public schools of America continue to strengthen and extend music programs which people like you have developed. May I urge you not only to enjoy your field but to respect it, to be proud of it, and to recognize its true purposes. These purposes will be enhanced as you relate this great discipline, this great source of inspiration, this spring of enlightenment to the other field in the humanities. Each enhances the other; together they fashion the noblest of man's insights, hopes, and aspirations.

[From the Congressional Record, May 3, 1961]

THE FIRST 100 DAYS IN THE ARTS

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under previous order of the House, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. KEARNS] is recognized for 40 minutes.

Mr. KEARNS. Mr. Speaker, a number of articles have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the Washington, D.C., Post, and the Washington, D.C., Star about the Salute to the Arts luncheon held by the Woman's National Democratic Club on April 27, 1961, at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C.

The theme was "What I Would Do for the Arts if I Were President for a Day."

Speakers at the luncheon included Philip C. Johnson, architect; Cornelia Otis Skinner, actress; Mischa Elman, violinist; and George Balanchine, director of the New York City Ballet.

Perhaps it is time to review the Democratic accomplishments in the arts during the first 100 days, relating them to the entire picture of the arts as it developed during the preceding 8 Republican years.

There have been no Presidential messages on the arts, such as President Eisenhower sent to the Congress in asking for the passage of legislation to establish a Federal Advisory Council on the Arts.

There were several statements during the political campaign last fall on the arts by Senator Kennedy about what he would do about the arts, if he were elected.

However, we are still awaiting any definite steps by President Kennedyand by other top administration officials and their families-aside from those steps, that is, which are widely reported only in the society pages of the newspapers, which would define the proper role of the Federal Government in the encouragement and growth of the fine arts in our country.

Recently, moved by a spirit of good neighborliness, I offered a few suggestions to the members of the Woman's National Democratic Club. This was in connection with the Salute to the Arts luncheon with its theme of what the President could do for the arts in a day if he wanted to.

Miss Betty Beale, a brilliant and discerning commentator, wrote as follows in the Washington, D.C., Star of May 1, 1961:

[From the Evening Star, Monday, May 1, 1961]

"CULTURE TALK EVOKES BLAST

"(By Betty Beale)

"A Republican Congressman and the only Member of that august body to hold a degree of doctor of music, has let go a broadside at the Democrats for all this talk about culture.

"The Salute to the Arts luncheon given by the Woman's National Democratic Club last Thursday is what finally got Representative Carroll Kearns' dander

up.

"The Pennsylvania legislator has sent a letter to Mrs. Richard Bolling and other members of the luncheon committee to set the record straight. The ladies may still be reeling from the blow.

"Noting that many people are beginning to think that the art interest of the Federal Government began with the invitation to Robert Frost and 150 other cultural leaders to attend the 1961 Inaugural, Mr. Kearns fires his first shot. There came into being, he observes, under Eisenhower the National Cultural Center Act, and the International Cultural Exchange and Trade Fair Act under which our great orchestras, artists, drama, and dance groups are sent overseas to demonstrate U.S. accomplishments in the fine arts.

"Then he blasts his second shot. President Eisenhower, he said, called for the establishment of a Federal Advisory Council on the Arts and although the Democrats have been in control of the Congress since 1955, nothing has happened.

"Six years is an awfully long time to wait for the establishment of such a new Federal advisory agency. The contemplated budget is only $50,000. When our gross national product is over $500 billion, it can be seen that such a step would scarcely unbalance the national budget. So one may well ask what is the reason for the present timidity on the Democratic side in holding up the early creation of such an Arts Council?'

"He next takes aim at the Kennedy administration, pointing out that Presi dent Kennedy himself (about a year ago when he was a Senator) introduced legislation to save the Dolly Madison House, the Benjamin Taylor House, and the Belasco Theater on Lafayette Square, and recalling that the General Federation of Women's Clubs and other organizations support their preservation, he lets go at two Kennedy men.

""Two men, William Walton, a painter, and John Moore, Administrator of the General Services, like pharaohs or reigning monarchs of an earlier and unenlightened period-have decided to proceed with destruction of the Lafayette Square buildings. At this very moment, however, the President has called for spending some $10 million in saving the ancient treasures of the Nile. Recently the President rescued Harvard University from an office building.

"If the Nile treasures and Harvard Yard can be saved, why can't the Lafayette Square buildings be saved-' asks the Congressman.

"Neither Pharaoh Walton nor Pharaoh Moore could be reached for an answer to this question.

"Numerous other points were brought up by Mr. Kearns in his letter to Mrs. Bolling. In fact, so many it will be days before he gets an answer. The Republican's epistle was seven pages of single-spaced typewriting. A good rupture over culture may be just what we need to put hearts into the arts."

I include the New York Times account of the saving of Harvard Yard at this point in my remarks.

"HARVARD, AGAIN

"Another item the White House has said nothing about is how, in the midst of questions of national and international import, the President took up a cause with Harvard.

"It was proposed that Cambridge, Mass., sell a piece of the Common as the site for a 15-story office building. The land is near Harvard Yard.

"The President thought he had better stay out of the fight. But when the legislature's Democratic majorities pushed through a bill authorizing the sale, he quietly let his views be known in the right places.

"Kenneth P. O'Donnell, class of 1949, and special assistant to the President, phoned leading State Democrats urging them not to make the project a party issue.

"McGeorge Bundy, Yale 1940, and a Republican, former dean of the Harvard faculty, and now special Presidential assistant for national security affairs, passed the word to some Republicans.

"Also active was Mr. Kennedy's one-time Senate colleague from the Bay State, Leverett Saltonstall, a Republican.

"Last week, Republican Gov. John A. Volpe vetoed the bill. The State senate, with some Democratic support, upheld the veto."

Nationwide support is growing for legislation to preserve the historic buildings on Lafayette Square in the Nation's Capital. This legislation was introduced only last year as S. 3280 when he was a Senator by President Kennedy. Other good Democrats cosponsoring the legislation at that time were: Senators Humphrey, Morse, Douglas, Murray, Hennings, Mansfield, and Gruening. Very little has been heard from these distinguished legislators this year, however. However, this year the President's good friend, John Sherman Cooper, Senator Wayne Morse, and I have introduced legislation which would carry out the purposes of S. 3280.

Three great organizations of American women are carrying on national campaigns to save the historic buildings on Lafayette Square. They are: the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the National Federation of Music Clubs.

The Daughters of the American Revolution adopted unanimously, with applause, a resolution presented by Miss Gertrude S. Carraway, honorary president general, on April 20, 1961, deploring the fact that "one-fourth of the his

torically significant buildings in this country have been destroyed during the last 20 years" and calling for the preservation of the Lafayette Square buildings. It is a brash generation, indeed, which will destroy all physical evidences of its great heritage.

Two men, William Walton, a painter, and John L. Moore, Administrator of the General Services Administration-neither one of them an elected official and, indeed, only one of them a public official accountable to the people of the United States-like pharaohs or reigning monarchs of an earlier and unenlightened period, having walked around Lafayette Square, decided to proceed with the destruction of the Lafayette Square buildings.

I was always taught that this was a representative government, and that Federal officials were elected or appointed to carry out the will of the people. Otherwise, why have elections? Perhaps this is just an antique Republican notion, but it is one which I have held for many, many years. Elections could be won on this matter, since 80 million people visit our historic sites and buildings each year.

The situation regarding the historic buildings on Lafayette Square is unique, I think.

No public hearings were held by either the Public Works Committee of the Senate or the House on the question of whether the historic buildings on Lafayette Square should be saved.

So, here is the sequence.

First, no public hearings by the Senate or House. Second, the decision is taken, without such public hearings, to destroy the historic Lafayette Square buildings. Third, neither the Senate nor the House is permitted to vote on the issue of the destruction of the Lafayette Square buildings. Fourth, the Administrator of General Services, John L. Moore, and the painter, William Walton, walk around the square and, communing together, decide finally to ignore the people of the United States and to destroy the historic Lafayette Square buildings: the Dolly Madison house, the Benjamin Tayloe house, and the Belasco Theater.

A German language publication, the Washington (D.C.) Journal, reported, on May 5, this year, that steps were under consideration to restore the Belasco Theater as the Beethoven Operahouse, as a bond of friendship between the American and German people. The cost would be borne by the German Government, it is said.

Some months ago a bipartisan drive saved New York City's Carnegie Hall— certainly no greater a cultural facility than the Belasco Theater-from destruction. The Carnegie Hall drive was headed by Mayor Robert Wagner, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Isaac Stern.

The New York Times reported on April 8, 1961, that President Kennedy proposed on April 7 that a $10 million U.S. contribution be made to preserve ancient Nubian temples and other monuments on the Upper Nile.

The New York Times declared:

"He asked Congress to authorize U.S. participation in an international effort to save antiquities marked for inundation by the Soviet-financed Aswan Dam, which is being built in the United Arab Republic.

"The President suggested that the United States finance alone the estimated $6 million cost of preserving the "Pearl of Egypt," a group of temples on the Island of Philae, between the old and new Aswan Dams. They now are submerged part of the year.

"Mr. Kennedy also proposed that the United States take part in preserving lesser temples both in the United Arab Republic and in the Sudan, at a cost of $2,500,000, and that it contribute $1,500,000 to speed extensive archeological and prehistory research in areas now unexplored but threatened with flooding." If the Nile treasures and Harvard Yard can be saved by the intervention of President Kennedy then, surely, the historic buildings on Lafayette Squarewhich are so intimately associated with our own national history- can be saved. I include at this point, the New York Times article on the Nile treasures to which I have referred, and the resolution adopted during the 70th Annual

Continental Congress of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, in Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C.:

[From the New York Times, Apr. 8]

"KENNEDY ASKS FUND TO SAVE NILE RELICS

"(By W. H. Lawrence)

"WASHINGTON, April 7.-President Kennedy proposed today a $10 million U.S. contribution to preserve ancient Nubian temples and other monuments on the Upper Nile.

"Mr. Kennedy disclosed that the United Arab Republic and the Sudan, in whose territories the antiquities lie, had offered to cede to assisting countries part of the finds made as a result of new excavations to be included in the program.

"He asked Congress to authorize U.S. participation in an international effort to save antiquities marked for inundation by the Soviet-financed Aswan Dam, which is being built in the United Arab Republic.

"The President suggested that the United States finance alone the estimated $6 million cost of preserving the "Pearl of Egypt," a group of temples on the Island of Philae, between the old and new Aswan Dams. They now are submerged part of the year.

"Mr. Kennedy also proposed that the United States take part in preserving lesser temples both in the United Arab Republic and in the Sudan at a cost of $2,500,000, and that it contribute $1,500,000 to speed extensive archeological and prehistory research in areas now unexplored but threatened with flooding. "However, Mr. Kennedy deferred any U.S. participation in a major project, estimated to cost $60 million to $80 million, to save Abu Simbel, the most majestic of the threatened Egyptian antiquities. He said the engineering problems concerning preservation of the temples, which are hewn out of solid rock, entailed "serious difficulties," and required further studies.

"All the expenditures proposed by Mr. Kennedy already are available in Egyptian pounds accumulated as a result of U.S. mutual aid expenditures. He said all the needs could be met from funds already determined to be in excess of prospective U.S. requirements.

"In parallel letters to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate, Mr. Kennedy said the United States should join with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization to prevent 'what would otherwise be an irreparable loss to science and the cultural history of mankind.”

"He noted that the Governments of the United Arab Republic and the Sudan had offered to 'cede, with certain exceptions, at least half of the finds of the parties carrying out excavations in Nubia.' He said he would name a commission of leading Egyptologists and Government officials 'to make plans for the acquisition and distribution of the antiquities ceded to the United States as a result of our contribution.'

66

""In making these funds available,' the President continued, "the United States will be participating in an international effort which has captured the imagination and sympathy of people throughout the world. By thus contributing to the preservation of past civilizations, we will strengthen and enrich our own.'

"He suggested that the first U.S. contribution should match the cost of preserving the Greco-Roman temples of Philae, sacred island of Isis, Egyptian goddess of motherhood and fertility. They are considered the second most important group of monuments on the upper Nile.

"The project on which Mr. Kennedy held up a recommendation involves tremendous engineering problems. The great temples of Abu Simbel are flanked by four 67-foot-high figures of Rameses II carved during the 13th century B.C., as well as other statuary.

"The President told Congress that two major plans had been advanced for saving these monuments. One, he said, recommends building a cofferdam around them and the other proposes to sever the temples from the cliff of which they are a part and lift them 200 feet to the future level of the Nile.

"Each of these plans entails serious difficulties,' he observed, 'and further studies are being made. Therefore, I feel it would be premature to recommend, at the present time, that any U.S. funds be provided for this purpose.'

The following statement was read Thursday morning, April 20, 1961, by Miss Gertrude S. Carraway, of New Bern, N.C., honorary president general, during the 70th Annual Continental Congress of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, in Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C. Miss Carraway offered the motion, seconded by Mrs. F. Clagett Hoke, of Jeffersontown, Ky., and was passed unanimously, with applause, by the large assemblage of members, NSDAR:

"Too late for consideration by the resolutions committee, a matter of historical importance to all patriotic Americans has been called to our attention by Congressmen belonging to both political parties.

"One-fourth of the historically significant buildings in this country have been destroyed during the last 20 years.

"By decision of two officials, without public hearings, I am informed, the houses of history fronting on Lafayette Square here, a veritable forecourt for the White House, are slated, unnecessarily and unwisely, for immediate removal to make way for a Federal building.

"Both Democratic and Republican Congressmen are gravely concerned and have earnestly requested the aid and interest of Daughters of the American Revolution, not only to help save the Dolly Madison House, the Benjamin Tayloe House, and other historical and cultural structures in the Nation's Capital but also to assist with the passage of congressional legislation to provide for the publication of a compilation of historic sites throughout the country and for the preservation of antiquities of national significance in all parts of the United States.

"From its beginning one of the main objectives of our National Society, as set forth in our bylaws, has been the protection of historical spots. Our members have long realized that from living history we are much more apt to want to prove worthy of our rich heritage by working for better citizenship in the present and a greater Nation in the future.

"Due largely to our DAR examples and teachings, citizens in general are at long last becoming increasingly interested in American history and the value of holding relics of past importance in trust for the generations to come.

"Bills along these lines have been recently introduced and sponsored by Congressmen of both parties. In my judgment, they merit and deserve the careful study and active support of our members in their endeavors to stop the wanton destruction of historical, cultural and architectural gems.

"Accordingly, I move that Daughters of the American Revolution be urged to write to the President of the United States and to Congressmen registering support and interest in efforts to preserve historic sites and other symbols of our American heritage."

In February 1961 I introduced a bill to establish a Commission on the Cultural Resources in the Nation's Capital, and to provide a comprehensive plan for the effective utilization of such resources in carrying out a long-range program to make the Nation's Capital equal in cultural matters to the capital cities of other great nations.

Similar measures were introduced by Senators John Sherman Cooper and Wayne Morse, and by our colleague, the gentleman from New York, Mr. Powell. So here is a bipartisan measure which deserves Presidential support. Perhaps this is forthcoming, because, in a speech to fund-drive workers of the National Symphony Orchestra, the new Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, Philip H. Coombs, called for a great overall plan to give the significant overarching cultural climate needed to make it possible for the Nation's Capital to take its rightful place besides other capital cities of the world with regard to the fine arts.

A study by the Library of Congress which the distinguished gentleman from Delaware, Mr. McDowell, and Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, inserted in the Congressional Record last year showed that the municipal government of Washington, D.C., spends annually only the piddling sum of $16,000 on the fine arts. This can be compared to the $800,000 which San Francisco, a smaller city, spends on the arts. It was facts such as these, doubtless, which led the New York Times, Time magazine, the Reporter magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, and other publications to deplore the lack of cultural progress of the Nation's Capital.

The Nation's Capital has been described in such unflattering terms as "hick town" and "cultural backwater" by these national publications. W. H. Kiplin

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