"Secretary of Art"

Once more a bill has been introduced into the House of Representatives call-ing for the addition to the President's Cabinet of a Secretary of Art to be in charge of a Department of Fine Arts.

The present bill, sponsored by George Holden Tinkham of Massachusetts, was prepared by Walter Oilman Page, Chairman of the State Art Commission of Massachusetts.

The bill calls for a Secretary who shall receive a salary of $12,000 a year and "be learned and experienced in matters pertaining to the fine arts." The bill further states that "the purpose of the proposed Department of Fine Arts shall be to increase knowledge of the arts through official channels and to develop a taste for it, one of the greatest factors in the march of human progress."

The Secretary shall "have charge of and control of the National Gallery of Art, including the Freer Gallery in Washington, D. C, and all other galleries of Art which may come under its control wherever situated." And he "shall also have direction and charge of international relationships in the field of Art."

As regards the duties of this proposed Cabinet member, the bill says in part: "He shall collect, collate and report, at least once a year or oftener if necessary, full and complete statistics relating to the fine arts of the United States." Said Forbes Watson, able critic of The New York World: "Since the avowed object of the bill in general is to advance taste 'in America, and since the 'arts of design' constitute only a fraction of the arts, why should Governmental supervision go only half way? Let us have a Department of Poetry, directed by a $12,000 Secretary of Poetry and assisted by an $8,000 Assistant Secretary of Poetry. Let the United States Government add also a Department of Prose* and a Department of Music. . . . Why not a Department of Dance and Jazz?"

*Prosemaster General?