The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-01-27
ATTACK ON STATUE HALL.

A good deal of wrangling is going
on in the East Just now with respect
TO the statues TO be put in Statuary
| Hall. This Statuary Hall is in the old
room of the House of Representatives
in the National Capitol at Washington.
Under the law each State is empowered
to have installed there the statues of
| two of its chosen citizens. Virginia,
| it appears, has not applied for the eXer-
else of this right until recently, and
now she is putting in the statues of
Washington and Of General Lee. There
preventing the reception of the statue
OF the rebel general, nor does there
seem to be any way to insure that
statues shall have any artistic quality
or even be a likeness of the person so
represented,
We note also that there is an oppo.
sition to the reception in that collec-
ton, of persons who are not known in
the East, and not to be known in the
East is held there to be not known to
the public. The Springfield Republican,
for instance. is out in remonstrance
against the reception of the statue re-
Gently installed of Ex-senator and Ex,
governor Shoup of Idaho 1t seems that
the Republican had never heard of Mr.
Shoup, and considers him nobody.
In this our Massachusetts contemporary
is very much off. Governor and Senator
Shoup of Idaho was a man well known,
highly respected, and honored through
out this whole mountain country His
services, first to the Nation in days of
peril, and later to the State, were emi-
nent, and he was in every way worthy
of the honor conferred on his memory
by Idaho in having his statue in Statu.
airy Hall. He fought for the Union,
and did elfectual service with the Colo
rado volunteers. He did great work in
the development and making Of Idaho,
and in pushing the interests Of that
State. He spent large sums of money
in showing forth the advantages and
products of the State at the New Or
leans and other expositions He was In
every way a leading citizen, and no
one In all this mountain region would
think for one moment of calling in
question the propriety Of Idaho being
TINS represented by his statue.
However, in view Of the contentious
that arise, and in view Of the friehts
(from an artistic point of view) that
are. on exhibition in that hall, remind,
ing one Of a collection of commercial
wax-works more than anything else, our
Massachusetts contemporary calls for
the abolition of Statuary Hall, and the
return to the States Of the statues do
mated to the group therein. We do not
know but that is a pretty good idea.
And still, there ought really to be some
way to preserve and keep in the atten-
tion OF the Nation the memory of the
leading citizens of the various States.
Later on, doubtless number of the
States would be glad TO substitute for
statues already there the statues of
other eminent citizens who in times to
come may render to the State such dis
tinguished service as to overshadow
that of the persons whose statues are
already there. And when it is sought
to preserve the memory of an attack
upon the Union by putting in that hall
the statue Of the commanding general
of the forces Of the rebellion, there ia
surely something reasonable to be said
against it. Perhaps it is n mistake to