they produced for their daily needs. For them a chair became a work of art. Their handwoven coverlets, their decorated marriage contracts, their cooking utensils, these and a hundred other simple objects were made with such loving care that today we recognize them for the masterpieces they are and we cherish them in our greatest museums. The famous Index of American Design in the National Gallery of Art has, I think, something like 20,000 items representing the American crafts.

The magnitude of our current interest in the craft arts is evidenced by the fact that approximately $135 million was spent in 1956 for materials used in craftwork. Manufacturers are anticipating an increase in this amount for 1957. This figure refers only to materials used and does not include the vast sums spent on tools and associated items necessary to weave, to make ceramics, and so on, to provide which a billion-dollar industry has been established. In addition, the publication of books and articles dealing largely with instruction in the techniques of the crafts has also become a large industry employing many people. Some of the books on the crafts have actually become best sellers. Craft magazines are forging ahead steadily both in number of subscribers and in the actual number of magazines published. Outstanding among these are Craft Horizons, Handweaver & Craftsman, Ceramics, the Cross-Country Craftsman, and Design. There are, too, such publications as School Arts and Arts and Activities, which are primarily directed to the teachers of these subjects. The teachers have their national organizations, the principal one being the National Art Education Association, a department of the National Education Association.

In addition to education, the craftwork today shows three distinct manifestations: vocational, recreational, and therapeutic. For instance, in the vocational field there has recently been noted a tremendous increase in the sale of handmade articles for use in homes, as well as wearing apparel. In many shops, such items make up quite a large part of their stock. An increasing number of craft workers are either supporting themselves or adding to their income by their productions. Quite a number have established important businesses, hiring other craftsmen. Craft groups working together are to be found across the country. But the largest and most important professional groups in this work consists of the regular teachers of craft subjects in the schools, colleges, universities, and specialized groups. The summer 1957 issue of Handweaver & Craftsman lists the Fourth Annual Handweaving Conference held at the University of Kansas, in April; the League of New Hamphsire Arts and Crafts and such related activities as the annual Craftsmen's Fair at the Belknap Mountain Recreation Area, at Guilford, in August, which now attracts thousands of visitors each year and results in five-figure sales; the handweaving course at Mills College, Oakland, Calif., established in 1944; the Northwest Conference of Handweavers jointly sponsored by the Seattle, Wash., Weavers Guild and the University of Washington's School of Art and Home Economics at the university in Seattle, to which come more than 400 weavers from all over the country; the Craftsmen's Fair of the Southern Highlands at Asheville, N.C.; the Museum of International Folk Art at Santa Fe, N. Mex.; the Virginia Highlands Festival at Abingdon, Va.; the

Fourth Ozark Arts and Crafts Fair at War Eagle, and many others, including ceramics and other crafts.

In the recreational field lies the largest group numerically of craft workers. So large is this group that it certainly merits the help and attention of such a commission as Congressman Thompson's measure would establish. Notable in this field are the retired elderly people. Craftwork for this group is contributing one of the outstanding solutions for their social and psychological problems. Witness the success of the Sunshine University, in Florida, established originally for a few retired individuals, but which already has an enrollment in the thousands, although they have been specializing in weaving and ceramics only.

National social and recreational groups whose programs emphasize the various crafts include the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, Camp Fire, Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA, YWCA, YMHA, YWHA, American Red Cross, American Craftsmen's Council which includes 70odd National, State, regional, and local groups; the 4-H Clubs; and others. The morale and welfare services of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps provide arts and crafts an an integral part of the off-duty recreation services provided enlisted men, officer personnel, and their families.

Occupational therapy has demonstrated the value of creative craftwork in the treatment and cure of physical and mental illness. All homes for the aged, Veterans' Administration hospitals, industrial hospitals and other hospitals, and hospitals for the Armed Forces now have established craft centers and hobby shops.

One other activity in the field of craft art must be mentioned: that of exhibitions. The impressive list of these and the great number of those who attend them are indicative of the importance this work is assuming in our daily life. Not only are these exhibitions making fine work known to our people, but the U.S. Information Agency has sent quite a number of important exhibitions of American craftwork abroad. These shows have been developed by the Smithsonian Institution and private organizations for the U.S. Information Agency. Early in June, craftsmen, educators, and other leaders in this field from all over the country attended the First Annual Conference of American Craftsmen, in Asilomar, Calif. The conference was held under the sponsorship of the American Craftsmen's Council which last year opened a great Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York City at 29 West 53d Street. This is a permanent yearround museum devoted solely to the craft arts.

It seems evident to me, therefore, that this extraordinary growth of interest in this form of art calls for the recognition and encouragement that a Federal commission could give. Such an agency would not only strengthen this ground swell of interest, but provide a foundation for a tremendous renascence and flowering of the craft arts in our country.

I thank you for the courtesy you have shown me in hearing my

statement.

STATEMENT OF DR. FREDERICK FALL, FORMER DIRECTOR, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA; DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR OF OPERA ACTIVITIES OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA RECREATION DEPARTMENT; FORMER MUSIC DIRECTOR FOR U.S. ARMY OF OCCUPATION IN AUSTRIA

Dr. FALL. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I am Dr. Frederick Fall, of 1771 Church Street NW., Washington, D.C. I was born in Vienna, Austria, where I studied music and was graduated from the State Academy of Music and Fine Arts.

Before coming to the United States I was conductor of various major opera companies in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and finally conductor in chief of the Vienna Volksoper. I also conducted symphony concerts with practically all of the major European symphony orchestras. In this country I have conducted concerts in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans, and Dallas. After the Second World War I was music officer for the Austrian Occupation Zone under Gen. Mark Clark.

For 10 years I conducted the Agriculture Symphony Orchestra of the U.S. Department of Agriculture here in the Nation's Capital. I reorganized this orchestra in 1949, and it is now considered by many to be one of the country's outstanding amateur orchestras.

Also, I am director and producer, as well as conductor, of the opera productions of the District of Columbia Recreation Department. We have annually produced a major opera for the last several years; the Medium and the Telephone; Madame Butterfly; the Merry Widow; Hansel and Gretel; Tales of Hoffman; the Student Prince; the Bartered Bride; and the Gypsy Baron. If anyone thinks these productions, involving in some instances 120 people, do not require a vast amount of hard work and discipline, then they don't know anything about opera production.

Both the Agriculture Department's symphony orchestra and the District of Columbia Recreation Department's opera productions use preponderantly musicians, singers, stagecraft workers, production helpers, and so on who do not make their living with music, singing, acting, or in the theater, but who use these media to give meaning to their leisure time. Such activities are splendid examples of the creative and constructive use of leisure time. There are too many people to whom leisure time is synonymous with time spent aimlessly-this, in my opinion, is one of the major reasons for delinquency, both juvenile and adult. A fine example of the constructive use of leisure time follows:

I conducted a homegrown, grassroots, locally produced opera, with local singers, at the Watergate to an audience of 10,000 avid listeners. This was one of the largest audiences of the Watergate season. Sponsors of this event were the District of Columbia Recreation Depart

ment and the music performance trust fund of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 161, of Washington, D.C. The singers were what are called amateurs. That does not mean that the music achievements are not of the highest standards. It shows good use of leisure time, and I am sure all those singers enjoyed the experience and did not mind the many hours they put in the production.

My experience leads me to conclude that one of the important things that the Federal Advisory Council on the Arts must do, when it is established, is to advise on how to use the arts practically to give meaning and direction to the vast amount of leisure time that our highly productive economy is making available. It can recommend ways to encourage the making of great music and the other arts by the people themselves.

The level of a culture is determined not alone by the great concerts in the concert halls. It is determined quite as much by the music the young people love; it is determined by the music the people sing, by the music they whistle, the music they hum. It is determined by the houses they live in, the books they read, the paintings and the sculpture with which they surround themselves. It is determined by the depths of their regard for creative artists. It is determined by the extent of their patronage of the arts. A Federal Advisory Council on the Arts in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare can recommend and advise ways of aiding and guiding the public to a full awareness of the vast riches of their cultural heritage, and thus help in the development of a wiser, healthier, better-balanced, and a maturer people.

Music and other arts are increasingly appreciated and practiced in our country. It has been noted by Reader's Digest, the Saturday Evening Post, Time and Life magazines, and other national publications that Americans are turning to the arts in constantly greater numbers. Paid admissions to concerts in this country are greater by $5 millions than paid admissions to baseball. Over 30 million people pay to hear good music every year. The sales of classical records is about $60 million a year.

More people hear the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a single concert on the radio than could hear it in Carnegie Hall in 110 years of concert going. Radio and television bring great drama, music, ballet, opera to many millions of our people each week. The great art movies of Hollywood, such as "An American in Paris," and "Invitation to the Dance," play to audiences of 50 millions and their box-office appeal is as great or greater than those productions of lower quality such as "Forever Amber." These figures speak eloquently for the increasingly greater interest in the arts, but it isn't enough.

In Europe the governments of our times have assumed the patronage of the arts from the courts, the princes, and the church. The high development of music, drama, ballet, and of the Beethovens, the Goethes, the Dantes, the Shakespeares, the Michelangelos, the Da Vincis, the Hans Christian Andersons these did not spring untended from a hostile soil.

They were the product of an education and an environment that was sympathetic, that was constantly helpful, that honored the industrious and able youngster, the budding painter, the coming poet, the developing musician, dancer, weaver, and sculptor. Many young people tried, and many failed but the talented young people found patrons, they found encouragement, they were prodded, they were driven, rewarded, and they kept on trying. The great artists that developed out of this rich soil lifted mankind on wings of song, and mankind was enobled when beauty was created such as was never known before, with the new songs, the new paintings, the ever extending vision of the artists.

The greatest single thing the Federal Advisory Council on the Arts can do, in my opinion, is to give new stature to the arts, and increased status to the artists.

It can give art and the artist the recognition they need when they are young, when they need it most. It can recommend ways to encourage the artist to forge ahead, to be creative.

It can advise us on ways to enrich the soil, to nurture the young, to help them to go forward."

The arts ennoble, they uplift, they give the people vision, and a people without vision will surely perish.

The Federal Advisory Council which Congressman Thompson's bill, H.R. 4172, would establish can show the way to a maturer and happier people, a people which will make the United States the cultural center of the world.

Mr. THOMPSON. We will now hear from Congressman Harris B. McDowell of Delaware.

STATEMENT OF HON. HARRIS B. MCDOWELL, JR., A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF DELAWARE

Mr. McDOWELL. Mr. Thompson and members of the subcommittee, I appear in support of the bill offered by Congressman Frank Thompson, Jr., and several other Members of Congress from both parties to establish a Federal Advisory Council on the Arts.

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