The Washington times., 1911-07-23
POTOMAC DRIVE IS
BOARDS CHOICE FOR
LINCOLN MEMORIAL
Fine Arts Commission Will
Recommend Its
Selection.
REMOTE SPOT TO
BE PUT FORWARD
Structure Should Be Placed, 1t
Will Be Urged, Out of Line
of Public Travel.

II the Lincoln Memorial Commission
follows the recommendation Of the Fine
Arts Commission, the magnificent mon
ument to the memory of Abraham Lin
coin which is to be built in Washington
will be erected on Potomac Drive.
Within a few years the Capital will
see a memorial to the great war Presi-
dent that will rival, If not eclipse, the
greatest Of all similar structures. 1t
will divide attention on the part of resi-
dents and visitors to Washington with
the Washington Monument. That 1t
will be the means of bringing many
pilgrims to the Capital to pay tribute
to Lincolns memory cannot be doubted.
President Taft has called d meeting
Of the Lincoln Memorial Commission
Tuesday afternoon at o'clock; At that
meeting the report Of the Fine Arts
Commission will be submitted to the
memorial commission. That report will
be an exhaustive review of the merits
Of the various sites and plans proposed.
To Discuss Merits of Sites.
The Fine Arts Commission will discuss
the merits of the plaza at the Union
Station, of Meridian Hill, of the Mall,
and Of Potomac Drive as sites for the
Lincoln memorial. And ii will recon-
mend that the location best suited, all
things considered, for the memorial is
Potomac Drive.
Various interesting questions con-
nected with the location of the memorial
will be considered. One of these will be
whether the memorial should be on c
spot past which there is much travel or
whether 1t should be located where II
is more or less remote.
The view taken by the Fine Arts Com
mission is that il will be best to put
the memorial not where the public Is
compelled to see it as matter of
course, but where it will be necessary
to make a special visit in order to see
II. Thus, ii Is held, its beauty and i'm
pressiveness will be the more contem-
plated, and it's teachings will fasten
themselves the more deeply into the
mind. An observer getting of a train
at the Union Station and hurrying
down town, for instance, could not be
expected to give much thought to the
memory of Lincoln or the impressive
ness of the memorial
The commission does not submit any
definite plans. 1t does, however, dis
cuss the plans that are best adapted to
particular sites, including Potomac
Drive.
To Call on Artists.
1t will be necessary for the Lincoln
Memorial commission to employ artists
to carry out the idea of the Fine Arts
commission for the monument which
may be decided on. The commission will
make reQuisition on the talent OF the
leading artists Of the country. 1t Is
not expected there will be miscellane-
Gus competition. What course will be
adopted will be settled on at the Tues
day meeting.
The memorial is to cost 81, OO,0OO The
man who stands back of the great pro-
iect, urging that it be FASTENED Is Sena-
tor shelby NJ. Cullom of Illinois. Sena-
tor Cullum, now well past eighty years,
hopes to see the Lincoln memorial
fnalfty while he is yet alive and SO
he is insisting that there be no need
less delay.
What form the memorial will take
cannot now be forecast, bu: it will
not be a shaft which would compete
with the Washington monument. 1t
will doubtless take the form OF an
arch.