Cram's Cathedral

Scowling, muttering, grumbling among themselves, some U. S. artists paced their studios. They were not merely annoyed; they felt grieved and hurt. On the upper end of Manhattan Island a vast edifice was arising, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which had been conceived and financed not solely as a monument to religion, but as a monument to U. S. religion, supported by all creeds and classes, a monument to and by U. S. art, an expression of the nation's creative genius in the 20th Century.

And see what had happened. The architect in charge, Dr. Ralph Adams Cram of Boston, had already employed an English sculptor, a fine man of great ability, one John Angell, but still a foreigner, to execute twelve statues in the Cathedral's baptistry.

Last week, at his home in Sudbury, Mass., Architect Cram heard of this discontent. He spoke over the telephone to the New York Times, saying:

That Sculptor Angell was the only foreign artisan that had been engaged so far.

That he had gone abroad for this foreigner only after offering the work to two Americans, who were occupied for two or three years to come and could not accept.

That, in general, it was difficult to find American sculptors who were proficient at draped figures, their training being chiefly classical, in nudes, of which cathedral architecture makes little use.

That he had asked for funds to investigate further the work of American sculptors, and proposed to use just as many of them as could work in accord with the Gothic style of the Cathedral, but:

"If any American sculptors take any position against the employment of fine artists from other countries in order that they may get the work themselves, I will do everything in my power to stop any such sculptor from getting any work on the Cathedral. . . . Neither the trustees nor I will be dictated to by any artist or any sculptor whatever."

This attitude was swiftly indorsed by Professor Alfred D. F. Hamlin of Columbia University, chairman of a Division of Fine Arts which is raising $150,000 (from sculptors, $10,000) for a Fine Arts Bay in the Cathedral. He said: "The Cathedral is not being built for the benefit of American sculptors or architects but for the cause of religion. . . . Dr. Cram is entirely correct in feeling that he must get the best sculptors he can find."

The U. S. studios loosed their thunder. Meetings were planned, resolutions framed. August Lukeman, sculptor of the Stone Mountain Memorial to the Confederacy, was first to be heard:

"That arrogant statement [Architect Cram's] should not debar any man from discussing what is purely a matter of principle--namely, whether a so-called national monument . . . should not be made an expression of the country and the times by the exclusive use of the talent and genius of America. . . . There is nothing personal in what I have to say. Dr. Cram says that he offered the work to one or two Americans before employing Angell. There are a great many more to whom he could have offered it, and men of the greatest competence. The truth of the matter is that Dr. Cram does not know the work that is being done, by American sculptors. . . ."

Arthur C. Friedrichs, President of the Artists' Brush and Color Co., was next heard from. As one who had been collecting money for the Cathedral's completion, he expressed shock at Architect Cram's attitude "that the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is his cathedral and that the American sculptors who aspire to some participation in its decoration had better be careful how they criticize him. . . . What he wants is another 15th Century church, a 20th Century Gothic cathedral in harmony with the spirit of the Middle Ages. All the statues are to be draped because that's the way it was done in the year 1000. Orthodoxy is Mr. Cram's doxy."