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For one thing, there is not enough work to furnish adequate compensation in the field of professional interior decoration for any great number of men, and there is not enough demand for merchandise from decorators who do not furnish some professional advice with it. As it is, the professional advice is handed out without charge as a bonus to those who come to the decorator for his merchandise, and this advice has to be figured in the profits. As it might be ideally, the articles themselves would be
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THE ARCHITECT AND DECORATOR 11
priced at certain figures while the advice would be charged for in the form of a fee similar to, or larger than, the architect's fee. This, I suppose, would be the fairest and best way to achieve the result, but in order to bring about such a condition, it would be necessary for decorators and architects to combine and co-operate far more thoroughly than they have thus far appeared willing to do.
The existing condition of affairs is not conducive to the creation of the best results for the public. As suggestions for changes that would work in the direction of this need, we might offer, first, that architects should realize the supreme importance of interior design and should devote themselves more steadily to its consideration; secondly, that they should assume a more tolerant and, if possible, appreciative attitude toward men who are conscientiously and studiously attempting to develop themselves as experts in interior decoration, and attempt to use their services wherever they can; thirdly, that decorators should more and more associate with themselves men and women of sincerity, knowledge and ability, rather than those with facility in salesmanship, and that they themselves should attempt to uncommercialize their art by bringing to it more knowledge and more true artistic effort; fourthly, that decorators be satisfied to be fairly compensated for their work without attempting to make fortunes in the form of profits, and that by so doing they might secure more satisfaction and therefore additional compensation from the feeling that they have accomplished something for the advancement of art in this country.
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