The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-09-23

pTOCSeueu III ola years, anu IL TtdCueu
a height of $50 feet. There it stopped.
The funds of the society were exhaust
ed in 1859, and congress took up the
proposal to finish the construction of
the monument. A political squabble
ensued, and the proposition hung fire
for seventeen years--seventeen dis
graceful years in which a partially
completed monument to the Father of
His Country stood 1876 feet in the air.
Visitors today are attracted by the diff
ference in the appearance of the stone
neal the base from that used when
the work was resumed. The work was
| finally completed by the government,
and a great monument, costing ST.
167,710.31 fttingly recognizes the ser
vice done by the great Washington for
his country. The story of Mount
Vernon is practically the same as that
OF the Washington monument to the
extent of the delay that occurred be-
fore the place was rescued from threat
ening decay. When it came to saving
Mount Vernon from wreck and ruin,
the task was finally taken up by pa
triotic women throughout the land.
Mount Vernon, instead of being an
asset to the heirs of General Wash
ington, was somewhat of a liability,
and the descendants of the first presi-
dent were reduced almost to poverty
by reason Of the hordes of visitors
that over-ran the place. Governor
Johnson of Virginia, having heard the
rumor that speculative persons were
DESTROYS of availing themselves of the
estate, asked the general assembly of
his state, in a message read to that
body on December 5, 1857, to purchase
Mount Vernon. A committee of FIVE
was appointed to investigate the ad-
visibility of the purchase but owing
to the s~traitened conditions of the
state finances, no definite move was
taken, and the committee was dis
solved.
Ann Pamela Cunningham, of South
Carolina, an invalid, conceived the idea
that the women of the country should
buy and manage Mount Vernon. I'm
peded by her physical inirmaties and
the notion among the men of the
south that no plan so far reaching in
its scope should be undertaken by a
woman, she still persisted in her
efforts to raise the necessary funds.
Her first appeal was made on Deem
Der 3, 1853, just two days before Gov
ernor Johnson, of Virginia, asked the
General Assembly to take up the prob
lem.
Opposition to her plan was strong
and eve the integrity of the associa-
ton which Miss Cunningham had form
ed was attacked. Miss Cunningham
worked %zealously, and in an interview
with Edward Everett of Boston, con-
verified him to her way of thinking. He
lectured throughout the country and
turned ove to the association thus OBJ
tanned, which amounted to S68,294.59.
Finally, on April 6, 1858, the contract
under which the Mount Vernon title
was transferred to the association was
ciunnI pncidno tho nriuino1 pIrohoca
price of 5000, 900, the estate was badly
run down, and much money was need
ed to repair it. An admission fee of
twenty-five cents is charged all visitors
to Mount Vernon, and the revenue
IL us derived is used to keep the place
in condition.
In this day of good roads it is al
most beyond belief that Mount Vernon
the home of Washington, should never
have been connected with the outside
world by wagon roads. That it is
never too late to mend an evil condi-
ton is evidenced by the fact that dur
ing the summer of 1914 the United
States government and the county of
Alexandria, Virginia, entered into an
agreement to build a first-class high
way from Arlington Cemetery to
Mount Vernon, Virginia.
In connection with this enterprise
it cannot be said that the arrange
ment itself has been at fault, because
had the Virginians ever shown any
zeal in the matter they would have
assumed the natural responsibility as
a local community to provide, indie
pendent of government aid, the best
kind of public highways. That the
government has co-operated in this
is due to the sentimental conditions
surrounding Mount Vernon. In any
other case there is no plausible rea-
son why a local community should
not accept, in connection with the
county and the state. its inherent re-
sponsibilities in reference to public
roads. Thousands of visitors to the
National Canifal travel a short dis