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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In his 1955 message on the State of the Union to the Congress the then President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, called for the establishment of such a Federal arts agency and he declared that—

In the advancement of the various activities which will make our civilization endure and flourish, the Federal Government should do more to give official recognition to the importance of the arts and other cultural activities.

In June 1960, Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Arthur S. Flemming, one of the Nation's top educators, told the House Education Committee that

there is inadequate recognition of the fundamental importance of artistic endeavor in our national life.

He declared that—

The development of cultural and artistic interests serves a dual purpose, in that it contributes to the well-being of the individual by developing his creative abilities, and at the same time, it enables the individual to further enrich our civilization.

Then Secretary Flemming made this significant point:

I feel that if the Congress did act favorably on this proposal (to establish a Federal Advisory Council on the Arts), it would do a great deal in the direction of strengthening education in the arts, both at the secondary level and at the level of higher education. That is, it would give added encouragement to the efforts which are being made along this line.

Personally, growing out of my own experience in the field of education, I think we should put added emphasis on education in the arts. I think of it not only from the standpoint of the contribution which educational programs will make to the arts, but I emphasize it because I feel when people have the opportunity of participating in educational programs in the arts, it tends to stimulate the development of their creative abilities, and that those creative abilities will then show themselves and reflect themselves not only in the arts but in everything they do.

Secretary Flemming made it clear to the committee that while he continued to favor an emphasis on science in the curriculum he also felt that "we need to put emphasis in other areas" such as the fine arts. The point was made by him, as well as by other witnesses, that many of our engineering and scientific schools, for instance, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 30 percent of each student's activities are devoted to the fine arts and literature. Our scientists must be able to communicate, and they must have a grasp of the culture and civilization of the Nation which they are working to advance, enlarge, and preserve.

Here are Secretary Flemming's exact words:

Certainly, as we think in terms of stimulating and strengthening education in such areas as the sciences and engineering, which we certainly do, I do not think we should overlook the importance of strengthening educational programs in areas such as this (the arts) because, as I have indicated, I believe if we do it will pay dividends in terms of what happens in the sciences, in engineering, and so on.

The school of arts and science at the University of Delaware has shown a special awareness of the importance of educating the whole man. I am proud of its work, and I wish to take this occasion to commend Dr. G. Bruce Dearing, dean, school of arts and science and his colleagues for their contributions in building one of the more significant universities in our country. The work of Prof. Charles Robert Kase, head of the drama department, Prof. Anthony J. Loudis, head of the music department, Profs. Augustine Henry Able, II, and Ned Bliss Allen of the English department, and Prof. Alan Gowans of the art department, is well-known far beyond the borders of the first State.

The need of the arts by the one-third of our Nation which is economically underprivileged is strikingly illustrated by the following excerpt from a memorandum submitted on July 22, 1960, by Bernard W. Scholz, Chief, Public Assistance Division to the Director of the District of Columbia Department of Public Welfare in connection with the "second precinct rehabilitation project" in the heart of the Nation's Capital:

(Excerpt from a memorandum submitted on July 22, 1960, by Bernard W. Scholz, Chief, Public Assistance Division to the Director of the District of Columbia Department of Public Welfare, in connection with the "second precinct rehabilitation project")

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While this program is underway for the second precinct's youth, what about the adults whose actions and example will continue to influence the young, even while every effort is being made to orient these children in a positive direction? What can be done to reorient the adults from an emptiness wrought of exhaustion, defeat, and resentment that finds release only in dope, alcohol, vice, and lawlessness, to an attitude of hope, a will to achieve, and acceptance of community standards, a willingness to conform and a sense of belonging?

As in the case of the younger people, the older ones are vitally affected by what they perceive the community's attitude concerning them to be.

Just as the auto dump on Sixth Street, established in the midst of a residential section by their city's government (one act that did not take congressional approval) is a clear demonstration of what the community thinks of them as citizens and homeowners, so is the flight of business and the blight on Seventh Street clear evidence that economically they do not rate, as contrasted to their white neighbors in the suburbs.

The community may provide many free services to the general population, but to these underprivileged ones, the descamisados of Washington, they are out of reach: They don't have the shoes, the clothes, the manners-that would make them comfortable and give them a "sense of belonging" in these community facilities.

The free city library is right in the second precinct, but people of this neighborhood would hardly be found within its austere walls. Yet most of them can read—and many would read, if only reading was brought within easy reach of them. There should be small, informal branch libraries scattered throughout the second precinct where people can quietly sit, smoke, and read the paperback editions of good literature.

If such books get soiled, torn, taken home what would it matter? The main thing is that some refuge would be established from the drabness of their own homes-that through these books a door might be opened to a new world. Could lectures be added-films-discussions? Here could be the beginning of a very informal, rudimentary adult education process-but it must be taken to the people and offered wide open, without registration, without fees, without formality.