If there be a country which cannot stand any one of these tests – a country where knowledge cannot be diffused without perils of mob law and statute law; where speech is not free; where the post office is violated, mail bags opened, and letters tampered 

Herbert Bayer, If there be a country which cannot stand any one of these tests--a country where knowledge cannot be diffused without perils of mob law and statute law; where speech is not free; where the post office is violated, mail bags opened, and letters tampered with; where public debts and private debts outside of the state are repudiated; where liberty is attacked in the primary institution of social life; where the laborer is not secured in the earnings of his own hand; where suffrage is not free or equal--that country is, in all these respects, not civil, but barbarous; and no advantage of soil, climate, or coast can resist these suicidal mischiefs. From the series Great Ideas., 1951, paper and photomechanical reproduction on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.20
Copied Herbert Bayer, If there be a country which cannot stand any one of these tests--a country where knowledge cannot be diffused without perils of mob law and statute law; where speech is not free; where the post office is violated, mail bags opened, and letters tampered , 1951, paper and photomechanical reproduction on paperboard, sheet: 23 3⁄4 x 19 1⁄8 in. (60.3 x 48.5 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.20

Artwork Details

Title
If there be a country which cannot stand any one of these tests – a country where knowledge cannot be diffused without perils of mob law and statute law; where speech is not free; where the post office is violated, mail bags opened, and letters tampered with; where public debts and private debts outside of the state are repudiated; where liberty is attacked in the primary institution of social life; where the laborer is not secured in the earnings of his own hand; where suffrage is not free or equal – that country is, in all these respects, not civil, but barbarous; and no advantage of soil, climate, or coast can resist these suicidal mischiefs. From the series Great Ideas.
Artist
Date
1951
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 23 3⁄4 x 19 1⁄8 in. (60.3 x 48.5 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Container Corporation of America
Mediums
Mediums Description
paper and photomechanical reproduction on paperboard
Subjects
  • Abstract
  • Portrait male — Emerson, Ralph Waldo
  • Occupation — writer — novelist
Object Number
1984.124.20
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1984.124.20