Page:The Modern Writer.pdf/48

 temporary art cheap and transitory, consider also what the industrial age has tended to do to this old love of craft so deeply rooted in men.

It is a dangerous process. Soil the workman's tools and materials long enough and he may turn and kill you. You are striking at the very root of the man's being.

However, I do not want to be sensational. In spite of the growth of standardization there are for me many hopeful signs. Men are becoming increasingly conscious of what is being done to them. The very man who lends his talents to cheapness is unconvinced. He will come to you in private with an apology. "I have to live," he will say. "I have a wife and children. I am only doing cheap work for the time being. When I have made a little money I intend to do some honest, decent work."

In reality I think many men of talent