Gustav Stickley - Craftsman Style
Below is the full text of "The Craftsman Idea" as written by Stickley in 1909.
THE CRAFTSMAN IDEA OF THE KIND OF HOME ENVIRONMENT THAT WOULD RESULT FROM MORE NATURAL STANDARDS OF LIFE AND WORK
IN this book we have endeavored to set forth as fully as possible the several parts which, taken together, go to make up the Craftsman idea of the kind of home environment that tends to result in wholesome living. We have shown the gradual growth of this idea, from the making of the first pieces of Craftsman furniture to the completed house which has in it all the elements of a permanently satisfying home. But we have left until the last the question of the right setting for such a home and the conditions under which the life that is lived in it could form the foundation for the fullest individual and social development.
There is no question now as to the reality of the world-wide movement in the direction of better things. We see everywhere efforts to reform social, political and industrial conditions; the desire to bring about better opportunities for all and to find some way of adjusting economic conditions so that the heart-breaking inequalities of our modern civilized life shall in some measure be done away with. But while we take the greatest interest in all efforts toward reform in any direction, we remain firm in the conviction that the root of all reform lies in the individual and that the life of the individual is shaped mainly by home surroundings and influences and by the kind of education that goes to make real men and women instead of grist for the commercial mill.
That the influence of the home is of the first importance in the shaping of character is a fact too well understood and too generally admitted to be offered here as a new idea. One need only turn to the pages of history to find abundant proof of the unerring action of Nature's law, for without exception the people whose lives are lived simply and wholesomely, in the open, and who have in a high degree the sense of the sacredness of the home, are the people who have made the greatest strides in the development of the race. When luxury enters in and a thousand artificial requirements come to be regarded as real needs, the nation is on the brink of degeneration. So often has the story repeated itself that he who runs may read its deep significance. In our own country, to which has fallen the heritage of all the older civilizations, the course has been swift, for we are yet close to the memory of the primitive pioneer days when the nation was building, and we have still the crudity as well as the vigor of youth. But so rapid and easy has been our development and so great our prosperity that even now we are in some respects very nearly in the same state as the older peoples who have passed the zenith of their power and are beginning to decline. In our own case, however, the saving grace lies in the fact that our taste for luxury and artificiality is not as yet deeply ingrained. We are intensely commercial, fond of all the good things of life, proud of our ability to "get there," and we yield the palm to none in the matter of owning anything that money can buy. But, fortunately, our pioneer days are not ended even now and we still have a goodly number of men and women who are helping to develop the country and make history merely by living simple natural lives close to the soil and full of the interest and pleasure which come from kinship with Nature and the kind of work that calls forth all their resources in the way of self-reliance and the power of initiative. Even in the rush and hurry of life in our busy cities we remember well the quality given to the growing nation by such men and women a generation or two ago and, in spite of the chaotic conditions brought about by our passion for money-getting, extravagance and show, we have still reason to believe that the dominant characteristics of the pioneer yet shape what are the salient qualities in American life.
To preserve these characteristics and to bring back to individual life and work the vigorous constructive spirit which during the last half-century has spent its activities in commercial and industrial expansion, is, in a nut-shell, the Craftsman idea. We need to straighten out our standards and to get rid of a lot of rubbish that we have accumulated along with our wealth and commercial supremacy. It is not that we are too energetic, but that in many ways we have wasted and misused our energy precisely as we have wasted and misused so many of our wonderful natural resources. All we really need is a change in our point of view toward life and a keener perception regarding the things that count and the things which merely burden us. This being the case, it would seem obvious that the place to begin a readjustment is in the home, for it is only natural that the relief from friction which would follow the ordering of our lives along more simple and reasonable lines would not only assure greater comfort, and therefore greater efficiency, to the workers of the nation, but would give the children a chance to grow up under conditions which would be conducive to a higher degree of mental, moral and physical efficiency.
THEREFORE we regard it as at least a step in the direction of bringing about better conditions when we try to plan and build houses which will simplify the work of home life and add to its wholesome joy and comfort. We have already made it plain to our readers that we do not believe in large houses with many rooms elaborately decorated and furnished, for the reason that these seem so essentially an outcome of the artificial conditions that lay such harassing burdens upon modern life and form such a serious menace to our ethical standards. Breeding as it does the spirit of extravagance and of discontent which in the end destroys all the sweetness of home life, the desire for luxury and show not only burdens beyond his strength the man who is ambitious to provide for his wife and children surroundings which are as good as the best, but taxes to the utmost the woman who is trying to keep up the appearances which she believes should belong to her station in life. Worst of all, it starts the children with standards which, in nine cases out of ten, utterly preclude the possibility of their beginning life on their own account in a simple and sensible way. Boys who are brought up in such homes are taught, by the silent influence of their early surroundings, to take it for granted that they must not marry until they are able to keep up an establishment of equal pretensions, and girls also take it as a matter of course that marriage must mean something quite as luxurious as the home of their childhood or it is not a paying investment for their youth and beauty. Everyone who thinks at all deplores the kind of life that marks a man's face with the haggard lines of anxiety and makes him sharp and often unscrupulous in business, with no ambition beyond large profits and a rapid rise in the business world. Also we all realize regretfully the extrava-gance and uselessness of many of our women and admit that one of the gravest evils of our times is the light touch-and-go attitude toward marriage, which breaks up so many homes and makes the divorce courts in America a by-word to the world. But when we think into it a little more deeply, we have to acknowledge that such conditions are the logical outcome of our standards of living and that these standards are always shaped in the home.
That is why we have from the first planned houses that are based on the big fundamental principles of honesty, simplicity and usefulness, —the kind of houses that children will rejoice all their lives to remember as "home," and that give a sense of peace and comfort to the tired men who go back to them when the day's work is done. Because we believe that the healthiest and happiest life is that which maintains the closest relationship with out-of-doors, we have planned our houses with outdoor living rooms, dining rooms and sleeping rooms, and many windows to let in plenty of air and sunlight. The most cursory examination of the floor plans given in this book will show that we have put into practical effect our conviction that a house, whatever its dimensions, should have plenty of free space unencumbered by unnecessary partitions or over-much furniture. Therefore we have made the general living rooms as large as possible and not too much separated one from the other. It seems to us much more friendly, homelike and comfortable to have one big living room into which' one steps directly from the entrance door, —or from a small vestibule if the climate demands such a protection, —and to have this living room the place where all the business and pleasure of the common family life may be carried on. And we like it to have pleasant nooks and corners which give a comfortable sense of semi-privacy and yet are not in any way shut off from the larger life of the room. Such an arrangement has always seemed to us symbolic of the ideal conditions of social life. The big hospitable fireplace is almost a necessity, for the hearth-stone is always the center of true home life, and the very spirit of home seems to be lacking when a register or radiator tries ineffectually to take the place of a glowing grate or a crackling leaping fire of logs.
Then too we believe that the staircase, instead of being hidden away in a small hall or treated as a necessary evil, should be made one of the most beautiful and prominent features of the room, because it forms a link between the social part of the house and the upper regions which belong to the inner and individual part of the family life. Equally symbolic is our purpose in making the dining room either almost or wholly a part of the living room, for to us it is a constant expression of the fine spirit of hospitality to have the dining room, in a way, open to all comers. Furthermore, such an arrangement is a strong and subtle influence in the direction of simpler living because entertainment under such conditions naturally grows less elaborate and more friendly, —less alien to the regular life of the family and less a matter of social formality.
Take a house planned in this way, with a big living room made comfortable and homelike and beautiful with its great fireplace, open staircase, casement windows, built-in seats, cupboards, bookcases, sideboard and perhaps French doors opening out upon a porch which links the house with the garden; fill this room with soft rich restful color, based upon the mellow radiance of the wood tones and sparkling into the jeweled high lights given forth by copper, brass, or embroideries; then contrast it in your own mind with a house which is cut up into vestibule, hall, reception room, parlor, library, dining room and den, —each one a separate room, each one overcrowded with furniture, pictures and brik-a-brak,—and judge for yourself whether or not home surroundings have any power to influence the family life and the development of character. If you will examine carefully the houses shown in this book, you will see that they all form varying expressions of the central idea we have just explained, although each one is modified to suit the individual taste and requirements of the owner. This is as it should be, for a house expresses character quite as vividly as does dress and the more intimate personal belongings, and no man or woman can step into a dwelling ready made and decorated according to some other per-son's tastes and preferences without feeling a sense of strangeness that must be overcome before the house can be called a real home.
It will also be noticed in examining the plans of the Craftsman houses that we have paid particular attention to the convenient arrangement of the kitchen. In these days of difficulties with servants and of inadequate, inexperienced help, more and more women are, perforce, learning to depend upon themselves to keep the household machinery running smoothly. It is good that this should be so, for woman is above all things the home maker and our grandmothers were not far wrong when they taught their daughters that a woman who could not keep house, and do it well, was not making of her life the success that could reasonably be expected of her, nor was she doing her whole duty by her family. The idea that housekeeping means drudgery is partly due to our fussy, artificial, overcrowded way of living and partly to our elaborate houses and to inconvenient arrangements. We believe in having the kitchen small, so that extra steps may be avoided, and fitted with every kind of convenience and comfort; with plenty of shelves and cupboards, open plumbing, the hooded range which carries off all odors of cooking, the refrigerator which can be filled from the outside,— in fact, everything that tends to save time, strength and worry. In these days the cook is an uncertain quantity always and maids come and go like the seasons, so the wise woman keeps herself fully equipped to take up the work of her own house at a moment's notice, by being in such close touch with it all the time that she never lays down the reins of personal government. The Craftsman house is built for this kind of a woman and we claim that it is in itself an incentive to the daughters of the house to take a genuine and pleasurable interest in household work and affairs, so that they in their turn will be fairly equipped as home makers when the time comes for them to take up the more serious duties of life.
WE HAVE set forth the principles that rule the planning of the Craftsman house and have hinted at the kind of life that would naturally result from such an environment. But now comes one of the most important elements of the whole question, —the surroundings of the home. We need hardly say that a house of the kind we have described belongs either in the open country or in a small village or town, where the dwellings do not elbow or crowd one another any more than the people do. We have planned houses for country living because we firmly believe that the country is the only place to live in.The city is all very well for business, for amusement and some formal entertainment, —in fact for anything and everything that, by its nature, must be carried on outside of the home. But the home itself should be in some place where there is peace and quiet, plenty of room and the chance to establish a sense of intimate relationship with the hills and valleys, trees and brooks and all the things which tend to lessen the strain and worry of modern life by reminding us that after all we are one with Nature.
Also it is a fact that the type of mind which appreciates the value of having the right kind of a home, and recognizes the right of growing children to the most natural and wholesome surroundings, is almost sure to feel the need of life in the open, where all the conditions of daily life may so easily be made sane and constructive instead of artificial and disintegrating. People who think enough about the influence of environment to put interest and care into the planning of a dwelling which shall express all that the word "home" means to them, are usually the people who like to have a personal acquaintance with every animal, tree and flower on the place. They appreciate the interest of planting things and seeing them grow, and enjoy to the fullest the exhilarating anxiety about crops that comes only to the man who planted them and means to use them to the best advantage. Then again, such people feel that half the zest of life would be gone if they were to miss the fulness of joy that each returning spring brings to those who watch eagerly for the new green of the grass and the blossoming of the trees. They feel that no summer resort can offer pleasures equal to that which they find in watching the full flowering of the year; in seeing how their own agricultural experiments turn out, and in triumphing over each success and each addition to the beauty of the place that is their own. Few of these people, too, would care to miss the sense of peace and fulfilment in autumn days, when the waning beauty of the year comes into such close kinship with the mellow ripeness of a well-spent life that has borne full fruit. And what child is there in the world who would spend the winter in the city when there are ice-covered brooks to skate on, the comfort of jolly evenings by the fire and the never-ending wonder of the snow ? And all the year round there are the dumb creatures for whom we have no room or time in the city, —the younger brothers of humanity who submit so humbly to man's dominion and look so placidly to him for protection and sustenance.
THANK heaven, though, we are not so far away from our natural environment that it needs much to take us back to it. We have many evidences of the turning of the tide of home life from the city toward the country. Even workers in the city are coming more and more to realize that it is quite possible to maintain their place in the business world and yet give their children a chance to grow up in the country. Also the economic advantage of building a permanent home instead of paying rent year after year is gaining an ever-increasing recognition, so that in a few years the American people may cease to deserve the reproach of being a nation of flat-dwellers and sojourners in family hotels. The instinct for home and for some tie that connects us with the land is stronger than any passing fashion, and although we have in our national life phases of artificiality that are demoralizing they affect only a small percentage of the whole people, and when their day is over they will be forgotten as completely as if they had never existed.
Psychologists talk learnedly of "Americanitis" as being almost a national malady, so widespread is our restlessness and feverish activity; but it is safe to predict that, with the growing taste for wholesome country life, it will not be more than a generation or two before our far-famed nervous tension is referred to with wonder as an evidence of past ignorance concerning the most important things of life.
And when we have turned once more to natural living instead of setting up our puny affairs and feverish ambitions to oppose the quiet, irresistible course of Nature's law, we will not need to turn hungrily to books for stories of a by-gone Golden Age, nor will we need to deplore the vanishing of art and beauty from our lives, for when the day comes that we have sufficient courage and perception to throw aside the innumerable petty superfluities that hamper us now at every turn and the honesty to realize what Nature holds for all who turn to her with a reverent spirit and an open mind, we will find that art is once more a part of our daily life and that the impulse to do beautiful and vital creative work is as natural as the impulse to breathe.
Therefore it is not idle theorizing to prophesy that, when healthful and natural conditions are restored to our lives, handicrafts will once more become a part of them, because two powerful influences will be working in this direction as they have worked ever since the earliest dawn of civilization. One is the imperative need for self-expression in some form of creative work that always comes when the conditions of life are such as to allow full development and joyous vigor of body and mind. The other is that which closer relationship with Nature seems to bring; a craving for greater intimacy with the things we own and use. Machine-made standards fall away of themselves as we get away from artificial conditions. It is as if wholesome living brought with it not only quickened perceptions but also a sense of personal affection for all the familiar surroundings of our daily life. It is from such feeling that we get the treasured heirlooms which are handed down from generation to generation because of their associations and what they represent.
Naturally the primitive conditions of pioneer life in any nation include handicrafts as a matter of course, from the simple fact that people had to make for themselves what they needed or go without. We realize that in this age of invention and of labor-saving machinery it is neither possible nor desirable to re-turn to such conditions, but we believe that it is quite possible for a higher form of handicrafts to exist under the most advanced modern conditions and that achievements as great as those of the old craftsmen who made famous the Mediaeval guilds are by no means out of the reach of modern workers when they once realize the possibilities that lie in this direction. Our theory is that modern improvements and conveniences afford a most welcome and necessary relief from the routine drudgery of household and farm work by disposing quickly and easily of what might much better be done by machinery than by hand, and that therefore there should be sufficient leisure left for the enjoyment of life and for the doing of work that is really worth while, which are among the things most essential to all-round mental and moral development. Almost the greatest drawback to farm life as it is today is the lack of interest and of mental alertness. Especially is this the case during the winter months, when work on the farm is slack and much time is left to be spent in idleness or in some trifling occupation. Consider what the effect would be if it were made possible at such times to take up some form of creative work that would not only bring into play every atom of interest and ability, but would also serve a practical purpose by adding considerably to the family income !
WE HAVE given a great deal of consideration to the practical side of such a combination of handicrafts and farming, and we realize of course that the great difficulty in the way of making such a thing possible by making it profitable is the question of obtaining a steady market for the products of such crafts as might be practiced in connection with country life. It is often urged as an argument against handicrafts that hand-made goods could not possibly compete with factory-made goods, and that it would be absurd for people to waste time in making things for which there would be no sale. This does not seem to us to be the case, for the reason that there is no competition between the products of handicrafts and factory-made goods, because they are not measured by the same standard of value nor do they appeal to the same class of consumer.
Hand-made articles have a certain intrinsic value of their own that sets them entirely apart from machine-made goods. This value depends, not upon the fact that the article is made entirely by hand or with appropriate tools, —that is not the point, —but upon the skill of the workman, his power to appreciate his own work sufficiently to give it the quality that appeals to the cultivated taste and the care that he gives to every detail of workmanship, from the preparation of the raw material to the final finish of the piece. We are not urging that handicrafts be cultivated in connection with farming for the purpose of competing with the factories for the same class of trade, for, with the demand that necessitates the immense production of goods of all kinds, the labor-saving machinery and efficient methods of the factories are absolutely essential, just as they are essential in the general economic scheme because they furnish employment to thousands of workers who ask nothing better than to be allowed to tend a machine with a certainty of so much a day coming to them at the end of the week. The place of home and village industries on the economic side, is to supplement the factories by producing a grade of goods which it is impossible to duplicate by machinery,—and which command a ready market when they can be found,—and to give to the better class of workers a chance not only to develop what individual ability they may possess, but to reap the direct reward of their own energy and industry in the feeling that they are free of the wage system with all its uncertainties and that what they make goes to maintain a home that is their own, to educate their children and to lay up a sufficient pro-vision against old age.
We do not deny that handicrafts, as practiced by individual arts and crafts workers in studios, fall very short of affording a sufficient living to craft workers as a class, and also we do not deny that small farming as carried on in our thinly populated districts is neither interesting, pleasant, nor profitable. But we do assert that it is possible to connect the two and to carry them on upon a basis that will insure not only peace and comfort in living, and a form of industry that affords the greatest opportunity for all-round development, but also a permanent competence. To bring about such a condition is the end and aim of the whole Craftsman idea. We call it by that name because we have been the first to formulate it in this country. But it is in the air everywhere. It is taking shape in several of the European countries in the form of government appropriations for the reestablishment and encouragement of handicrafts among the people, government schools for the teaching of various crafts, and government exchanges to look after the question of a steady market. In Great Britain and Ireland the same thing is being done by private enterprise, partly as a matter of social reform and partly as an effort of philanthropy. But in this country conditions are different. We have no peasant class and almost the only people in need of social reform, or of philanthropic efforts in their behalf are the vast hordes of immigrants who pour into the country each year and too often find it difficult to adjust their lives to American conditions.
THE people to whom the Craftsman idea makes its appeal are the better class farmers who own their farms, workers in the city who are able to get together a little place in the country and build up a permanent home, and the better class of artisans who desire to escape from the routine of factory work. That such people are taking a keen interest in the question of life in the country and that farming is rapidly being restored to its former status as a desirable occupation is evidenced by the encouragement given to the widespread activities of the Department of Agriculture, which is doing so much to bring about better and more economical methods of cultivating the soil. We have plenty of proof that these efforts do not fall short in the matter of results, for all over the country there is a growing appreciation of the possibilities that lie in intensive agriculture and a desire to learn something of modern scientific farming.
We most heartily endorse all that is being done along these lines; but we go a step farther because we maintain that the whole standard of living must be changed before there can be a return of natural conditions to our lives. For example, we have been accustomed of late years to an artificial scale of income and expenditure, and the prices of the most ordinary necessities of life have risen so high that it takes all the average man can do to make ends meet. This is both wrong and unnecessary, but a natural consequence of artificial conditions, and we maintain that the only way to correct it is to put ourselves in a position to realize that, in permitting our lives to be ruled by false standards and inflated values, we have lost sight of the principle that economy means wealth. When we regain this simple and reasonable point of view, we will find no difficulty in admitting that comfort and happiness in living do not depend upon the amount of money we can make and spend, but upon pleasant surroundings and freedom from the pressure of want and apprehension; and when this truth is brought home to the affairs of daily life, the work of establishing natural standards is done.
Therefore we advocate a return to cultivating the soil as a means of
obtaining the actual living,—that is, of looking to garden, grain-patch, orchard,
chicken yard and pasture for the vegetables, fruits, cereals, eggs and meat
consumed by the family. If properly cared for and cultivated according to the
modern methods that are now everybody's for the learning, a little farm of
five or ten acres can bemade not only to yield a living for its owner and his
family but a handsome surplus for the markets, thus serving the double purpose
of stopping the outflow and adding to the income of actual money as well as
providing home comfort and healthful working surroundings. The farm home once
established, its owner is free of any steady expense save for taxes and repairs,
so that every-thing that is done is constructive and cumulative in its effects.
This, in brief, is the whole idea of the Craftsman home, —a pleasant
comfortable dwelling situated on a piece of ground large enough to yield, under
proper cultivation, a great part of the food supply for the family. Such a
home, by its very nature, would be permanent and, with the right kind of education
and healthful occupation for the children, would do much to stop the flow of
population into the great commercial centers and to insure a more even division
of prosperity throughout the land. In many instances the home is an established
fact, but the education and the occupation are yet to come. It is with a view
to solving this problem that we advocate individual handicrafts in the home
and industries to be carried on upon a more extended scale in the neighborhood
or the village. The very fact of a thorough training in any useful craft would
in-sure to a boy or girl the right groundwork for an education, so that the
solution of one problem is practically a solution of both.
Naturally, the greatest field for home handicrafts lies in the making of house-hold furnishings, wearing apparel and articles of daily use. For example, there is a large and steady demand for hand-woven, hooked and hand-tufted rugs in good designs and harmonious colorings, especially when they can be had at reasonable prices. That there would be a market for good hand-made rugs in this country is shown by the demand for similar rugs that are made abroad by peasant labor. This is, of course, much cheaper than any class of labor in this country. Nevertheless, the same grade of rugs could be made here by home and farm workers and sold at a profit at the same price that must be demanded for the imported rugs, after the high import duty on this class of goods has been added to the original cost.
Also cabinetmaking, considered as a handicraft, opens a field of unusually wide and varied interest, as the making of things so closely associated with our daily life and surroundings is a form of work that is both delightful and profitable. Iron work is equally interesting, and a preliminary training in good hard blacksmithing not only offers an excellent foundation for the doing of good things in structural iron work and articles for house-hold use, but it equals wood work in developing any creative power that may be latent in the worker. Weaving and needlework come into the first rank of interesting and profitable crafts, and among the lighter industries that offer a chance for individual expression and at the same time pay pretty well, are basketry, block printing, dyeing, lace making, bookbinding and the like.
EVER since its first publication in nineteen hundred and one, THE CRAFTS
MAN Magazine has, in one form or another, been advocating this idea; and
we have most satisfactory proof in the growth and standing of the maga
zine that a great many people in this country are thinking along the same lines.
When THE CRAFTSMAN was founded it was with the intention of making
it a magazine devoted almost solely to the encouragement of handicrafts in
this country. We believed, then, as we believe now, in the immense influence
for good in the development of character that is exerted merely by learning
to use the hands. One needs only to look at any part of the history of handicrafts
to realize how much strength, sincerity and genuine creative thought went into
the work of the old craftsmen who were also such solid and substantial citizens.
We have always felt that it is not the making of things that is important,
but the making of strong men and women through the agency of the sound development
that begins when the child learns to use its hands for shaping to the best
of its ability something which is really needed either for its own play or
for the comfort and convenience of others in the home. It is going back in
spirit to the primitive beginning of handicrafts, —which marks the beginning
of civilization, and is so important a factor in the growth of character that
upon it depends nearly every quality of heart and brain that goes into what
we may call the craftsmanship of life. But, as THE CRAFTSMAN grew and step
by step attained a wider out-look, the question of the study of handicrafts
as an end in itself gradually sunk to a position of minor importance in the
policy of the magazine. Our belief that in it lay the foundation of all growth
was no less, but the field was so broad that the record and discussion of all
constructive work in the larger affairs of life came gradually to take first
place.
As we began to design houses and to shape the idea of the Craftsman country home as we have here tried to describe it, we took up the subjects of architecture and interior decoration, doing our best to promote the establishment of the right standards and to offer all the aid in our power toward the development of a national spirit in our architecture. This naturally led to other forms of art, and THE CRAFTSMAN became a magazine for painters and sculptors as well as for architects, interior decorators and craftsmen. Along these lines it has always been progressive and rather radical, aiming always to discover and bring to the front any notable achievement that seemed to indicate the blazing of a new trail. The magazine has also taken the deepest interest in all social, industrial and political reforms and in the question of industrial education along practical lines that would fit any boy or girl to earn a living under any and all circumstances. In fact, taken altogether, THE CRAFTSMAN has been the outward and visible expression of the more philosophic side of the Craftsman idea, just as the houses and their furnishings have put into form its more concrete phases.
We have also paid a good deal of attention to agriculture in THE CRAFTSMAN, taking it up along very general lines. But we have felt that this is a field which required much more exhaustive treatment than we are able to give it in the pages of a magazine of this character. So to meet this need, we are about to establish a second magazine that will be called "THE YEOMAN" and that will be devoted entirely to the interests of farming, the possibilities of life in rural communities and to the handicrafts that might profitably be carried on in connection with agriculture.
THE time has come, however, to test out all the principles we have been advocating and give them the most practical and comprehensive demon stration within our power. Therefore we are this year opening a country place, where everything we have said can be put to the test of practical experience. This place is called "Craftsman Farms" and it serves as a most complete exposition of the Craftsman idea as a whole. "Craftsman Farms" is situated in the hill country of New Jersey, and our intention is to make it a summer home and school for students of farming and handicrafts. While grown people are welcome, the chief object of the school's existence is to provide an opportunity for the instruction of boys and girls whose parents desire for them a method of training that will enable them to earn a living in whatever circumstances they may happen to be placed. In other words, we purpose to teach them to work with their hands, —not to hoe, dig, plow, or chop wood in a mechanical way,—but to do the kind of constructive work which requires direct thought and which will train them to cope with all the practical problems of life. In fact, the plan of the school is not only a return to the old system of apprenticeship, where the student learned his trade by mastering its difficulties one by one under the guidance of a master craftsman, but it is apprenticeship on improved lines because, instead of working for the benefit of the master, the student acquires by working solely for the sake of his own thorough training and the development in himself not merely skill but initiative and self-reliance.
The instruction will be in the form of lectures and informal talks from the teachers, who will not only give in this way such theoretical knowledge as seems to be required but will answer all questions and respond to all suggestions, so that the student's brain is necessarily made alert by his being forced to take an active part in his own training. The method of instruction will be the same throughout, whether the subject be agriculture, landscape gardening, house building, designing, or any one of the handicrafts. In the latter, students will work side by side with experienced craftsmen, so that every lesson will be the solving of some problem and the doing of actual work according to the methods employed by the best workmen.
For example, every man, sooner or later, hopes or intends to build himself a home. Imagine what that home might be if, as a boy, he had been trained to have a practical working knowledge of drawing, of construction, of the quality and use of different woods, of finishing these woods so that their full value would be brought out and of laying out the grounds surrounding his house so that the most harmonious environment would be a matter of course. As the thing stands now, most men hire some one else to do this sort of thing, which practically amounts to hiring some one else to think for them in matters that most intimately concern their personal life and surroundings.
It is now being very generally acknowledged that our present methods of education fail to a serious degree in the vital work of educating boys and girls toward the larger business of life, —toward the understanding of how to do, and the ability to do, those things upon which our physical existence depends. It does not by any means follow that training along lines of practical work will con-fine the future activities of the boy to manual labor or to the necessity of doing things for himself. He may use his abilities in as many other directions as he can, but we believe that learning to do the actual work of daily life in the country gives him a kind of ability that may be applied to any form of work, mental or manual, with the best effect, and also that any one possessing it may at any time get back to first principles and start afresh. It has always seemed to us that the great disintegrating force in our modern way of living lies in the system by which everything is done by rote,—and largely by machinery,—and where labor of all kinds is so specially divided that a man, whether he be workman or director, has very little chance to cope with problems outside of his own particular line of work. The great purpose in life and work is the development of character and it naturally follows that true development can come only by the training and use of all the faculties in coping with all the problems that may come up in the ordinary course of life.
In addition to the instruction given at " Craftsman Farms," the conditions of
life there will be such as to carry out the same idea. The students, whether
young or old, will be housed in small hamlets scattered about the neighborhood
in places chosen on account of their fitness for the several things to be done.
Each group of cottages will be under the care of a house mother and an instructor
and the student will go from hamlet to hamlet until, at the end of the course,
he is not only master of the trade he has chosen to learn but also has a general
knowledge of related trades and of farming. For example, most of the cottages
in which the students live will be designed and built with their active assistance,
as the students will be invited to use their own brains and creative ability
in designing houses and cottages that they would like to live in or that seem
suited to the place. In doing this, of course, they will work directly with the
corps of architects that has in charge the designing of the cottages, and in
the actual building the students will be allowed to work side by side with experienced
carpenters, stone masons, wood finishers, cabinetmakers, blacksmiths and coppersmiths,
so that every lesson will be the doing of actual work in the way it is done by
cornpetent workmen.
Aside from the educational feature of this enterprise, one of the main
objects in carrying it out along the lines indicated is to put to a practical
test our favorite theory of a farming community grouped around a central
settlement where all social interchange and recreation are as full and
convenient as they would be in the city and where every house is within
easy reach of the farm lands that belong to it.
If the experiment should prove a success, we confidently look to see it put into practice by many other people; and if it should not, at least we shall have discovered its weak points and have learned something by experience. In any case, the school is meant to complete the work begun by the magazine and to give to the world the result of all the experience we have gained since the first inception of the Craftsman idea ten years ago. If it should have ever so little influence in bringing about the development of our national life along the lines laid down by the men who founded the Republic, it will have fulfilled its mission, because a truth which one man finds courage to utter today is echoed and applied by thousands tomorrow.