The San Francisco call., 1897-01-22
THE BAKER MONUMENT.

| Our esteemed contemporary the EUentng
! Post declares the demand for the passage of
bill by the present Legislature appropri-
ating $4,000 for the erection of a m onu-
ment to Senator Baker brings up for
! discussion what it calls San interesting
| question concerning memorials to great
| men," While the Post does not state
directly what this interesting question IS,
it implies by innuendo that 1T is ques-
tion whether such monuments should be
erected at all.
The point raised IS somewhat in the ma
Jure of scoop. We are not aware that
any such question existed in the minds of
intelligent men. We knew of course that
some races have not erected memorials to
great men, but they have been races with
out trace of civilization. There has been
no cultured people, and certainly no ma
tion of any eminence in history, that has
not erected such monuments.
The Post by innuendo implies that the
monument to Senator Baker would be "a
brazen monstrosity to scowl unborn gen.
erations out of countenance." 1t may be,
therefore, that the question which 1t calls
interesting is simply one of artistic &C
compHshment and cultured taste. Pos-
sibly the Post would approve of monu-
ment if it were intrusted with the work OF
designing ii, so that it would not be
monstrosity. If this is the question in
the mind of the Post we decline to discuss
it. Matters of taste, as has been said of
old, are not to be disputed; and it is well
known that nothing has ever been done in
the way of expressing the higher senti-
ments of man but what has raised the
question, "Is it art?"
On the general principle of the advisa-
bility of erecting memorials to great men
there has certainly never been question
in the minds OF any civilized people.
From the days of earliest Egypt down to
our time such monuments have been
erected and in every instance they are
accounted as among the best accomplish
ments OF the art of the day when they
were raised. Human genius has rarely
done better work for humanity than when
it set itself to the task of perpetuating the
memory of great men. Whether this
work of perpetuation has been wrought
out in poetry. in painting or in sculpture
matters little. The essential point is that
large labor has been performed in the
work of educating the minds OF the people
and infusing true ideas OF right manhood
whenever a fitting memorial to great
man has been made visible to the commu-
nifty which he served.
A monument erected to man of the
talent, aspirations, fortunes and fate Of
Senator Baker would be, in the fullest
sense of the word, an education to the
youth of the State. 1t would manifest to
them what manner of man it is that wins
most honor in his life and is most remem-
bered in death. The lessons drawn from
such monument would awaken in the
minds of young men high ideals of patriot
ism and inspire them with true grandeur
of sentiment 1t would be a:stimulus to
worthy ambition and would mpress upon
the hearts of all the nobility of genius
when allied to patriotism and the heroIsm
of courage when directed to right ends.
In every land in the world where no.
bility of character has been revered,
where true manhood has been honored,
and where distinguished service in the
cause of the State and of humanity has
been appreciated, it has been the delight
OF the people to erect monuments to such
men and women as in their lives have ex-
empli6ed these great virtues. In Cali
fornia we have developed civilization
in complete sympathy with the highest
known to history. Our people share the
best aspirations of the best men of all the
ages. They desire to see the memory of
their great men ftly honored. They
recognize that Senator Baker was one of
those who served the State OF his adoption
with loyalty even to death, and whose
talents reflect glory upon it. They, there
fore, ask OF the Legislature that this recog-
milton be made manifest to the world in
monument of stainless marble or endur-
ing bronze.