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Artists for Victory 

SPEECH 
OF 
HON. JOSEPH CLARK BALDWIN 
OF NEW YORK 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Tuesday, February 16, 1943 
Mr. BALDWIN of New York. Mr. Speaker, I want to call the attention of this House to what in wartimes has often become the forgotten group. Those are artists of the country. They have an exhibit of war posters in the National Gallery and have invited the Members of Congress. I hope as many of you will be able to attend as possible.  
Artists for Victory, Inc., was organized immediately after the outbreak of war by 26 art societies in New York, with national membership totaling over 10,000 artists, and was dedicated to assist the country with all its resources and talents to the winning of the war. It is a non-profit corporation, its officers serving without compensation and its staff comprising voluntary workers. It embraces every field of the visual arts, namely, painting, sculpture, mural painting, scenic painting, architecture, landscape architecture, interior decoration, and all the kindred arts and crafts. 
For the first time in the history of American art, all the different art groups have joined together, moved by patriotism to their country, and are working together harmoniously and effectively with but one object in view, complete victory and lasting peace. 
Among the noted members of the board of directors are: Hobart Nichols, president, and president of the National Academy of Design; J. Scott Williams, acting president of the Architectural League; Paul Manship, sculptor; John Taylor Arms, etcher; Gifford Beal, painter; Arthur Crisp, mural painter; Irwin D. Hoffman, painter and etcher; and Julian Clarence Levi. architect. 
The first activity conducted by the Artists for Victory was the national sculpture competition, for the purpose of procuring a stirring monument to our aviators, that would be used as a shrine for patriotic activity. The heroic figure of an aviator, by Thomas LoMedico, was chosen by a distinguished jury of selection, including sculptors and high-ranking officers of the Air Corps, and is now on exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum. 
Because cultural values are apt to be obscured during a period of all-out war such as we are undergoing at the present time, Artists for Victory inaugurated the greatest exhibition of contemporary American art ever held in this country, so that one of the great ideals for which we are fighting will be kept alive for our people. This exhibition was conducted 
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD 
with the collaboration of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which turned over its entire museum to this display, and devoted $52,000 for the purchase prizes to this exhibition, which was opened in December 1942 and will continue until the end of February 1943. This activity has been of tremendous value to the country in keeping alive the spark of cultural achievement which the brute forces are endeavoring to destroy. 
THE NATIONAL WAR POSTER COMPETITION 
Of immediate and direct service to the Nation has been the national war poster competition, conceived and conducted by Artists for Victory, Inc. for the purpose of obtaining inspirational fighting posters on the vital issues of the war. A plan was evolved to enlist support from private industry for prizes and reproduction of the prize-winning posters and others. This was obtained from R. Hoe & Co., Inc., world famous as manufacturers of the Hoe rotary newspaper press-which is now devoting its resources to the war effort exclusively-who underwrote the expenses of the competition, offered four prizes-$1,200 in war bonds-and guaranteed large-scale reproduction of their prize-winning posters. The Council for Democracy of New York sponsored four more prizes and the International Business Machines, Inc., the ninth prize. O.C.D. agreed to distribute the reproduced posters. The Museum of Modern Art participated by agreeing to hold an exhibition of selected posters from the competition. 
The inspiration for this competition was the President's state of the Union to the Congress on January 6, 1942. After careful analysis, a competition circular was written on 8 themes which seemed suitable for poster rendering. This was issued to over 25,000 artists throughout the country. They did not know that the President's message was the source of the inspiration. They simply were moved by a desire to help, for the prize offerings were inconsequential. Artists for Victory depended for its appeal not only on public approval from Mr. Elmer Davis or from the Honorable Henry Morgenthau, Jr., or from Mr. Donald Nelson, but also on the spontaneous enthusiasm of the artists themselves responding to the call expressed in the circular, which reads: 
There's a job for artists in this war. It's a vital job and it must be done. 
This is the situation. Time is still against us. Our enemy has made tremendous gains while we have only begun to fight. There is a very real danger that we may lose this war. 
Our armed forces are all over the world, but they need more support from us. Our valiant allies, Russia, China, Britain, are fighting powerfully and courageously, but they, too, need more support from us. It all falls back on us here on the home front. It's our war-everybody's war. And that means-more production, more work, more sacrifice, more participation. 
This is the story that must be brought home to the American people. It's been told before, but it needs to be told again, over and over. Words alone can't do it. We have to see it. We need to get a clear picture in our minds of this menace to our lives and our liberty. We need to see what we're fighting for.
An that's your job in this war-a job that only an artist can do. 
Over 2,200 posters were received, and all those that have seen them have been deeply moved by these stirring expressions of patriotism. Mr. Edward A. Jewell, the noted art critic of the New York Times said, on reviewing the first exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art:
There are posters that should be reproduced at once and put in circulation to help us finish our war. In a work, this is the best contemporary poster exhibition I have ever seen. 
How completely the themes selected and the slogans suggested to the competing artists succeeded in capturing the spirit contained in the President's message is evidenced by the following letter of commendation to the President of Artists for Victory from the Commander in Chief himself:
The White House, 
Washington, November 16, 1942.
Dear Mr. Nichols: I have seen the report by Artists for victory on its national war poster competition. it is proof of what can be done by groups whose ordinary occupations might seem far removed from war. More than 2,000 war posters were produced by the artists of the country, not as a chore that they were asked to do but as a voluntary, spontaneous contribution to the war. The very name of your organization is symbolic of the determination of every man and woman in every activity of life throughout the Nation to enlist in the cause to which our country is dedicated. 
Very sincerely yours, 
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. 
By Means of exhibitions such as the one now being held at the National Gallery, which will be send on tour to at least 20 key cities throughout the United States, Artists for Victory will bring the powerful messages contained in these posters to millions of our people. Already well over 100,000,000 repetitions of these posters have appeared in magazines, newspapers, and periodicals, such as Life, the New York Times, and other papers in many cities, and in trade and art publications. 
Artists for Victory is about to launch a program reproducing 50 of the best posters from the national war poster competition in miniature form, as a page of war labels, and expects to print and distribute over 500,000,000 of them, so that their important messages will reach every man, woman, and child in the country. Used on correspondence, on packages, on pay envelopes, and in many other ways, Artists for Victory feels that its war poster labels will be a truly great contribution to our country at war, for they will serve to keep before our people the vital issues of the war 

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943