VALENTINE'S MANUAL

The Convention of the American Federation of
Arts at the Metropolitan Museum

Viewed in perspective and as an accomplished fact,
the Tenth Annual Convention of the American Federa¬
tion of Arts may be regarded as an unqualified suc¬
cess : as to attendance, as to choice of subjects taken up,
as to importance of speakers, and as to interest aroused.

The entire first day. May 15, was devoted to the
subject of War Memorials. Charles Moore, Chairman
of the National Commission of Fine Arts, distinguished
between war memorials of ideal significance purely and
those that are to be used as structures for public pur¬
poses. This point formed the storm center of discus¬
sion throughout the day. Edwin H. Blashfield spoke
from the standpoint of color as a factor in memorials;
Frederick Law Olmsted considered the park as a me¬
morial; Harold S. Buttenheim favored the memorial
community building; and Cass Gilbert advocated renam¬
ing landmarks of nature so that these may serve as ever¬
lasting monuments to the heroic deeds of the great war.
In a paper by Morris Gray, President of the Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, read by Edward Robinson, Di¬
rector of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the ideal
value of the memorial was stanchly upheld. Senator
Root was likewise in favor of the ideal memorial; he
maintained that art alone can carry on in times of peace
that spirit of high idealism which called us into the war.
An interesting feature of the discussion was the sug¬
gestion of Dr. George F. Kunz in regard to a memorial
coinage. This later formed the subject of a resolution
of the Federation containing a recommendation to Con¬
gress to the effect that the issue of coinage for 1920 or
some succeeding year be designed as a memorial to the

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