The age-herald., 1900-03-11

Peter Cooper. George Peabody, Elihu Yale, John Harvard, Matthew Vassar Jona than Edwards
 Henry Ward Beecher,
 Wendell Phillips,
 James Buchanan Eads,
 James Marion Sims,
 John Marshall.
 Daniel Webster
 Henry Clay,
 John Caldwell Calhoun,
 William Henry Seward, Ulysses Simpson Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman,
 FiTilip Henry Sheridan,
 Robert Edward Lee,
 Thomas Jonathan Jackson, | James Lawrence,
 Oliver Hazard Perry
 David Glascoe Farragut,
 John Charles Fremont
 Daniel Boone,
 David Crockett,
 Powhatan,
 1T ecumseh
 This roll of Americas greatest dead will be submitted to Chancellor McCraken of New York university, for reference to scholars and historians. There ds at the disposial of that university the sum of $100,OO0 for the erection on University Heights, facing the Hudson, of a semicir- cular colonnade 800 feet long, to be called the Hall of Fame for Great Americans It will contain 150 panels, eight feet by ten. upon which the names of Americans deem ed great enough to be entitled to such commemmoration will be inscribed The money is the gift of some person whose name has not been authoritatively made public; but it is quite we'll understood that Helen Gould, who is amongst the noblest of all American women, placed the splendid donation to the credit of the university The conditions of the gift provide that fifty of the famous names shall be inscrib- ed, if approved by the judges, in 19OO Five more names are ito be chosen every five years Thus there will be frequent com petitions for immortality, until the year 2.OOO, when the panels of fame will all be filed The polls for the election of the fifty are already open and will not be closed until May 1. The aim of the donor was to ! include as many kinds of famous Ameri- cans as possible, as the plan shows:
 Authors and editors, business men, ed- ueatorS, inventors, missionaries and ex- plorers. philanthropists and reformers, preachers and theologians, scientists, en- gineers and architects, lawyers and judges musicians, painters and sculptors, physi- clans and surgeons, rulers and statesmen, soldiers and sailors distinguished men and women outside the above classes"
 The university invites the public to make nominations from all these classes Every name approved by member of the univer- sity senate will be passed upon by a jury of one hundred historians, professors of history and other persons versed in histori- cal studies. Finally each name must be approved by the university senate by 'two-thrds vote.
 4ar1 9h "a be noticed by nominators ars' -h Iaa ity of persons born outside of ssla H loH the territory of the United satas rlIe hat, for example, excludes 4#zlser ilIa ilton, and the ineligibility a+ Her-H i7 ave not been dead at least tea ts7rs 5l-i4,t to these conditions the selrN lc aquested to send nominal tions to the chancellor of the New York university.
 Considering the extraordinary precautions taken, there is no possibility of unfairness or any considerable error. Americans are to decide on their own immortals
 There has been within recent years much nonsense printed in this country regarding the thoughtless and silly suggestion that America institute an Academy of Immor- tals upon lines similar to those that con trol or direct the world-famous Academic Francaise, founded in 1885 by Cardinal Richal;eu The urinary nilrnosa af tg,a great cardinal in providing for "the forty immortals'' was to bring about the refining of the French language and style. But the earlier period of the existence of "the forty was chiefly notable for their adula- tion bestowed on the illustrious founder of their institution. This passed with the passing of Richelieu and the French acade-> my became the most celebrated and in f1uential literary society in the world: a distinction 1t enjoys in this day But a similar institution in this country is ab- surdly impossible. There are but three Americans now living who enjoy world wide fame. They are Edison. Dewey and Mckinley. Of these the fame of Edison alone promises to be permanent; though Dewey will be remembered for some gem erations because his relatively commonplace achievement at Manila cnanged the map Of the world and radically altered the course of history. In the fullness of time he and Edison will have places in our Hall of Fame And Mckinley, too, is likely to have his proud panel there. Apart from our scarcity of great men living, our national life and the character of our civil and social institutions are not suitable to an academy founded upon the rules that now govern Richelieu's creation. This fact is less forceful as regards England, where they have induged in about as much non- sei>ze as we have but If la forcafuI pavar