilthese clements are grasped and truthfully id ea lized in whateve r we as apeople try to make. Although these elemental truths should e commonplaceenough by now, as a people we do not understand them nor do we see theway to app ly th em. We arc probabl y ric he r in raw materia ls for ou r use aswo rkme n. citize ns or artists than any othe r nation- but outside mechanica lgenius for me re contrivance we a re not good work men nor, beyond adventitious or propitious respect for propert y, a re we as good citi zens as we shoulde nor are we artists at all. vVe are one and < , consciously or unconsc ious ly,mastered by our fa scinat ing a utoma ti c imp lements, using them as subst i

tutes for tools. To makc this assertion clear I offer you ev id ence I have foundin the field of architec ture. t is still a field in which the pulse of the agethrobs beneath much sha bhy finery and one broad enough G od knows) tore present the errors and possibilities com mon to our time-se rvin g time.Architec ts in the past have embodied the spirit common to their ownlife a nd to the life of the societ y in which they li ved in the st nob le of allnoh le record buildings. They wrought th ese va lu ab le records with theprim itive tools at th e ir comma nd and wha teve r th ese records have to say tous today wou ld e utte rl y in significant if not who lly illegible were toolssu ited to anothe r and diffe rent conditi on stupidl y forced to work upon the m;hlindl y compe lled to do work to wh ich they were not fitted . work whichthey could only spoil.In this age of steel and stea m th e tools wi th which c ivi lization's truerecord will e written arc sc ien tifi c th oughts made opera ti ve in iron andhronze a nd stee l and in th e plastic processes whi ch characte ri ze this age, a llof wh ic h we ca ll mac hines. The electric lamp is in this sense a machine . Newmate ria ls in the man-machines have made the physical hody of this agewhat it is as di stingui shed from forme r ages. They have made ou r e ra th emac hine ge wherein locomotive engines. eng in es of industr y, eng in es oflight or engines of wa r or stea mships tak e th e place works of art took inpreviolls hi story. Today we have a scientist or an in ventor in place of aShak espea re or n Dante. Captains of industry are mode rn substitutes, noton ly for kings and potentates, but , I a m af raid , for grea t a rti sts as we ll. Andyet- man-made environment is the truest , most characte ristic of a ll humanrecords. Let a man build and you have him . You may not have a ll he is, but


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366 AMEHICA BU ILDScha racte ri zat ion, few men are ever be lied by selfmade environment . erta inly no historica l period was ever so misrep rese nted . C hi cago in its uglinesstod ay becomes as true an expression of the l e li ved he re as is any center onearth where men come together closely to li ve it ou t or fi gh t it oul. Man is aselecting principle, ga the ring his like to him wherever he goes. The int ensifyin g of his existence by close contact, too, Oas hes out the human recordvividl y in hi s background a nd hi s surroundings. But so mewherc somehow in ou r age , a lthough signs of the times are not wanting , bea uty in thisexp ression is forfe ite d the record is illegible when not ignobl e. We mustwalk blindfold ed through the streets of this, or a ny grea t modern Ame ricancily. to fail to see that a ll this magnificent resource of machin e-powe r andsupe rior mate rial has brought to us, so far , is degradation. All of the a rtforms sacred to the art of old are, by us, prosti tute.

On every side we see evidence of inglorious quarre l between things asthey were and things as they must e and are. This shame a ce rtain merc ifulignorance on our pa rt mista kes for glorious achievement. \-Ve believe in ourgrea tness when we have tossed up a Pantheon to the god of money in a nightor two, like the Illinois Trust Bu ilding or the Chicago Nationa l Bank . And itis ou r glory to get together a mammoth aggrega tion of Roman monuments,sarcophagi a nd temples for a post o ffi ce in a year or two. On Michiga nAvenue Montgomery Ward presents us w it h a nondescript Florentine palacewith a grand ca mpanile for a fa rmer g roce ry and it is as common with usas it is e lsewhe re to find the giant stone Palladian orders overhangingplate glass shop fronts. Show windows benea th Cothic office buildings, theo ffice- middle topped by Parthenons, or mode ls of any old sacrifi c ial temple,arc a common sight. Every commercial interest in any America n town, infact. is scurrying for respec tabilit y by seeking some advertising connection,at least, with the classic. A comme rc ial renaissa nce is here; the rena issa nceof the ass in the lion's skin . This much, a t least, we owe to the late Colum bian Fair- that triumph of modern civili zation in 189:3 will go down inAmerican archit ectural history, when it is prope rly reco rded , as a mortgageupon posterit y that posteri ty must repudi ate not only as usurious but asforged.In our so-ca lled skysc rapers (latest and most fa mous business-building triumph), good granite or Bedford stone is cu t int o the fashion of theIta lian followers of Ph idias and his C reek slaves. Blocks so c ut are c unninglya rranged about a structure of stee l bea ms and sha ft s (whi ch struc ture secretly robs them of any real mean ing), in order to make the fini shed bu ildingresemb le the architect ure depict ured by Pa lladia a nd Vitruvius- in th eschoolbooks. It is quite as feas ible to begin putting on thi s Italian trimminga t the corn ice, and come on down to the base as it is to work, as the lessfortullate Ita lians wcre forced to do, from the base upward . Yes, from thetop down is oft en the actual method employed . The keystone of a Romanor Goth ic a rc h may now be set t hat is to say hung a nd the vo ussoirsstuck alongs id e or hung on downwa rd to the haunches. Fina lly thi s mask,completed, takes on the features of the pure c lassic, or any va riety ofrenaissance or whatevcr catches the fan cy or fix es th C convic tions of thedesigner. Most likely , an educa tion in a rt has fixed both. Our Chicago


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The Search for rder 67ment is significant and indicative, what does this highly reactionary , extensive and expensive scene-painting by means of hybrid colleg iate Gothic signif y ? Beca use of Oxford it seems to be genera lly accepted as a ppropriatefor scholastic purposes. Yet, why should an American uni versity in a land ofdemocratic ideals in a machin e age be charac terized by second-hand adaptation of Gothic form s, the mse lves adapted previously to our own adoption bya feudalistic age with tools to use and conditions to face totally differentfrom anyth ing we can ca ll our own? The public library is aga in asininerena issance, bones sti cking through the flesh beca use the interior wasplanned by a shrewd library board w hile an a rt architect ' (the term isChicago's, not mine) was hired to put the architecture on it. The classica l aspect of the sham -front must be preserved at any cost to sense. Nineout of ten public buildings in a lmost any American city are the same.

On Michigan Avenue. too , we pass another pretentious stru cture, thi sLime fashioned as in culcated by the Ecole des Beaux Arts after the idea ls andmethods of a Graeco-Roman . in artistic, grandly brutal civ ilization, a civilization that borrowed everything but its jurisprudence . Its essent ial tool was theslave. Here at the top of ou r cu lture is the C hicago Art Institute, and verylike other art institutes. Be tween Iions realisti Kemyss would have themso because Barye did w e co me benea th some stone millin e ry into thegrandl y useless lobby. Here French's noble statue of the republic confrontsus s he too , imperial. The grand introduction over , we go further on to findamid plaster casts of antiquity, ea rnest students patiently g leaning a halfacre or more of archaeological dry-bones. arming here for industrial conquest , in other words to go out and try to make a li ving by making someva luable impress ion upon the machin e age in wh ich they live. The ir fundamental tool in thi s business abou t which they wi ll know just this much lessthan nothing , is the machin e. In this acre or more not one relic has anyvi tal relation to things as they are for these studen ts, except for the blessedcircum stan ce that they are more or less bea utiful things in themselves bodying forth the bea uty of once upon a time, These students at best areto concoct from a study of the aspect of these blind reverences an extract ofantiquity suited to mode rn needs, meanwhile knowing nothing of modernneeds, permitted to care nothing for the m , and knowing just as little of theneeds of the ancients which made the objects they now study. The tyros aretaught in the name of John Hu skin and v..' illiam Morris to shun an d despisethe essential tool of the ir age as a matter commercial and antagonistic to art.So in time they go forth , each armed with hi s little Academic extract, a ppl y-in g it as a sticking-plaster from without , whe rever t ca n be made to stick,man y helplessly knowing in the ir hearts that it should be a developmentfrom within-but how ? And this is an education in art in these UnitedStates.Climb now the grand monumental stairway to see the results of thiscultural effort w e will call it education -hangi ng over the walls of theexhibition ga lle ries. You will find there the same empt y reverences to thepast at cost to the present and of doubtful value to the future, unless a curseis valuable. Here you may see fruits of the lust and pride of the pa troncollec tor but how shamefull y little to show by way of e ncouraging patronage


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368 AMEIHCA BUILDSA sacred place t shou ld be the hea rt-center, the emotiona l in spiration of agrea t national industrial act ivity, but he re we find tradition not as an r-in spirit animating progress. No. Now more in the past th an ever No more,now , than an ancient mumm y, a dead letter. A " precedent is a " hang ove r"to copy the co py to be copied for machine re production , to be , hamelesslyreproduced until demoralized utterly or unrecogn izable.More unfor tunate, however, than a ll this fia sco. is the fiasco al fresco.T he suburban house-parade is more serv ile still. An y popular avenue or suburb wi ll show the polyglot enca mpment displaying. on the nea tl y kept littleplots a theatri ca l desire on the part of fairl y respectab le people to live inchatea ux manor houses. Venetian palaces, feudal castles, and Queen Annecottages. Many with sufficient hardihood abide in abor tions of the ca rpc nte ra rchit ect , our ve ry own General Grant Got hi c perhaps, intended to beat a llthe " lovely per iods" at the ir own game and succeeding . Look within all thi stypica l monoton y-in-va riety and see the re th e machine-made copies ofhand icraft originals; in fad . unless you, the householde r. are fortunate indeed , possessed of extraordina ry tas te a nd opportunit y all yo u possess is insome deg ree a machine-made exa mple of vitiated handicra ft , irnitation antique furniture made an tique by the machine, itself of all abominations themost abominable. Everything must be curved and carved and carved andturned . The whole mass a tortured sprawl supposed a rtistic. And the oorcoverings? Probably machine-weavings of oriental rug patte rn pattern andtexture mechanica lly perfect; or worse, you r wa lls are papered with paperimitations of old tapestry. imitation patte rns and imitation textures, stampedor printed by the machine; imitations under foot, imitations ove rhead andimitations all round about yo u. You are sunk in " imitation. " Your muchmolded woodwork is sta in ed a ntique. Inev itably you have a white-andgo ld reception-room" with a few gilded cha irs an ove rwrought piano, andwithal , about you a general chea p machine-made "profusion " of c opies ofcopies of original imitations. To you , proud proprietors-do these things thusdegraded mean anything aside from vogue and price? Aside from your senseof Quantitative ownership, do you perceive in them so me fin e fitness inform , line and color to the purposes wh ich they serve? Are the chairs to sitin , the tables to lise, the couch comfortable, and arc a ll harmoniously relatedto each other and to yo ur own life? Do many of the furnishings or any of thewindow-milline ry serve any purpose at a ll of which you can think? Do youenjoy in " things" the least a pprec iation of truth in beautiful gui se? f not ,you are a victim of hab it , a habit evidence enough of the stagnation of anoutgrown art. He re we have the curse of stupidit y a chea p substitut e forancient art and cra ft which has no vita l meaning in your own life or ourtime. You line the box you live in as a magpie lines its nest. You need not beas hamed to confess yo ur ignorance of the meaning of a ll thi s because notonly you, but eve ry o ne else, is hopelessly ignorant concerning it ; it is " impossible, Im itations of imitations co pi es of co pies, cheap expedients , lack ofintegrit y. some few blind gropings for simplic it y to g ive hope to the pi c ture .That is all.

\Vhy wonder what has become of the grand spirit of art that made, intimes pas t , man 's re ection in his environment a godlike thing? hi s is whathas become of it Of all conditions, thi s one at horne is most deplorable, for


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h e Search for Or er 69to the homes of thi s country we must look for any beginning of the awakening of an a rtist ic conscience whi ch wi ll change this pa rasit ic condition toindependent growt h. The homes of the people will c hange before publi cbui ldings ca n possibl y change.Glance now for a momen t behind thi s adventit iolls scene-pa inting pass ing, at home, for a rt in the nin eteenth century. Try to sense the true conditions underl ying a ll , and wh ich you be tray a nd belie in the name of c ulture.St udy with me for a momen t the e ngine which produces thi s wreckage andbuilds yuu, thus cheapened and ridiculous. into an ignoble record.Ikre is thi s thing we ca ll the mach in e, cont rary to the principle oforgan ic grow th , but imi tat ing it , work ing irresistibl y the wi ll of man throughthe medium of men. All of us are drawn hdp lessly into its mesh as we treadour da ily round . And its offices-ca ll the ll services have become thecommunplacp hackground of modern existe nce; yes, and sad to say, in toomany lives the foreground , middle dista nce a nd future. At best we ourselvesare aircady become or are becom ing some coopera ti ve part in a vast machinery . t is. with us, as though we were controlled by some great crys tallizingprincip le go ing: on in nature a Jl a round us and go ing on, in spite of ourselves,even in OUf ve ry own wtures. f yo u would see how interwove n it is, thi sthing we ca ll the mac hine, with the warp and the woof of civ iliza tion , ifindeed it is not now the ver y basis of civiliza tion itself. go a t nigh tfall whena ll is simplified and made suggestive, to the top of O U f newest skycraper , theMasonic te mpl e . There you may see how in the image of mate rial man, atonce hi s g lory and h is menace, is this thing we ca ll a ci ty. Benea th you is themonster stretchin g out into the far distance. High ove rhead hangs a stagnantpall , its fetid brea th reddened with light from myriad eyes endl essly, everywhere blinking. Thousands of ac res of cellular tissue outspread , enmeshed byan intrica te network of veins a nd ar te ries radiating into the gloom. Circul ating the re with muffled om inous roar is the ceaseless act ivit y to whose necessities it a ll conform s. This wondrous tissue is knit a nd knit again and interknit with a nervous syste m , marvelously effec ti ve and complete, withde lica te filame nts for hea ring and know ing the pu lse of its own orga nism ,act in g inte lligentl y upon the ligaments and tendons of motive impulse, andin it a ll is Rowing the impe lling elec tri c nuid of man s own life. And thelabored hreat hin g, murmur , clangor , and the roar- how the vo ice of thismonstrolls force ri ses to proclaim the marvel of its structure Near at hand ,the ghastl y wa rning boom from the deep throa ts of vessels heav ily seekin ginlet to the waterway be low, answered by the echo ing clangor of the bridgebells. A distan t shri ek grows nea rer, more ominous, as the be lls warn theliving current frorn the swing ing bridge and a vessel c uts for a mome nt thenow of the nearer ar tery. C los ing the n upon the g rea t vessel s state ly passagethe double bridge is jllst in time to receive in a rush of stea m the avalancheof blood and metal hurled ac ross it; a streak of light gone roar ing into theni ght on glittering bands of a n avalanche encircled in its flig ht byslende r magic lines , c lick ing fait hfull y from station to station - its nervousherald , its warni ng and it s protect ion.

Nearer, in the building ablaze with midnight ac tivity, a spotless paperband is strea ming into the ma rve l of the multiplepress, receiving indelibl ythe impress ion of human hopes and fears, throbbing in the pulse of this grea t


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370 \ HIC BUILDSactiv ity, as infallibl y as the gray-matter of the human brain receives theimpression of the senses. The impress ions come for th as millions of neatlyfo ld ed perfected news-sheets, teeming with vivid appea ls to good a nd ev ilpass ions; weaving a web of int ercommunication so far-reaching tha t di stancebecomes as nothi ng, the thought of one man in one corne r of the ea rth onone day visible on the next to all me n. The doings uf a ll the world areref lected here as in glass-so marvelously sensiti ve thi s sim ple bandstreaming e ndlessly from day to day becomes in the grasp of the multiplepress. If the pulse of this grea t act ivity a utomatons work ing night and dayin every line of industry. to the power of whi c h the tremor of the mammothst-eel skeleton benea th your feet is but an awe- in spi ring response- is thrill ing. what of the prolific, sile nt obedience to man's wi ll underl ying it a ll ? Ifthi s power must be uprooted that civiliza tion may live, then civiliza tion isa lready doomed. Hemain to contemplate thi s wonder until the twinklinglights peri sh in groups. or follow one by one leav ing others to live throughthe gloom ; fires a re banked tumult slowly dies to an echo here and there.Then the da rk ened pall is gradually lifted and moonlight outlines the shadowy. sullen masses of structure, struc ture deeply c ut he re and there by halfluminous channel s. I-luge patches of shadow in shade and darkness commingle mys te riously in the block-li ke plan with box-like skylines-con t rastingstra nge ly with the broad surface of the lake beside. placid and respl enden twith a sil ve r glea m. Hcmai n. I say, to reRec t that the texture of the city, thisgrea t machin e, is the warp upon which will be woven the woof and patte rnof the democracy we pray for. Hea lize that it has been depos ited here, particle by partic le, in blind obedience to la w law no less organ ic so far as weare concerned than the laws of the great so lar uni ve rse. That uni verse, too ,in a sense, is but an obed ie nt mac hine.Magnificent power And it conf ronts the you ng a rchitec t and his a rtistcomrades now, with no othe r bea ut y a lusty mate rial giant without trace ofideality. absu rdl y disguised by garments long torn to tatters or contemptu ollsly tossed aside, outgrown. 'J\' ith in our own recollection we have a ll beenhorri fied at the bitter cost of this ruthless developme nt ppa lled to see thisgrea t power dr ive n by greed over the innocent and defenseless-we haveseen bread snatched from the mou ths of sober and industriolls men , honorable occupa tions go ing to the wall with a riot, a feeble strike , or a stifledmoa n, ou tclassed , outdone , outli ved by the mac hin e. The workma n him selfhas come to rega rd this re len tless force as hi s nemesis an d combines aga instmachinery in the trades with a wild despair tha t dashes itself to pieces. wh ilethe a rtist blissfull y dreaming in the ha lls we have just visited or walk ingblindly abroad in the paths of the past, bera tes his own peopl e for lack lu stersenses, ra ils aga in st industrial conditions that neither afford him his opportunit y, nor, he says. ca n apprecia te him as he, pa ndc rer to ill -gotten lu xury.folding hi s hands, sta rves to death. " In nocuous martyr upon the cross of art "One by one, tens by tcns, soon thousands by thousand s, handicra ft smen andparasitic artists succ umb to the inevitable as one man a t a machine docs thewurk of from ve to fift y men in the same time , with a ll the art the re ismeanwhile prostituting to o ld methods and misunderstood idea ls the far


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Th e Search for O rder 371Am erica n society has the essential tool of its own age by th e blade , aslacerat ed hands everywhere testifySee the magnificent prowess of this unqualified power- strewing oursurroundings with the mangled corpses of a happie r time. We live amidghostly relics whose pattern once stood for c ultivated luxury and now stands

for an ignorant matte r of taste. \\lith no rega rd for first principles of comMman sense the leller of tradition is recklessly fed into rapacious maws ofmac hines until the reproduction , reproduced d n use m may be had forfi ve, ten or ninetYMnine cents although the worth y original cost ages of toiland patient culture. This might seem like progress, we re it not for the factthat these butche red forms. the life entire ly gone out of them , are nowharmful parasites, belittling and falsify ing a ny true perce ption of normalbea uty the Crea tor may have seen fit to implan t in us on our own account.Any id ea whatever of fitn ess to purpose or of harmony between form anduse is gone from us. t is lacking in these things one and all , beca use it is sosadl y lacking in us. And as for maki ng the best of our own conditions orre pudiating the terms on which this vul gar insult to tradition is produced .thereby insuring and rec tif ying the industrial fabri c thus wasted or enslavedby base imitation- the mere idea is a bnormal, 3S I myse lf have found to myso rrow.And among the fcw, the favored chosen few who love art by na tureand would devote their ene rgies to it so that it may live and let them liv3ny tra ining they ca n seck would still be a protest aga in st the machine as thecreator of all this iniquit y. whe n (Cod knows) it is no more than the creature. But , I say, usurped by greed and deserted by its na tural interpreter . theartist, the mach in e is onl y the crea ture . not the crea tor of this iniquity I saythe mac hine has nobl e poss ibilities unw illingly forced to thi s deg radation,degraded by thc arts the mselves. Inso fa r as the true ca paci ty of the machineis concerned it is itself the c razed victim of artistMim potence. Wh y will theAme rican artist not see that hum an thought in our age is stripping off its o ldform and donning anothe r; wh y is the artist unable to see that this is hi sglorious o pportunit y to c rea te and reap anew?But let us be prac tica l- let us go now a fi eld for ev id ent in stances ofmachin e abuse or abuse by the mac hine. I will show you typica l a buses thatshould serve to suggest to nny mind . ca pabl e of thought , tha t the machin e is,to beg in with , a ma rve llo lls simplifier in no me re ly negative sense. Comenow, with me, a nd see exa mples whi ch show that these craft engines may bethe modern emanc ipa tor of the crea tive mind . We may find them to be theregenerator of the c rea ti ve conscie nce in Ollr Ame rica, as we ll , so soon as astultified cult ure" w ill a llow them to e so used .First a s perha ps wood is 0s t ava ilable of homc building mate ri als,natu ra lly then the mos t abused- let us now glance a t wood . Elaborate machine ry has becn inven ted for no oth er purpose than to imita te the wood Mcarv ing of ea rl y ha ndi cfilft pa tte rns. Hesult ? No good join ery. None salabl ewithout some horrible glu ed-on botch'Na rk mea ning nothing, unless it meansth3t ar t and cra ft (by sa lesmanship ) has fi xed in the minds of the massesthe elaborate o ld hand c rved cha ir as ultimate idea l. The miserabl e tributeto thi s pe rversion yie ld ed by Gra nd Hapids a lone would mar the face of art


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372 M E l e BU LDSj i g ~ s a w i n g bea med , braced a nd e laborated to outdo in sentimentalit y th esentiment of some erstwhile overwrought a ntique. The bea ut y of wood liesin its qua lities as wood , strange as this may seem. Wh y does it take so muchimag ination- just to see th at? Treatment s th at fa il to bring out th ose qualitics, forcmost , are not plastic th erefore no longe r a ppropriate, The in a ppropri ate cannot be beautiful.The mac hine at work on wood will itself teac h us nd we seem so farto have lef t it to th e ma chine to do so tha t ce rta in simple forms and h n ~dling serve to bring out the bea ut y of wood . and to retain its c haracte r, andth at ce rtain oth er forms a nd handling do not bring out its beaut y, but spoilit. All wood -carving is a pt to e a forc ing of this mate ri al likely to destroyth e fin er possibiliti es of wood as we may know th ose possibilities now. Initself wood has bea ut y of marking , exquisite texture, and de lica te nuances ofcolo r that ca rvin g is likely to destroy, The machines used in woodwork willshow that by unlimited powe r in cutting. shaping, smoothing, and by thetire less repeat , they have emanc ipated beaulies of wood-nature, making pos-sible, without waste. bea utiful surface treatment s a nd l n strong fo rms thatvenee rs of Shcr3ton or C hi ppe nda le onl y hinted at with dire ex travaga nce,Beaut y unknown eve n to th e Middle Ages. These mac hines have undoubted ly pl aced within reac h of th e designc r a tec hnique ena bling him to re3li zeth e true natu re of wood in hi s designs harmoniously with man's sense ofbeaut y, satisfying hi s ma ter ia l needs with such extraordina ry econom y as toput this beaut y of wood in use within the reach of eve ryone. Out the ad va ntages of th e ma chines a re wasted and we suffe r from a riot of aesthe ticmurde r and eve rywh e re li ve with de based handic ra ft.

Then. at ra nd om . let us t3ke, say, the worker in marble s his gangsaws, plalle rs. pne um a tic-chi sels and rubbing-beds have made it possible toreduce bl oc ks ten feet long, six feet dee p, and two feet thick to shee ts or thinslabs an in ch in thi c kness within a few hour s, so it is now possible to use aprecious mate ri al tlS ordina ry wall covering. The slab may be turncd a ndma tched at th e edges to deve lop exquisite patte rn , em anc ipating hund redsof superficial feet of cha rac te ristic drawing in pure ma rble co lors that forHlCriy wasted in th e hea rt of a grea t ex pensive bloc k in th e thickn ess of th ewa ll. Here aga in a di stinctly new 3rc hit ect ural use may bring out a bea ut y ofmarbles consistent with na ture and imposs ible to handicraft. But what happe ns? The a rti st" persists in taking di shonest ad va ntage of this practice,building up imitations of solid pi ers with molded caps and bases, cunninglyuniting th e slabs at th e cdge until detection is difficult except to the trainedeye. Hi s method docs not change to develop the bea ut y of a new tec hnicalposs ibilit y; no, th e a rti st is simpl y enabled to " fake more a rchitecture,make more pi e rs and column sha ft s beca use he can now ma ke the m hollowHis archit ecture becomes no morc worth y in it self than the chea p fakcr thathe himse lf is, for hi s class ical forms not onl y fal sify th e meth od which usedto be and be lie th e meth od that is, but th ey c heat progress of its due. Forco nvincing evidence scc an y public library or art in stitute, th e CongressionalLibra ry at \>\Iashington . or the Boston Library.In the stone-c utting trade the stone- pl a ner h ls made il possible to cutupon slon e an y g ive n molded surface. or to ingra in upon th at surface anylove ly texture th c cunning brain may dev ise, and do it as it never was poss i-


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The Search fo r Order 7bl e to do it by ha ne . vVh at is it doing? Givin g us as nea r an im itation ofhand tooth -chi selling as possible, imitating moldings spec iall y ada pted towood, making possi bl e the lavish use of miles of meani ngless mo ld ed str ingcourses, cornices, base courses the g iant powcr mea nwhile snee red at bythc "a rtist because it fa ils to render the wavering de licacy of " touch" resulting from the impe rfections of hand -work .No arc hitect , this man No-o r he would excel that antique qu alityby the design of the contour of hi s sec ti ons, making a telling point of theve ry x ~ e o n he dreads, and so sensibly designin g, for the p ro lific dexterit y of the mac hin e, work which it ca n do so we ll that handwo rk would seemin suffe ra bl y crud e by comparison . The deadl y fac ilit y thi s one machine hasgive n " book a rchit ect ure is ri va lled only by the fac ilit y give n to it by ga lva nized iron itself. And if , incontinentl y, you will still have tracery in stone,yo u may arri ve at ac res of it now consiste ntl y with the economy of otherfea tures of this still fund amental " trade." You may tr y to imitate the hand carving of the ancients in thi s maUcr, ba filed by the craft and tende rness ofthe orig in a ls, or you may give the pne um atic chise l and power-plane suita blewo rk to do wh ic h would mean a changed style , a shift in the spiritual centerof the id ea l now controlling the use of stone in constructin g modern stonebuildings.You will find in stud ying the group of ancient mate ri a ls, wood andstone fo re mos t among them , that they have a ll been rende red fit for plasticuse by the ma < hinc The mac hin e itse lf steadil y making ava ila bl e for economi c use the ve ry quality in these things now needed to satisfy its ow n artequation. Burned c lay-we ca ll it te rra cotta is another conspicuous instance of the advantage of the " process." Modern mac hi nes (a nd a process isa mac hin e) have rendered this materi al as sensitive to the crea tive brain as ad ry pl ate is to the lens of the camera. A ma rve lous si mpli fier, th is ma te ri al,ri ghtl y used . The a rtist is enabled to clothe the steel stru cture , now becomingcha racte ristic of this era, with modestl y bea utiful, plasti c robes instead offi ve or more di fferent kinds of mate ri al now agg regated in confused fea turesand parts, composed " and supposedl y picturesque, but rea ll y a species ofcheap milli ne ry to e mocked and wa rped by the SUI l , eventua ll y bea ten bywind a nd ra in into a va riega ted hea p of tr3s h. But when these grea t poss ibili ties of simplic it y, the gift of the mac hine , get to us by way of the a rchitec t,we have onl y a base imitation of the hand -tooled blocks pilas te r-ca p andbase, vo usso irs and ca rve d spandrils of the labo ri ous man-handled stonecropof an an cien t peo pl e's architecture

The modern processes of casti ng in meta l are modern mac hi nes too,approachin g perfect ion , ca pable of perpe tuatin g the imagery of the mos tvividl y poetic mind with out hindran e put ting permanence and gracewithin reach of everyo ne , heretofore fo rced to s it supine with the lta lians a tthei r l3elshazzar-feasl of rena issa nce." Yes , without exaggera ti on , multi tud es of processes , many new, morc coming. await sy mpa the ti c inte rpretati on, Stic h as the ga lva no- pl astic and its elec trica l bre thren a p ro lific horde ,now cheap ma ke rs im itatin g " rea l" bronzes and a ll manner of meta llic anti ques , sec retly d amnin g a ll of them in the ir vitals, i not openly givin g themaway. An d there is electro-g laz in g, shunned beca use its straight lines in glasswo rk are too severely clea n and del ica te . Straight lines it seems are not so


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374 AMEIUC A BU IL DSsusceptible to the traditional designe r's lack of tou c h. Stream lines andstraight lines a re to him severely unbeautiful. Cur ved is the line of beauty says hc As though nature would not know wh at to do with its ownrec tilinear

The famili a r lithogra ph, too, is the pr in ce of an entire provin ce of newreproduc ti ve but unproducti ve processes. Each and eve ry onc has its indi vidua lities and therefore has poss ibilities of its own . See what Whistl er madeand the Germ ans are making of the lithog ra ph : one note sounded in thegamut of its possibilities. But that note rings tru e to process as the slleen ofthe butte rfl y's wing to that wing. Yet , having fa llen into disrepute , the mostthis particular " mac hin e did for us, until Wilistl er pi cked it up , was to giveus the chea p imitati ve effec ts of painting . mos tl y for ad verti sin g purposes.This is the use made of mac hin e ry in the abuse of mate ri als by men . Andstill more import ant than all we have yet di scussed he re is the new c lemententering industr y in this mate ri al we ca ll stee l. The structural necess it ywhich once sha ped Pa rthcnon s, Pantheons, cathedrals, is fa st being reducedby the machine to a skeleton of stee l or its equi valent , complete in it selfwithout the a rti st-cra h smun's touch. They arc now building Gothi c cathedra ls in Ca lifornia upon a stee l skeleton. Is it not easy to s that the myriadways of sa tisfy ing anc ie nt structu ra l necessities know ll to us throug h thebooks as the a rt of buildi ng, vanish, become hi story? The mainspring of the irph ys ica l existence now removed , their spiritual cente r has shifted and nothin g rema in s but the impass ive features of a dead face. Such is our "class icarchitecture.For centuries thi s in sensat e or insane a buse of grea t opportunity in thena me of c ulture has made cleanl y, strengthy and true simplic it y imposs iblein a rt or a rchitecture, whereas now we might reach the heights of crea tiveart. Hightl y used the very curse mac hin ery puts upon handicraft shouldemancipate the a rtist from temptation to pett y structura l dece it and e nd thiswea ri some stru gg le to make things seem wh a t they a re not and can never be.Then the mac hin e itself, eventua ll y, w ill satisfy the simple terms of its mod e rn art equation as the ba ll of clay in the sculptor's hand yields to h is desire e nding forever thi s nos tal gic masquerade led by a stultified culture inthe nam of a rt.Ye s though he does not know it , the a rti st is now free to work hi srational will with freedom unknow n to st ructura l tradition . Unit s of construc ti on have enl arged , rh ythms have been simplified and e therea li zed ,space is more spacious and the sense of it may ente r into every building,grea t or small. The arc hitec t is no longer hampered by the stone a rc h of theHomans or by the stone bea m of the Greeks. Wh y then does he cling to thegrani ma ti cal phrases of those ancient methods of construction when suchphrases arc in hi s mod ern wo rk empt y lies, and hjmself an inevitable lia r aswe ll? Alread y, as we stand today, the machin e has weakened the artist to thepoint of destruc ti on and a ntiquated the craftsman a ltogethe r. Ear lier formsof art a re by abuse all but destroyed . The wh ole matter has been reduced tomere pose. In stead of joy ful c rea tion we have a ll arollnd abo ut us poisonoustaste s foo lish a ttitudes. With some lillie of the Aame of the old love , andc redit able but pitiful enthusiasm , the young a rti st still keeps on working,


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The Scarch for Order 75making mi serable mischief with loft y motives: perhaps, because hi s hea rt hasnot kept in touch or in sympat hy with his scientific brother's head, being ou tof step with the forward marching of his own time.Now, let us remember in forming thi s new Arts and Crafts Soc iety a tHull House that eve ry people has done its work, therefore evolved its art asan expression of its own life, using the best tools; and that means the mosteconomic and e ffec tive tools or contri va nces it knew: the tools most successful in saving valuable hum an effort. The chatt el slave was the essential toolof Greek civilization, therefore of its a rt. We have discarded this tool andwould refuse the re turn of the art of the Greeks were slavery the terms of itsrestoration, and slavery, in some form , would e the terms.But in Grec ian art two fl owers did find sp iritual expression- the acanthus and the honeysuckle. In the a rt of Egypt-similarly we see the papyrus,the lotus. In Japan the chrysanthemum and many other flowers. The ar t ofthe Occident has made no sllch sympathetic interp re tation si nce that time,with due credit given to the English rose and the French fl eur-de- lis, and asthings are now the West may never make one. But to get from some nativeplant an expression of its na ti ve character in terms of impe ri shable stone tobe fiued perfectly to its place in stru cture, and without loss of vital signifi cance, is one great phase of grea t ar t. It mea ns that Greek or Egypti a n founda revelation of the inmost life and character of the lotus and acanthus interms of lotus or acan thus life. That was what happened when the art ofthese people had done with the plants they most loved . This imaginativeprocess is know n onl y to the crea tive artist. Conventi ona lization , it is ca lled.Rea ll y it is the dramati zing of an object-truest d rama. To enlarge uponthis simple fi gure , as a n arti st, it seems to me that this compl ex matter ofciv iliza tion is itself at bottom some Stic h convent iona liz in g process, or mustbe so to be succcssful and endu re.Just as any ar tist-craftsman, wishing to use a beloved nower for thestone cap ital of a column shaft in his building must conventionalize theflower, that is, find the patte rn of its life-princ iple in terms of stone as amate ria l before he ca n rightl y use it as a bea utiful factor in hi s building , soeducat ion must take the natura l man , to c ivilize him . And this great newpower of the dangcrous machine we must lea rn to understand and thenlea rn to use as this va luable , co nventionalizing agent. But in the construction of a S iety as in the constru c tion of a grea t building , the e lementalconve ntionali zi ng process is dangerous, for without the inspiration or innerlight of the true a rtist- the quality of the flower i t s very lif is los t, leaving a withered husk in the place of li vi ng expression.

Therefore, society in this conventionalizing process or c ulture , has atask even more dangerous than has the architect in crea tin g his buildingforms, because instead of having a plant-lea f and a fixed material as ancientarchitect ure had , we have a sentient man wi th a nuid SOLI I. SO without theinner light of a sound philosophy of a rt the educa tor too, mllst now beartist). the life of the man will be sac rifi ced and SOciety gai n an automatonor a machin e-made moro n instead of a noble creative citizenlf ed uca tion is doomed to fail in this process, utt e rly then the manslips back to rudimentary anim a lism or goes on into decay. Society degener


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376 AMERIC A n UIL.DSThe world will have to record more "great dead cities."To kee p the a rtist- g ure of the Bower dramatized o . . w ul pur-poses the sociali st would bow his neck in altruistic submi ss ion to the " harmonious" whole; his conventionali zation or dramati zation of the hum an being would be like a poor stone-cra ftsman's attempt to conventi onalize thebeloved plant with the li ving characte r of lea f and l ower left out. The anarchist wou ld p luck the l ower as it grows and use it as t is for what it is-with essenti al rea lity left out.

The hereditary a ristocrat has a lways justified his existence by his a bility, owing to fortu na te prop inquit y, to a ppropriate the l ower to his own usesafte r the craft sman has given it life and cha racter, and has kept the craft s-man too by promisi ng him his l ower back if he behaves himself wel l. Theplutocrat does virtua lly the sa me thing by mea ns of " inte rests." But the truedemocra t will take the human pl ant as t grows andin the spirit of usingthe means at ha nd to put life into hi s conventiona liza tion- preserve the individuality of the plant to protect the l owe r, whi ch is its ve ry life, gett ingfrom both a living expression of essentia l man-cha racte r fitted pe rfec tly to aplace in society with no loss of vital signi fica nce. Fine art is thi s l owe r of theman. W he n educa tion has become v e and a rt aga in prophetic of thenatura l means by whi ch we are to grow-we ca ll t progress -we w ill , bymea ns of the crea tive artist , possess thi s monst ro us tool of our civiliza tion asit now possesses us.Grasp and use the power of scientific a utomatons in thi s creative s nsa nd their terrible forces are not antago ni stic to any fin e indi vidualistic qua lity in man. He will find their collec ti ve mec hanistic forces ca pable of bringing to the indi vidual a more adequ ate life, and the outward expression of theinne r ma n as seen in his environment w ill be gen uin e revelation of his innerlife and highe r purpose. Not until then will America be free

This new Ame rica n libert y is of the sort tha t declares man free onl ywhen he has found hi s work and e ffective means to achieve a life of hi s own.The means once found , he will find his due pl ace. The man of our countrywill thus make hi s ow n way, and grow to the natural place thus due him ,promise yes, promised by our charte r , the Decla ra tion of Ind e pendence.But this place of hi s is not to be made over to fit him by reform , nor sha ll itbe brought dow n to him by concession, but w ill become hi s by his ow n useof the means at hand. He must himsel f build a new world . The d ay of theindi vidua l is not ove r- in stead , it is just about to beg in . The mac hine doesnot write the doom of libe rt y, but is wa iting at man's ha nd as a peerless too l.for him to use to put foundations be nea th a genuine de mocracy. Then themachin e may conquer hum an drudgery to some purpose, takin g it uponitself to broaden, lengthen, strengthen and deepen the life of the simplestma n. What limits do we da re imag in e to a n a rt that is organic fru it of anadequate life for the ind ividua l Although th is power is now murderous,cha in ed to botc hwo rk a nd bunglers' ambitions, the crea ti ve a rtist wi ll take itsure ly int o hi s hand and , in the name of libe rt y, swiftl y undo the deadl ymischief it has crea ted.

the art and craft of the machine, 1901, 1930

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