The National tribune., 1910-11-10


pronounced by William Hodges Mann,
Governor of Virginia, who was making
speech at the celebration of the
129th anniversary of the surrender of
ICornwallis to Washington, and he drag
ged in by the hair of the head the
Lee statue. 1t did not belong to the
speech he was making, and he simply
had to dig hole for it and chuck it
in to get it there at all, and what he
said was this:
''The time will come, and I hope it
is not far distant, when we will have in
the National Capitol statue of Jsffer-
son Davis side by side with that Of
Abraham Lincoln. You have heard Of
the agitation looking to the removal of
the statue Of Gen. Lee. While / am
Governor of Virginia it will not be re-
moved, and when we do take away the
statue of Lee we will take With it the
figure of that other rebel, Washington"
Now the funny part of this speech
of Gov. Mann's is that he has nothing
whatever to do with putting the statue
OF Lee in the Capitol or with taking
it away. OF course, Gov Mann, if or
dered by his State thru its Legislature,
could say that Virginia wants the
statue back. and he would get il. In
deed. that would be a real nice way
for Virginia to get out of the sectional
trouble she has raised, but if Gov.
Mann knew the law with regard to
placing statues in Statuary Hall he
would also know that the Governor of
the State can control absolutely moth
ing in the matter after the statue is
deposited in Washington. The law de-
clares that the Joint committee Of the
House and Senate shall say what shall
go into the CAPITOL and what shall stay
out. and up to the present moment the
Joint committee of the House and Sem
ate has never had one instants consul
tation on the matter of the Lee statue.
1t was brought to Washington during
the recess OF Congress and dumped out
side the Capitol doors This was before
House committee. Senator Daniel, Of
Virginia, now deceased asked Elliott
Woods, Superintendent OF the Capitol
Grounds, TO have the. statue carried into
Statuary Hall, and Superintendent
Woods had it brought in. Under the law
he had no right to do so until after the
Joint Committee of the House and Sem
ate on Public Buildings and Grounds
had ordered him to do 1t. Then, SEN
ator Daniel ordered the removal OF
the statue of William King first Gov
ernor Of Maine, one of Names most
distinguished men, which stands right
at the entry to the House corridor, and
intended placing the Lee statue In that
prominent position. Some loyal attend
ant of the Capitol rushed to Senator
Hale, of Maine. who happened to be
in the city, and things Senator Hale
said about the projected change Of stat
ues would not look pretty in print The
statue of Gen. King was not moved
from its commanding position, and the
Lee statue stood for several weeks un-
boxed, waiting to get something else out
of the way so 1t could be showed in.
II was unboxed and stood up" and it
stands there to-day. The Capitol Com
mittee on Public Buildings and Grounds
has not accepted the statue and has
not even considered its acceptance. and
Congress has not accepted II; nor is
there anything on file in Congression-
al documents to show that Virginia has
presented such statue. The suggestion
has been made that Congress Is cow
ardly and dare not permit the subject
of the Lee statue to be pitched into the
oratorical arena of either House or SEN
ate. This may or may not be true The
fact still remains that Congress has
very carefully. and apparently with de-
sign, kept its hands off.
IT is silly to suggest that Congress
does not control the matter. Law or
no law. the act which WIS an act of
Congress can be wiped out by Congress.
or set aside by Congress; any statue
that comes into the National Capitol
can be rejected by Congress when II
gets a majority vote.
The Daughters of the American Rev.
olution have recently decorated with
flowers the grave of Benedict Arnold.
Does anybody suppose for minute
that if the Daughters of the American
Revolution were to decide to place a
statue of Benedict Arnold in the Ma
tional Capitol that Congress would ac-
cept it? Gov. Mann has a few guesses
coming.
Cadet Frank B. Clay, first class,
United States Military Academy, son of
Senator Clay, of Georgia, has been
court and sentenced to dis
missaI from the Academy, without pay
and allowances, until Aug. 2S, 1911,
and then to join the then first class
The sentence was commuted by Pres
ident TAFT. SO as to require Clay to be
confined to barracks until May 81, 1911,
and during that period undergo discip-
linary tours.
Young Clay was tried on several
charges OF misconduct. He was found
guilty of two of the charges-absence
from his tent between tattoo and rev.
ellie and going beyond cadet limits.
He was acquitted on the other counts.
That strange disease, infaneile paraly-
els. had a fearful run in Washington,
according TO the statistics that have
just been made public by the District
Medical Association. Since the epidemic
was started, less than six months ago,
there have been 525 cases under per-
sonal observation. Even the medical
fraternity itself WAS ama1ad when the