We may now summarize the problem, before passing to a discussion of ways and means to counteract the dangerous tendencies of to-day.
Firstly—though creative artists and educationists must regard this as a hard saying—the most powerful force in the art-life of to-day is the purely mechanical factor.
Secondly, this factor is to a great extent determining the nature and amount of art-production and reproduction.
Thirdly, it is causing a decrease in the average quality of the total artistic life of the community.
Fourthly, this degeneration must naturally continue unless it is counteracted by other influences.
This statement is not an exaggerated one, and it does not ignore the good effects of the new order. Even though a certain amount of repetition is involved, it will be well to discuss in detail the causes of degeneration in popular tastes.
(1) Mechanical improvements were applied first to those grades of art which offered most scope to the commercial element (and are now still so applied to a greater extent).
(2) Even if, in the beginning, lower tastes were not in a majority, any widening of the circle of those interested would inevitably bring in a large percentage of the artistically uneducated.
(3) Each widening of the circle would involve a lowering of taste, and also increase the commercial inducement to cater for the lower grade.
(4) This being so, those with better tastes become an even smaller minority, and (though they probably would be actually better off) they become relatively at a disadvantage economically. Though they might now have to pay less than they had to before for something, they nevertheless still have to pay more than those who belong to the majority.