The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-31

| will mark the centenary or tne plftn el many noted men. Among these there Is none 50 notable as Lincoln. and the plans for memorials to him are bigger | than have ever been made in any one | year for any one man. Besides the usual programs of oratory that Wiil | make the birthday memorable in scores l of cities towns and villages, the gen eral sentiment is toward more iasuns memorials. The ideas range from Drohze tablets and memorial arches, to nation- : al highways and endowed educaionai institutions. man typical of his time. a proof of what American man can achieve for himself and an inspiration 1 for sil men of all ages yet to come, I.incoin's character stands as shaft or l granite. rough-hewn. invincihie.
 Tn Springfield. Ill, demonstratiop ] of peculiar patriotic significance wit pc i held at I.incoln's grave. Already Tn seF- | eral cities bronze and marble statuss l have arisen to mark peoples appre- l citation of the national hero. The most 1 notable among these from sentiment al noint of view, is that erected n Wa ellington by the ex-slaves Of the l limited States. representing Lincoln, the
 Emancipator. striking the shaekles from the hands of kneeling negro | slave. s o
 1 An Abraham Lincoln Memorial Com
  anpointed by congress. It includes the SecretAryse of State and the Secretary or i War In It's membership. Three years ago thfslcommission sent James T. MIG c1ea " former Member of Congress from Minnesota. and former Third As 1 sistants Postmaster General, abroad 10 study the great national memoriais ah other countries The facts anas .. SafheSed a about statues. memorlai bridges. arches. buildings and shaffs' would i'll good sized volume. HIS recommendation to Congress, as re- ault If this Journey of investiEation'
 was nat a ma gniheent highway pc built In memory of Lincoln Fhis high-
 way, sac6ording to his plan. would go
 from Washington to the battleneld oi
 Gettyshufg seventy two miles away :.
 The route. .as the years passed, would he marked with monuments to other great men or be lined with notable
 buildinge! happy to be so located. bill providing for this highway has been Introduced in Congress. This high
 way and sthe. university are the most
 popular ideas for memorials.
 one Of the biggest memorials one ei.
 really in existence and one that would
 doubtless come closest to the heart or
 Lincoln. is the, Lincoln Memorial Unt-
 yersity of Claiborne County Tenn.
 Founded by General O. o. Howard, ad-
 nirer If Lincoln and believer in his I works. this h Bstitetion exists for the
 purpose of benefiting the people rom whom I8neoln sprang. the mountaineer
 folk of the Cumberland Gap region. oI i the purest Anglo-Saxon type that
 America affords, these mountaineer
 folks were firm believers in the rights
 the Magma Charta gave and were great
 factors in the Revolution, turning the
 tidaiat Kings Mountain with their old
 muskets and squirrel rifles Isolated by
 geographical conditions of their East
 Tennessee country. and too poor to be
 slave holdeTs,s they held to the poiits- cal faith of their fathers. and In the
 days of. secession went with the Union
 and fought for It's preservation. It is partly in memory of this work that the
 university was founded, but it's pur l lpose isZas wide and its charity toward EalI@the world as great as the character 7 of the man for whom 1t Is named. It i' not arpaFtisan institution.
 Lincoln Memorial University meets the needs or a people who are aHbi . tious, but who have not the means to gratify these ambitions. They are ths same people for whom Tennessee and Massachusetts Federations of WomeIlsS Clubs are conducting schools under tins most adverse conditions. The grounds of the University contain 500 acres and kthere are several buildings on them. Il needs an endowment. and toward that ] end New York and Brooklyn men have 5 organized to raise the necessary $b00.-
 900. Enthusiastic believers in indus ? trial education are arguing for even . larger funds, in order that every boy ? and girl of that section may come tc
 the institution and receive not only a literary. but a good technical training as a foundation for practical work
 They believe that because of his owT early struggles for education. because , of his own hard-working boyhood days . because of his own handicap of poverty
 and ignorance, Lincoln would prefer A above all things. to be memorialized iE an institution that would be a perpet, 3 ual help and inspiration to struggling I and ambitious youth.
 s Chartered by the State of Tennesset on Lincolns birthday in 1897, the uni e versity has already done a telling work
 and become a potent influence In tha . section. It possesses in its 500 acrei 7 and buildings a property valued a $150, ,00a-and has an endowment fund O. = nearly $i00.0oo. This Is not enough fo, . the ever-growinR needs of the institu
 tion, for the boys and girls 1t hopes t, aid are of people that are not atwayi
 able to pay their way. and must hay,
 
 work their way through. so bring n,
 financial income to the university. ~ Over 800 students are enrolled in tn, = university. Many of these are makinl : their way through by their own efforts t They work at farming, various mechan ical trades. and domestic duties wheI ' not at study. and the amount earned 1, credited to their account Many stayeG
 thsre all last summer working on thI : university farms to have more money for this terms expenses. The boys have built some of the buildings on the piac.
 and the girls receive instruction in do. megtic science-the most needed of al branches where the average mountain
 woman is concerned. medical college
 with training school for nurses con, ducted in connection with it, Is one el the leading features of the university
 and from this training school girls well , equipped for a life work are sent out The material from which many of these
 successful graduates are made is that
 sturdy, untutored mountain stock from
 which Lincoln himself came. Standing , at Cumberland Gap, the one-time gate.
 way into the then Far West the uni. 2 .versity Is a door of educational hope Sopened to the people who followed Dan.
 iel Boone down the Great Wilderness Road a century ago, and who gathered
 to hear the speeches of Henry Clay a
 half century later.
 The Lincoln Farm Association a bls movement early In the field started out } three or four years ago to raise moneS with which to buy the birthplace ot Lincoln at Hodgensville Ky. and restor, and beautify the poor. rock -strewr place where Lipcoln's earliest dayi