The Western news. [volume], June 29, 1933, Page Page Two, Image 2

About The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current

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AU picture» from "The Pa*rant of America," courte*?,
YaU Univenity Pre»».
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
O MOST Americans mention of
the event which we celebrate on
July 4— the signing of the Dec
laration of Independence—brings
to mind the famous painting of
that historic scene which hangs
In the rotunda of the Capitol in
Washington. For it Is through
the eyes of John Trumbull, the
Connecticut painter, that we
have received most of our visual
Impressions not only of what took place In In
dependence hall In Philadelphia on July 4,
3770, but of many of the other great events in
the American Revolution.
A short time ago Yale university commemorat
ed the centenary of the opening of the oldest
art gallery In this country connected with a
college. The founder of that art gallery, the
architect of the original building, was this same
John Trumbull, whose body lies In a vault be
neath the fine arts building which has succeed
ed the simple little structure which he designed
and which housed the original collection of his
canvasses that have since become so famous.
The commemorative ceremonies, which consist
ed principally of showing again all of the Trum
bull collection of paintings as they had once
been displayed In the vanished building which
he designed, not only served to honor the
"painter of America's epic," hut it emphasized
once more the part which this university has
played In the "visual education" of Americana
In the history of their country.
It recalled once more an ambitious projecl
of that Institution In this educational field, be
gun more than a decade ago and, appropriately
enough, brought to a triumphant conclusion
during the year in which the sesqul-ccntennlaj
of American Independence was being celebrat
ed. That was the publication of "The Pageant
of America," a 15-volume pictorial history of
our country which has "worked something of a
revolution In the methods of presenting and
studying American history."
The Idea for such a project took form while
fliq Yale University Press, which had just com
pleted publication of another notable historical
series, "The Chronicles of America,'' was ex
perimenting with the presentation of the drama
of American history through the medium of
moving pictures. The result of this experiment
was the outlining of a plan for a "pictorial
chronicle of America" in book form.
There have been many "pictorial" histories of
America but the majority of them have been
comparatively valueless because "the pictures
have often been an excuse to weaken the text,
and the text has been an excuse to pass off
hackneyed or deceptive pictures on the confid
ing reader."
thorltles was not only to avoid a repetition of
the errors which had given pictorial history a
bad repute but also to prepare a combination of
pictures and text which would he scholarly
enough to satisfy the most exacting "scientific
historian" and lively and interesting enough to
meet the demands of "popular appeal" without
sacrificing anything of accuracy and authen
ticity.
But the most interesting story of all In con
nection with i^ie presentation of this unique pag
eant Is the story of the world wide search for
the pictures which went into It. It Is the story
of an adventure In American history, as roman
tic an adventure In many of Its aspects as any
incident which Is recorded In our school his
tories. For It Is the story of a nine-year search
through private collections and those of gov
ernmental bodies, historical societies, libraries,
museums, art galleries, learned societies and
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\
So the problem of the Yale nu
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1. French uniforms worn during the French
and Indian War, 1754-1763, from the paintings
by H. A. Ogden.
2. The earliest engraved likeness of Colum
bus, published In 1575, from the "Jovlu* por
trait," the original source of all Columbus por
trait*.
3. Emigrants Attacked by Indians on the
Western Plains—A typical incident of the
opening of the trans-Mississippi country, after
the drawing by F. O. C. Darley, the foremost
illustrator of American life and history in that
period.
4. The First Oil Well—"A derrick was
erected in the, neighborhood of Titusville, Pa.,
and In the year 1859 the boring for ol! began.
In the photograph Drake, wearing a silk hat,
appears talking to his friend, Peter Wilson, a
druggist of Titusville." From a contemporary
photograph taken by John A. Mather.
$
Institutes and religious and educational Institu
tions not only in this country but In foreign
countries ns well. It Is the story of some fine
"detective -work" in following clews, some of
which ended successfully and some unsuccess
fully, of persistence and perseverance in the
face of baffling problems and seemingly Insuper
able obstacles—all in the name of historical ac
curacy! But out of It all came a total of more
than 10,000 authenticated pictures as the basis
for what Is now recognized ns the first and thus
far the only real source book of Pictorial Amer
icana. Incidentally, when the work was com
pleted It represented the expenditure for cap
ital account of more than $882,000, probably the
largest sum ever spent for a single piece of
historical research but a very modest amount
when compared to the value and Importance of
the results obtained.
In considering the task before the Yale au
thorities It must be remembered that American
history began long, long, before there were
cameras to record historic Incidents as they are
..recorded today. So the only pictorial record
we have of some events of the greatest his
torical Importance was made by artists
equipped only with the crudest sort of Instru
ments and materials for their, work. But the
Importance of their accomplishment lies In the
fact that they furnished "contemporary rec
ords" and the modern camera can be used for
copying their work.
And here again comes In the matter of cost
in producing "The Pageant of America," for In
many cases the cost of securing a copy of some
Individual picture ranged anywhere from $100
up to $850. In two of the volumes of the series
17 full-page illustrations (such as is shown
above) which reproduce in colors the uniforms
worn by participants In the various American
wars.
The search for authentic paintings, daguerreo
types, lithographs and engravings of contem
porary events and for charters, commissions
and other documents preserved In official ar
chives took the research staff of "The Pageant
of America" Into many strange places. It was
recognized at the start that the discovery of
America was only an Incident In the discovery
of Asia and that to Illustrate the background
of the beginnings of American history It would
be necessary to find pictures which would show
the Influences In Europe as far back as the
time of Carplnl and Marco Polo, which led ul
timately to Columbus' attempt to find the route
to Asia by sftUlng west. So the earliest dated
picture In the "Pageant" Is a page from the
l,atln manuscript of Adam of Bremen In the
Eleventh century, In which the first mention of
Vlnland, discovered by the Norsemen, was made.
After considerable difficulty this manuscript was
ocated In the Staats Bibliothek In Vienna.
Of portraits of Columbus, popularly regarded
are
as the discoverer of America, there are legion.
But It remained for the Yale research staff to
trace back for the first time nil these portraits
to their original source and that original
source
Is the "Jovlus portrait" (shown above),
engraving which it is believed was first pub
lished in 1576 and which is a copy of a portrait
that hung In the famous gallery of Paulus
Jovius, archbishop of Nocera, a man of vast
wealth who spent a fortune In collecting por
traits of the great men of his time and who
ardent admirer of the Italian navigator.
an
was an
It is believed that this Is the only portrait ol
Columbus painted during his lifetime.
Back of a portrait which appears In another
volume of "The Pageant"—"The Winning of
Freedom," Is a typical story of perseverance
When this volume was In preparation, the au
thors wanted a, portrait of one of the German
officers who fought under the British flag duflng
the Revolution. None being available In this
country, a search was begun through the Amer
ican consul-general In Berlin. After consider
able correspondence with various museums and
private collectors, the consul-general learned
that an excellent oil painting of Baron Fried
erleb Riedesel, who commanded the Hessians
under Burgoyne, was still hanging In the castle
of Neuenhof bei Eisenach, Hessen. Through the
courtesy of Freiherr Albrecht Riedesel, a de
scendant of the Eighteenth century baron, per
mission was finally granted a year later to make
a photographic copy of the original.
Even more devious was the trail which final
ly led to an authentic daguerreotype of Wil
liam F. Hamden, founder of the express busi
ness in the United States, While assembling
material for the volume "The March of Com
merce," the editors came upon a very poor
woodcut of Hamden In Stlmson's "History ol
the Express Companies" published In 3858. De
siring the original daguerreotype from which
this reproduction had apparently been made,
they enlisted the aid of the officials of the
American Railway Express company.
Through S. M. Baker, general auditor at
Chattanooga, Team, they learned that the orig
inal had been In the possession of Hamden's
who was living In San Francisco shortly
after 3860. Using the San Francisco direc
tories. they addressed Identical letters to sev
eral Harndens listed therein. One of these was
W. K. Hamden and he proved to be a grandson
of William F. Hamden. W. K. Hamden replied
that he believed the desired daguerreotype was
In the possession of his elder brother, Frederic,
I lien living in Palo Alto.
Such proved to be the case, but the end of
the trail was not yet, for the elder brother could
not locate the picture, as It had been In storage
Finally, however, a year after
son,
for some time,
the first Inquiry a copy of the daguerreotype
was received just In time to be reproduced and
included in the pictorial history of the express
business.
But not all descendants of past notables were
as helpful as the Harndens. The Yale'author
ities tell the story of the search for an authen
tic portrait of a little known but Important fig
ure In the Revolution. They located one of his
descendants In a small New England town, a
woman, who owned a contemporary oil portrait
of the Revolutionary fighter. But when ap
pealed to for permission to reproduce the paint
ing she refused, presumably because of the
reticence and reserve which characterize the
old-fashioned spinster lady of the Yankee type
and also possibly because she feared that some
Injury to the painting might result.
So It was necessary to send a member of the
editorial staff there for the purpose of coaxing
the old lady to make It possible for her ances
tor to be represented In this important historical
work. The staff member found the portrait
hanging In the parlor where It could not be
photographed on the wall and he experienced
groat difficulty In persuading her to let him take
It down from the wall. Then when he secured
the necessary permission, she would not let him
take the painting out of the house, so he had
to bring a commercial photographer for more
than one hundred miles In order to make certain
of getting a good copy.
(C by Ni*»p*p« Union.)
0
<
National Topics Interpreted
by William Bruckart
Washington.—The Information that
we receive here In Washington Indi
cates that the coun
t/p fo f/ie try at largo Is rath
President
er sitting on the
edge of Its chair
waiting to see how President Roose
velt Is going to play the hand he has
received In his "new deal" which he
asked. Equipped as he Is with the
greatest powers ever accorded
President of the United States, the
situation surely Is up to the President
Upon his administration, his playing
of the cards, depends the result, the
success or the failure of the program.
It Is quite apparent since the smoke
of battle cleared and congress closed
np shop that the President suffered
considerably from the riotous outbreak
In the senate and the house over the
veterans' compensation question. I
mean that personally the President
lost some of hts prestige and his pro
gram, so well planned, was somewhat
disrupted. It must be explained, how
ever. that the general principles which
Mr. Roosevelt laid down as the "new
deal" have come through unscathed,
lienee, I repeat that the Chief Execu
tive Is confronted now only with the
problem of making things move In ac
cordance with the promises pledged In
his campaign and to which he tried to
adhere with all of the solemnity of an
a
oath.
The President Is wholly mindful of
the responsibility he assumed In ask
ing congress, In effect, to make him
general manager of about everything
In the nation. He showed that quite
unmistakably when he affixed his sig
nature to the last grist of hills ground
out by a none-too-wllllng congress. In
a statement at that time, Mr. Roose
velt described the national recovery
public construction hill as "the most
Important and far-reaching legislation
ever enacted by an American con
gress," but he added that if It were
to succeed "It demands the whole
hearted co-operation of Industry, labor
and every citizen of the nation.
President counseled patience as well
as asked co-operation, and how better
could he show that ft superhuman job
lay ahead?
In two pieces of legislation particu
larly has the President been given
powers as wide as any ever accorded
In wartime. He has been made mas
ter of our agricultural destiny In one
and under the terms of the other he
has assumed the Job, as he described
It, of putting the government In part
nership with Industry. Instead of the
necessities of the situation In wartime,
however, we find the work to be done
Is that of encouraging consumption of
foods and other commodities instead
of rationing of foods and clothing and
materials that might be needed' for
the forces at the front Instead of
speeded-up production, we find the
President with almost dictatorial pow
ers to reduce production of agricul
ture. The depression seems to have
made things run backward.
The
As the several agencies to adminis
ter the new powers are set up under
the President's guid
ance, It appears
more and more as
though he is going
to meet with difficulty of a serious
character. The President cannot keep
his hand on the steering wheel of ev
eryone of the various machines. That
Is beyond human comprehension. He
must delegate the. work to others.
There are going to be many, many
mistakes. These always occur. It can
not be avoided. But the President Is
going to have to shoulder the blame
for all of It.
What I have been trying to present
Is a picture of a situation in which
the President is the pivotal point.
Let us pursue one or two of the
possibilities. The congress at the re
quest of the President voted some
$500,(Xf0.000 In federal money as out
right gifts to the states for relief.
When the President had the relief rep
resentatives of the states here recent
ly he told them that the federal gov
ernment would not countenance "the
building of a lot of useless projects
under the guise of relief." Mr. Roose
velt was emphatic In his declaration.
But the question one heard around
here was "how many of the state of
fice holders and politicians will see
that such a policy Is enforced?"
Possible
Difficulties
Another salient: the Industrial re
covery section of the bill putting gov
ernment Into partnership with indus
try entails organized co-operation of
each of the numerous Industries.
Leaders In the Individual lines of com
mercial endeavor have been coming In
here for conferences on codes of prac
tice. Outwardly, every one of them Is
sincere, and. be it said to their credit,
most of them are Inwardly sincere in
their effort to find some means to ac
complish economic recovery.
those who are visiting Wash
But
among
Ington for these conferences are some
entirely willing to take advantage of
circumstances or situations that will
give their own firm or plant or factory
edge over their competitors
would seem difficult for that end to
he attained where the conferences are
above board and there Is a free dis
cussion, but the trouble 1« thqt the
reason some firms are larger than oth
Is that they have knowledge of a
competitor's weakness. And don't be
It
ii n
ers
lleve for one moment that these same
men will not watch for such opportu
nities In framing the codes of practice
—codes of ethics, really, for the con
duct of business—that are to fie em
ployed In this new partnership ar
rangement!
As a third example, permit me to
cite possibilities In the new farm mort
gage arrangement that the President
worked out to help debt-ridden farm
ers, and congress enacted Into law. It
provides that holders of farm mort
gages may, under certain conditions,
exchange them for bonds of the fed
eral land banks, and allows farmers,
under prescribed conditions, to bor
row for refinancing their debts aside
from the mortgage. No one doubts
the sincerity of this program, nor does
anyone question but that It Is needed
and that tt will be of Immense help te
farmers.
during the debate In congress to loop
holes through which a team and wagon
can be driven. According to these ar
guments, If the federal land banks do
not accumulate some mortgages hav
ing a face value of hundreds of thou
sands of dollars, but actually little
more than your cats and dogs, It will
be a miracle.
Yet attention was called
• * •
As I said earlier, observers here are
convinced that Mr. Roosevelt can
check malfeasance Id
any of the numer
ous directions 1'f he
acts in time and
with firmness. His loyal supporters
insist he can and will sense any ten
dencies of that kind as they develop,
but his opponents, or rather opponents
of his programs, claim he will be un
able to discover them until the Infec
tion has become a festering sore. I
do not propose to set down a conclu
sion respecting these arguments, nor
the probability or possibility that any
of the conditions may eventuate. My
purpose solely Is to suggest what can
happen and where we would be headed
should the dangers become real rather
than theoretical.
I called attention above to the fact
that congress hud somewhat disrupted
the President's program but that, nil
In all, it had given the President the
widest powers ever accorded In peace
time. The reason there was a break
ing of party lines In congress was be
cause some senators and representa
tives awakened toward the end of the
extra session to the fact that they had
voted away almost all of the powers
they were supposed to exercise. They
grew fearful of what would happen.
The feelings of the doubtful ones
were not becalmed either by the prod
ding they were receiving from lobbies
of powerful groups such as the vet
erans.
Mr. Roosevelt was not entirely vic
torious In this battle. He succeeded
far beyond expectations of many
Washington analysts, but sore spots
were created that are going to be hard
to heal. So It probably Is just as well '
that there will not be any meeting of
congress again until January, 1984
The President can proceed to carry
out the program he has in mind under
authority which congress gave him,
upon his own responsibility.
Rely on
Roosevelt
The Roosevelt administration, being
now about four months old, has dis
closed strong procllv
Keep Public Sties In the direction
of publicity for It
self. It seems to have
adopted the title of a well-known show
"Of Thee I Sing," and the pee-pul are
going to be told in considerable detail
of what Is being done. Nearly all of
the Important branches of the govern
ment have taken capable newspaper
men Into their organizations that the
proper supply of Information may be
made available to those writers who
continue at their regular méans of
livelihood. It has helped the unem
ployment situation among the writers,
anyway, for where the government has
hlrerf men, their places have 'been
filled from among others whose salary
checks have been small or have been
missing altogether as a result of slack
business for the newspapers.
Administration leaders justify the
policy on the ground that correspond
ents cannot be familiar with every
phase of government and particularly
now that we have so many new laws
and new activities resulting from the
new deal. The public Is entitled to
have the facts, the leaders explain,
and the use of high-class newspaper
men In publicity Jobs in the govern
ment, therefore, constitutes a service
to the public.
This attitude, of course, has a basis
In fact and there Is merit In the argu
ment But there is another side to
the proposition. It has been the rec
ord of other administrations that em
ployed an array of writing talent that
a considerable amount of plain, un
adulterated propaganda somehow man
aged to creep Into official statements
and Informât!
these channels. It Is the average
writer's function to report the news.
He or she cannot openly question the
truth or the accuracy of an official
statement Conseqently, If the state
ment be of the propaganda sort, there
Is little the writer can do about It
The decision has to be left to the ed
itor of the paper.
ft IUI, W**t«rn M*rw»p*.p*r Utijoi».
Informed
on released through