The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-28

to be every good reason in the world why We should have a national mon ument at Washington and very few req sons why we should not. Plans are even now In progress to change the national capital city from. city of magnificent distances to a city of real magnlficence. and the new monument could be worked into the new scheme of things to crown all. To the objection which might nat urally be raised that the new construc- tion would eclipse the Washington monu- ment already there, and even the capitol itself, 1t Is fairly contended that it would of course, subordinate them all individ- ually, but 1t would but add to their as- sembled beauty Anyone who has seen, from the neighboring mountains. the city of Rome seemingly gathering itself splen- didly about the great dome of St. Peter's, despite It's other magnificent features. will be able to foresee in his minds eye the improved effect in Washington were M. Despradelles monument there to set the pace, as 1t were, for the architecture of the whole town; and to him who has seen Venice before and after her tall Campanile fell, the advantages will be still more obvious.
 There is the practical objection of the cost-probably twelve or fifteen millions of dollars. But a couple of battleships cost almost as much as that, and might not serve their purpose any better for 1t Is well understood that battleship not only impresses nations by firing steel headed shot at them, but by appearing to them as an accomplishment, work and an expression of the wealth and power of the government to which 1t belongs. How much more comfortably impressive, therefore, say the advocates of this mon- ument, might be an imposing symbol which did not have to be supplied with | men and coal! And from our own stand. yy m ff1ol lra attr tfol atri1y ing and beautiful to the traveller as possi- ble, for. as 1t is the young American Is too apt to cross the oceans to see other capitals. leaving what more properly should be his own mecca unknown to him and unreverenced? The advantage of having in city one greatly impress i've thing to be the exposure of every eye may be guessed by considering the enthu- sasm with which all New England turns its eyes toward the gilded dome of the state house on Beacon Hill.
 Ihere Is also a possibility of a preju- dice against the new monument in the minds of some who are admirably patri- otic. but In rather too narrow sense, who would object that, although 1t Is to typify America, it's design is the work of a Frenchman. Yet art is broader says Professor Despradelle's friends. than the limits of country. and 1t hardly matters whether a monument be designed by an
 
 Parisian schools-as most are-or a nat uraIized French-American teaching in an American technical institution. The i'm portant matter Is that the whole idea though 1t be the idea of a Frenchman-is absolutely American through and through. M. Despradelle has thrown not a suspicion of the Galllc into it. but has approached and completed his task entire ly from our standpoint so that the monu- ment is every stone of it. typical of America and the copying of nothing wha even though architectural ele- ments from various nations are used in conjunction in 1t. The base Is girt round with our cherished symbols; the thirteen stars and the original thirteen states of the union appear on the tallest of the subsidiary shafts. a torch-bearing Lib- erty surmounts 1t and on its base stands forth the inscription, ITO the Glory of the American People," On every side it bears names of our greatest men. figures typi- flying our greatest resources and accom- plishments the eagle and various other insignia, all combined in remarkable ap- propriateness. It stands. as a whole, like the giant sequoia trees of the west, but tressed round with emblems as they are with huge out-curving roots; like them, it appears not to rest In dead weight upon the earth but to grow up out of the soil and as they. more beautifully than any other living thing. seem to illustrate the grandeur of natural forces, so this greatest monument in the world seems to express. as no other has ever done. that spirit of life and advancement of continual upward striving toward better things which 1t is our proud belief distin- guishes us above all other nations.