The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-03
STATUARY HALL SHOULD GO.

When the State Of Virginia offered
for one OF its statues in Statuary Hall
in the Capitol at Washington, the statue
of General Robert K. Lee, protest was
made against it by Senator Hepburn Of
Idaho, and lie received great many
letters from Grand Army men and
others approving his opposition, Now
It is said that Mississippi is going to put
in the Hall statue of Jeff Davis as
the great hero of that State. This will
undoubtedly raise a good deal more Of
Glamour than did the act of Virginia
in placing in that Hall the statue OF
General Robert L. Lee.
1t has been explained heretofore
when objections were raised to the
proposed for placing in that Hall, that
the States alone have control, that Con"
gress has no power of rejection, and
that as long as the Hall remains. the
States have the right to put in statues
of two of their representative men to be
selected by themselves.
This situation has very naturally
given rise to the suggestion that Sta
tuary Hall ought to be abolished. Artists
are in favor of It's abolition because
of the wretched artistic nature OF
number of the statues which are now
in that Hall If politics and art would
Join in demanding the abolition of that
Hall, it would seem that this abolition
would be effected forthwith; and II
States can find nothing better to put IN
that Hall than statues of men whose
services were chiefly distinguished in
efforts to destroy the Government, 1t
would seem that logic would require
at least the liberty on the part of the
National Government to refuse to 'ac-
cept such statues, If the Government
is not to have that liberty, then the de,
mand for the abolition of Statuary Hall
will be much acceutuated by the re-
ported purpose of Mississippi to put in
that Hall statue of Jeff Davis
Thus far Utah has not offered any
statues TO be put into that Hall, al
though as fully entitled to provide two
statues TO be put into it as any State.
But if Utah should offer statue it is
very likely, and the majority of its
present population would consider 1T
most appropriate. that the statue Of
Brigham Young should be offered, How
would the Nation like that? There
would be really less to say against the
admission of the statue of Brigham
Young, however, IN some respects, than
there would against the admission of
the statue of Jeff Davis, who was the
arbitrator of the Rebellion. Brigham
Young, to be sure, was also hostile to
the Union in the hope that he and his
devoted subjects would derive advan
tage from its destruction. He was
also the responsible factor in the intro
duction of polygamy into Utah and
establishing it upon such firm basis
that its recrudescence is now the burn"
ing topic of the time III this region,
The statue of Jeff Davis will be OBJ
jected to in that Hall on loyal National
grounds; it Will be held that the statue
of a man who sought to destroy the
Nation has no claim to the honor of
the Nation, The statue OF Brigham
Young would doubtless be objected to
on moral grounds as well AT patriotic
But The offer of Brigham Youhg's sta
tue for that Hall is inevitable as soon
as Utah offers any statue at all. We
are sure, however, that to offer the
statue of Brigham Young would raise
an uproar that would cause change
either in the abolition of Statuary Hall
gress over the statues that should be
placed therein. Our opinion, on the
whole, is that the abolition of the Hall
would be the best thing that could be
done. The apotheosis of local heroes is
SO often liable to be offensive to the
Nation at large that the natural out
come will be that no favorites should
be played and that all should be ex-
cluded Exceptions to this rule, how
ever, might be made with respect to
such National characters as Washington |
Lincoln, and a few others whose serv-
ices have been SO conspicuous that |
there would be no question at all about |
the Nation S giving place to statues of
them as their just due and a proper |
national recognition of their illustrious |
services in the foundation and perpetu- |
alton of the Republic. And 1T certainly |
belittles them to have the Hall cluttered |
with abortive statuary that not one in |
ten thousand could identify even if |
tagged with a name.