Viewing page 2 of 106

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-2-
Senator Wm. M. Calder
Sept. 20th. 1921

patrons because import duties were so onerous that they were indeed few and far between.

Should you bring up to your memory the long period during which import duties were such a barrier to the importation of works of art into the U.S.A., you will also remember how crude the U.S.A. were as far as art was concerned.  The all prevailing brown stone houses, the interior decoration of houses, the furniture, each and every one of them was hideous.

Artists and the press led for years a campaign and public opinion responded because it finally realized that it would benefit the country to encourage the importation of works of art, and the time came when these duties were abolished.

Now let us see its consequences.

From the very time works of art came into the U.S.A. duty free, museums grew and multiplied all over the country.  Was it because it had unlimited means?  Indeed no.  They reached and they owe their present splendour to the magnificent gifts of private collectors who felt at last justified in forming collections of great works of art because they could come into the U.S.A. duty free.

Need I remind you that had not it been for this wise step, the collection of the late Mr. J.P. MORGAN would still be in London instead of, in great part, in the New York Metropolitan Museum.

I will go further and say that should a list be made of the splendid gifts made since these duties were abolished, it would be seen that the yearly attendance to Museums the country over, reaches millions on millions proving conclusively that the country