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Both difficulties on the part of the decorator are being removed today: the men and women themselves are being better educated and the field is commanding more capable material; and at the same time, the widening knowledge of the public on things decorative is compelling the offering of better examples at more reasonable rates. Where a concern now runs under great expense it must generally look for its return in the large volume of its business rather than in the mulcting of a few clients for enormous profits. On the other hand, what the decorator declares must in justice be admitted. It is not to be supposed that because a man receives a degree in architecture from some American university he is therefore an incontestable expert on interiors and that his word must be accepted without question by men who may not have degrees, but who may have devoted their lives to the study and execution of furnishings and decorations. I myself had the pleasure of spending a few years at Columbia, which I believe is reputed to have one of the best schools of architecture in the country, but during my time there I cannot recollect hearing many words on my subject that would have helped to qualify me as an expert in interior decoration. In fact, I think I can safely say that most of the men graduated at that time knew very little indeed about interiors and that all the emphasis was laid on the designing of large buildings or of homes
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8INTERIOR DECORATING
with relation to structure rather than interior requirements. This is very natural. In a four-year course it is impossible to deal with every phase of the architect's work, and it is very much more important that he should know, when he graduates, how to build a house that will stay up than that he should have a profound intimacy with the form and detail of the chairs of a particular epoch.
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