N 
 
ART AND THE PEOPLE 
 
 BY 
 
 Otto H. Kahn 
 
 published by 
 
 The New York City 
 
 Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration 
 
 Committee 
 

Remarks 
 
 by 
 
 Otto H. Kahn 
 
 at the 
 
 Shakespeare Tercentenary 
 
 Celebration Dinner 
 
 In New York City 
 
 May 4, 1916 
 
 315969 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/artpeopleOOkahnrich 
 
ART 
 
 AND THE PEOPLE 
 
 IN giving you greeting and bidding you 
 welcome, may I say that it is a particular 
 gratification to me to see amongst you so 
 many whom I had not known hitherto, or 
 had only known by reputation or by sight. 
 I trust my old friends will not consider 
 this a left-handed compliment. I am 
 happy indeed to see them here. But the 
 opportunity to make new friends, to rub 
 shoulders and exchange thoughts with 
 people outside of one's accustomed circle, 
 is all too rare in this huge, rushing city. 
 It is one of the greatest drawbacks of 
 life in New York, that the people in the 
 various walks of life do not sufficiently 
 come into contact with each other. 
 
 Page Five 
 
>r,^.p.. . T , H. 
 
 We New Yorkers do not mix enough. 
 We men and women of different occupa- 
 tions, professions and viewpoints ought to 
 meet far more frequently, we ought to get 
 to know one another far better, and thus 
 demonstrate to one another that none of 
 us, neither Wall Street men nor Socialists, 
 have claws or hoofs; that we are all made 
 of the same basic stuff, affected by the 
 same joys and sorrows and responsive to 
 pretty much the same appeal. 
 
 We ought to seek and emphasize, far 
 more than we are doing, that which unites 
 us instead of searching out and accentu- 
 ating and indeed exaggerating that which 
 separates us. 
 
 Amongst the common meeting grounds 
 available, one of the most appropriate is 
 that of art. For art is democracy, art is 
 equality of opportunity. Not the false 
 democracy which, misunderstanding or 
 misinterpreting the purpose and meaning 
 of the democratic conception, seeks or 
 tends to establish a common level of 
 
 Page Six 
 
N D T H 
 
 mediocrity, but the true democracy which, 
 guided by the star of the ideal and firm in 
 its faith, strives to lead us all onward and 
 upward to an ever higher plane. 
 
 And the people are willing to be so led. 
 Let me say in parenthesis that when I say 
 "the people,'' I do not use the term with 
 the somewhat patronizing inflection that is 
 sometimes imparted to it, rather implying 
 that the speaker refers to a thing apart 
 from himself. I refer to you and to me no 
 less than to the butcher and baker and 
 candlestick maker. 
 
 It is a constant source of wonderment 
 to me how "the people" are underesti- 
 mated by most of those who seek their votes 
 or their patronage. Just as the average 
 politician thinks that "the people*' want 
 to be coddled and flattered and "soft- 
 soaped," when experience has shown that 
 the royal road to popular success is to show 
 courage and independence and to stand up 
 man-fashion for one's convictions, so the 
 average theatrical manager thinks that he 
 
 Page Seven 
 
N D T H 
 
 must play down to an assumed level of 
 shallowness, when experience has shown 
 that the greatest probability to score a 
 hit is in aiming high. 
 
 I have an abiding faith that the people 
 collectively know a good thing when they 
 see it. It is true that sometimes they 
 make the judicious grieve by taking a 
 pretty poor thing for a good thing, but I 
 have never known them to fail to recognize 
 and appreciate the truly meritoriqus in 
 art. In fact, I have admiringly wondered 
 more than once at their capacity to enjoy 
 and digest heavy and unusual artistic food, 
 free from the salt or spice of what is 
 ordinarily considered popular appeal. 
 
 I have never believed in the necessity 
 or advantage of gauging theatrical offer- 
 ings according to the alleged standards and 
 requirements of the "tired business man," 
 or, for the matter of that, woman (for 
 women are usually just as busy, and just as 
 tired after the day's work as are the men, 
 only as a rule they carry their tiredness off 
 
 Page Eight 
 
;^RT AND THE 
 
 n 
 
 better and make less fuss about it). Silly, 
 inane shows are no antidote to " that tired 
 feeling/' What both men and women, 
 tired or idle, do want is to be genuinely 
 moved and stirred, either to laughter or to 
 tears, or stimulated to new thought, in 
 short, to be lifted out of the rut and 
 routine of their daily lives and mental 
 atmosphere. 
 
 When the right to vote in England was 
 thrown open to the masses of the people, a 
 great Englishman said: "Now we must 
 educate our masters.'* Yes, but education 
 and opportunity for learning is needed not 
 only for our masters', the people's, brains, 
 but also for their souls and tastes. 
 
 The conditions of existence of the great 
 majority of the people are, unfortunately, 
 hard and wearing, but I venture to ques- 
 tion whether as yet we use sufficiently the 
 spiritual means at hand, and well tested in 
 European countries, to make them less so. 
 
 We are doing as much, probably, for 
 education as any other country, but 
 
 Page Nine 
 
N D T H 
 
 relatively little for recreation. And recrea- 
 tion of the right kind does have power 
 literally to re-create, to re-create the wast- 
 ing tissues of our souls, the worn fibres of 
 our brains, to re-create indeed the zest and 
 courage for life. 
 
 Art has that power beyond all other 
 forms or means of recreation. And the 
 people are ready to welcome art; they are 
 hungry for nourishment for their souls, 
 eager for outlets for their emotions. Ob- 
 servation and experience have thoroughly 
 convinced me how great and beneficent an 
 influence art can, and should, be made in 
 their lives. 
 
 Page Ten 
 
N D T H 
 
 A RT, and particularly the art of music 
 AA and of the stage, is a serious and im- 
 portant cultural element in the life 
 of a community. It has a weighty purpose 
 and a great mission. It is one of the most 
 potent factors for good, one of the three or 
 four greatest agencies which tend to form 
 and guide the thoughts and the sentiments 
 and the conduct of the people. 
 
 The craving for sensations — so charac- 
 teristic of our times, and particularly of our 
 country — some of the restlessness, of the 
 turmoil, of the lawlessness, even of the 
 crime of the day, spring in many instances 
 simply from a desire to get away from the 
 
 Page Eleven 
 
N D T H 
 
 unrelieved dullness and drudgery of every- 
 day existence. ~ ^^^ 
 
 It is very far from being generally 
 appreciated as yet how much can be done 
 by art, and especially by the art of the 
 stage, to give proper satisfaction to this 
 natural and legitimate desire, to lead the 
 strong instinct underlying it into fruitful, 
 instead of into harmful, or even destructive 
 expression. It is very far from being^^ 
 appreciated as yet by our wealthy men 
 that art can be as educational as univer- 
 sities, that it has elements which, to a / 
 great part of our population, can make it as • 
 nourishing as soup kitchens, as healing as 
 hospitals, as stimulating as any medicinal 
 tonic. 
 
 European governments and municipali- 
 ties have long since recognized this aspect 
 of public utility inherent in art, and have 
 given expression to this recognition by 
 subsidizing theatres and operas and other 
 art institutions. Here, in accordance with 
 the spirit and traditions of the country, this 
 
 Page Twelve 
 
N D T H 
 
 task to the largest extent is left to private 
 initiative, to the generosity and unselfish- 
 ness, or, if you will, the enlightened selfish- 
 ness of those who can afford to give. It is 
 a duty and a privilege and ought to be a 
 pleasure to fulfil it. 
 
 Those of us who have been favored by 
 fortune, who sit in our offices or well 
 appointed homes more or less satisfied 
 with the general scheme of things and with 
 our place in it, must and must increasingly 
 do all we can to prove that we are conscious 
 of the obligations which are imposed upon 
 us by due recognition of the advantages 
 we enjoy. 
 
 For educational and scientific purposes 
 a vast deal has been done. The generosity 
 displayed by many of our wealthy men in 
 this respect is the envy and admiration of 
 the world. But to the immensely large and 
 immensely important field of art relatively 
 little attention has been given thus far. 
 Yet the opportunity is boundless and the 
 need very great for men who will put some 
 
 Page Thirteen 
 
N D T H 
 
 of their wealth, of their time and ability in 
 the service of this cause; who, conscious of 
 the importance and the far-reaching influ- 
 ence of art, will help along in movements 
 having for their purpose the advancement 
 of art and of art standards and the procur- 
 ing of more and better opportunities in the 
 field of art, both to the public and to 
 American artists. Maecenases are needed 
 for the dramatic stage, the operatic stage, 
 the concert stage; for conservatories and 
 art academies; for the encouragement and 
 support of American writers, painters, 
 sculptors, decorators, etc., in fact, for all 
 those things which in Europe have been 
 done and are being done by princes, 
 governments and communities. 
 
 Here is a vast opportunity for cultural 
 and helpful work. To strive toward foster- 
 ing the art life of the country; toward 
 counteracting harsh materialism, toward 
 relieving the monotony and strain of the 
 people's every-daylife by helping to awaken 
 in them or to foster the love and the 
 
 Page Fourteen 
 
ND THE PEO 
 
 understanding of that which is beautiful 
 and inspiring, and aversion and contempt 
 for that which is vulgar, cheap and degrad- 
 ing, is, I think, a humanitarian effort 
 eminently worth making, and offering, 
 moreover, every prospect of not being 
 attempted in vain. 
 
 Page Fifteen 
 
N D T H 
 
 II 
 
 WE all, rich and poor alike, need to be 
 taken out of the routine and grind 
 of our daily lives once in a while. 
 We all of us are the better for psychic 
 change once in a while, just as we are the 
 better for physical change of air and sur- 
 roundings. A sluggish soul needs stimula- 
 tion just as much as a sluggish liver. 
 
 To feel, to appreciate, to understand 
 the beauty of nature and of art is one of the 
 greatest gifts that can be given to any one 
 on his way through life. I rather think a 
 great majority of us find it, with other 
 gifts, in our cradle, but too many of us 
 either do not grasp it, or, as we grow up 
 
 Page Sixteen 
 
N D T H 
 
 and face the serious business of life, 
 deliberately throw it overboard, looking 
 upon it as useless, or even harmful ballast 
 in the stern and strenuous struggle for 
 success. This is a pity and a great mistake, 
 even from a utilitarian point of view. 
 Just as the soil of agricultural land requires 
 rotation of crops in order to produce the"\, 
 best results, so does the soil of our inner / 
 being require variety of treatment in order ( 
 to remain vigorous and elastic and fertile, r 
 and to enable us to produce the best we are j 
 capable of. "^ 
 
 Wealth is only in part a matter of 
 dollars and cents. The visitor who pays 
 twenty-five cents for a seat at a popular 
 concert, if he brings with him love and^ 
 enthusiasm for art, will be far richer that 
 evening than the man or woman from 
 Fifth Avenue if he or she sits yawning in a 
 box at the Metropolitan Opera House. 
 
 The poor man in a crowded tenement 
 who feels moved and stirred in reading a 
 fine book will be far richer than the man or 
 
 Page Seventeen 
 
N D T H 
 
 woman sitting in dullness in a gorgeous 
 library. If he goes to Central Park or 
 Riverside Drive with his eyes and soul 
 open to the beauties of nature, he will be 
 far richer than the man or woman chasing 
 through the glories of Italy or France in 
 a luxurious automobile, the man thinking 
 of the Stock Exchange and the woman of 
 her new dress or next party. 
 
 The late Booker T. Washington used to 
 tell a story of his meeting a colored woman 
 and asking her: "Well, Miranda, where 
 are you going?" to which she responded, 
 "Fse going nowhere, Mr. Washington, 
 Tse been where I am going," 
 
 This country hasn't **been where it is 
 going." A great stirring and moving is 
 going on in the land. The old order 
 changeth, giving place to new. Call it 
 "the new freedom" or "my policies," or 
 what you will, the people at large are astir 
 groping, seeking for a condition of things 
 which shall be better and happier, which 
 shall give them a greater share, not only of 
 
 Page Eighteen 
 
ND THE PEO 
 
 the comforts and material rewards, but of 
 the joys and the recreations, the beauties 
 and the inspirations of life. It is a move- 
 ment which is full of promise, and a men- 
 ace only if ignored, repressed, or falsely 
 and selfishly led. Most of it will find 
 expression in politics, in economic and 
 social legislation; some of it will find 
 expression in art. 
 
 Page Nineteen 
 
N D T H 
 
 III 
 
 IN this great country, with its vast 
 mixture of races, all thrown into the 
 melting pot of American traditions, 
 climate and surroundings, there is all the 
 raw material of a splendid artistic develop- 
 ment. Every kind of talent is latent here. 
 All that is required is opportunity, inspira- 
 tion and guidance. And in addition we have 
 here the best public to appeal to that exists 
 anywhere, a public eager to learn, quick to 
 perceive and to respond, sure to appre- 
 ciate and retain; fresh, spontaneous and 
 genuine in its feelings, clean and healthy in 
 its artistic instincts and aspirations, not 
 yet affected by the taint of decadence 
 
 Page Twenty 
 
ND THE PEOPL. E 
 
 which has begun to cast its blight upon art 
 in some other countries. 
 
 In saying this, I do not dispute the 
 charge frequently laid against us that our 
 people lack as yet in discrimination and 
 that they are not sufficiently intolerant 
 of the meretricious in art, but these are 
 faults of youth, and moreover essentially 
 negative faults, curable and in process of 
 being cured, while the virtues to which I 
 have referred are positive in character and 
 cumulative and progressive in effect. Ad- 
 mitting that our people are apt at times to 
 follow false gods, I say, let the right god 
 come along and they will recognize him 
 unfailingly and follow him rejoicing. 
 
 America is a much misunderstood and 
 consequently maligned place. Its foibles, 
 its imperfections "jump at the eye," to 
 use a graphic French expression. Its really 
 controlling qualities — and they are beau- 
 tiful and lofty and full of promise — lie deep 
 and are not apparent to the casual beholder. 
 The world likes the short cut of catch 
 
 Page Twenty-one 
 
RT AND THE PEOPL 
 
 phrases, such as ''the almighty dollar/' 
 and is reluctant to go to the trouble of 
 reconsidering opinions once formed. 
 
 America in the past century had the 
 formidable task of conquering a continent, 
 physically and industrially, and it was 
 necessary that the best brains, the intensest 
 energies and activities of its people should 
 devote themselves to that stern task of 
 material effort, the amazing success of 
 which was naturally measured and ex- 
 pressed largely in terms of dollars and cents. 
 
 But the day of the industrial pioneer is 
 over (though vast commercial develop- 
 ment, vast indeed beyond all imagination, 
 still lies before us) and with it has gone — if 
 it ever existed — the day of the almighty 
 dollar. The day of the pioneer of culture 
 and idealism has come, and the power of 
 the idea is, and has always been, even in 
 America's most materialistic days, far 
 mightier than that of the dollar. After 
 more than a century's stupendous effort 
 and unparalleled — almost too rapid — 
 
 Page Twenty-two 
 
ND THE PEO 
 
 economic advance, we have reached a stage 
 where we can afford, and ought, to occupy 
 ourselves increasingly with questions affect- 
 ing the mental, moral and psychical well- 
 being and progress of the race. 
 
 Page Twenty-three 
 
N D THE 
 
 IV 
 
 AVAST army equipped with spiritual 
 weapons, second to those of no other 
 nation, stands ready and impatient 
 to follow those qualified to lead, across the 
 tenaciously held trenches of ugliness, dull- 
 ness and commercialism, to the heights 
 beyond. America has been rightly called, 
 by a hard-headed European observer, "the 
 land of unlimited possibilities/' He 
 referred to the possibilities of business, 
 but the same thing holds true of the 
 possibilities of art. More in this country 
 than anywhere else, is it possible to walk 
 with one's feet on the earth and one's head 
 in the clouds. 
 
 Page Twenty-four 
 
N D THE 
 
 In the present juncture of the world's 
 affairs many a great opportunity and a duty 
 commensurately great lies before America. 
 One of the greatest of such opportunities 
 and duties is in the field of art. 
 
 When this appalling war comes to be 
 ended, the heavy burden of reconstruction 
 will lie upon weary and weakened Europe. 
 Millions of the flower of its youth and man- 
 hood will have been killed or maimed. 
 The utmost energies of the men and 
 women of the leading European nations 
 will have to be devoted for years to come to 
 the hard and stern task of material effort. 
 
 In the stress and strain of the post- 
 bellum period, the high altar on which 
 there burns the sacred flame of art may be 
 left for a time with but few attendants. 
 It is America's opportunity, it is America's 
 high privilege and duty to aid in keeping 
 alive that sacred flame. It is her privilege 
 and duty to open wide her portals to art 
 and artists, to become a militant force in 
 the cause and service of art, to be foremost 
 
 Page Twenty-five 
 
N D T H 
 
 in helping to create and spread that which 
 beautifies and enriches life, to fight and 
 seek to destroy that which vulgarizes and 
 lowers it. 
 
 To accomplish this great task there 
 must be leaders — but the test of a leader is 
 that he have followers. Those who con- 
 ceived and took charge of the execution of 
 the bold and broad plans of the Shake- 
 speare Tercentenary Celebration have met 
 that test. In the face of much discourage- 
 ment and some scoffing, they went ahead 
 in that simple and enthusiastic faith 
 which has the power to move not merely 
 mountains, but — which is harder — to over- 
 come the inertia of New York. They — and 
 I mean especially the women, for it is the 
 women headed by Miss Beegle and Miss 
 Oglebay who did much the largest and 
 hardest part of the work — have accom- 
 plished what has never before been done 
 in this city, they have aroused, mobilized 
 and organized the community spirit in the 
 cause of art. 
 
 Page Twenty-six 
 
N D T H 
 
 This Tercentenary Celebration which 
 will culminate in the production of Percy 
 Mackaye's Masque, is not a "high-brow" 
 affair, it is not a benevolent uplift move- 
 ment backed by a few men and women of 
 wealth. It stands upon a broad and deep 
 popular base; it enlists and has significance 
 for Avenue A no less than for Fifth Avenue; 
 it has the enthusiastic support and active 
 co-operation of two thousand different 
 organizations directly representing 800,000 
 constituents. It is the most democratic, 
 most comprehensive and most promising 
 response which has ever been given in this 
 community to the appeal of art. It demon- 
 strates conclusively the extent and genu- 
 ineness of the latent interest in and feeling 
 and desire for art. 
 
 Page Twenty-seven 
 
N D THE 
 
 V 
 
 A ND now that we, or rather the men and 
 AA women workers of the Shakespeare 
 Celebration Committee — for my own 
 part has been entirely insignificant — have 
 succeeded beyond all anticipations in calling 
 the community spirit into action, let us 
 seek to perpetuate it as a concrete and 
 living force. The main purpose for which 
 I have ventured to ask you all to this 
 dinner-meeting, was to obtain appropriate 
 action to that end. 
 
 Hoping that you will forgive me a some- 
 what Tammanyesque method of procedure 
 for the sake of the good cause, and also for 
 the sake of completing our program for this 
 
 Page Twenty-eight 
 
AND /--T. H - ^'.-0 :•?:•, e: ."o 
 
 evening at not too late an hour for your 
 comfort, I have made free to prepare a 
 resolution. In keeping with the spirit and 
 character of this gathering, I have asked 
 Mr. James Beck, who, apart from being a 
 distinguished writer and orator and a 
 profound student of Shakespeare, is a 
 corporation lawyer and a stalwart Repub- 
 lican, to move it, and Mr. Morris Hillquit, 
 a tribune of the people and a leading 
 exponent of Socialistic doctrine, to second 
 it. The resolution is as follows: 
 
 Whereas the attendance at the various Shakespeare 
 performances during the past theatrical season and 
 the widespread interest displayed in the Shakespeare 
 Tercentenary Celebration have demonstrated that the 
 people in all walks of life are ready to respond to the 
 appeal of serious arty and 
 
 Whereas the Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration 
 Committee has succeeded in enlisting the co-operation 
 of a great many different organizations towards an 
 adequate expression of the community spirit in arty and 
 
 Whereas // appears desirable to perpetuate and 
 enlarge such co-operation and to endeavor to give 
 
 Page Twenty-nine 
 

 comprehensive expression, definite aim and systematic 
 guidance to what has heretofore been mainly indeter^ 
 minate aspiration and sporadic and scattered effort^ 
 
 Be It Resolved That the Mayor's Honorary 
 Committee and the New York City Shakespeare 
 Tercentenary Celebration Committee constitute them- 
 selves into a permanent organization, with power to 
 add to their number, in order to serve the cause of art 
 and more particularly that of the stage and of the 
 pageant, and to foster and give expression to the com- 
 munity spirit and to community effort in art. 
 
 Further Resolved That the Chairman be 
 directed to appoint a committee for the purpose of 
 devising ways and means to carry into effect the sense 
 of this resolution and that such committee report its 
 recommendations and conclusions to a joint meeting 
 of the Mayor's Honorary Committee and the 
 Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration Committee, 
 such meeting to be called by the Chairman at as early 
 a date as practicable* 
 
 Page Thirty 
 
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