The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-22
LET MEMORIAL BE
 IN HONOR OF DEAD,
 SAYS COL. MOODY
TuscalOosan Contends Pro- posed Structure Would Be , for Living-That Fallen
 Would Be Forgotten

Col. Frank $. Moody, of Tuscaloosa,
 former state senator, has issued for l nal statement in opposition to the form
 of state memorial decided upon for Ala bama's heroes of the great war.
 1 He believes that the memorial erected should be real monument to the dead
 rather than a workshop for the living. He wants something that a hundred years hence will inspire reverence. He also points out that any business build ing erected in Alabama is soon outgrown and that in the nature of things its life is comparatively short. He thinks Ala bamas memorial to her soldiers should be something that will be here five hun dred years hence.
 His statement suggesting that the com mission may have made a mistake in it's choice is somewhat lengthy. After point ing out that since a s500,099 memorial is involved the commission may have been unduly nasty in reaching it's decision since no meetings were called to consid- CT the subject unless they were held quietly in Montgomery, he writes:
 LIVING OR DEAD
 Tn considering the nature of the me morial we must determine whether it is to be erected for the use of the living or the honor of the dead. This is an i'm portant question. If @ half million dol lar hospital had been selected for the memorial it is manifest that the building would be constr1cted more for the bene- fit of the living citizen than for the hon or of the departed soldier. The multi tude of patients nurses, doctors and other employees about the place would have suggested a business establishment. It would have been 90 per cent for the l;rri, n This condition would have prevailed if the fund had been put into camps or col onies for tuberculosis patients And to a large extent this same condition would exist if building should be erected for the educational department of the state. This last object has hardly the merit of being a noble charity. large part of the money would be a gift or donation by the individual citizen to the state for business purposes. and the state is about as able to provide quarters for it's off, cers and clerks as are the individuals who compose the state.
 If it is said that at present the state is a little cramped, it may be replied that so are most of the people. If a me- morial is built in the manner now con templated by the commission it will have much of the appearance of a business enterprise. There will be rooms for the head of the department of education and his assistants, rooms for clerks and dis bursting agents, and rooms for cases to hold records and books of accounts. Across some hall will be place where discussion can be held about the elim- inaton of a text book and somewhere else there will be rooms where officers and teachers could carefully consider the matter of inserting Sohe new text booK into the curriculum of the schools.
 THE HEROES FORGOTTEN
 While the building would not be as large as hospital or be built on the same style, it would have much of the same nature. Among the employees there would soon be little thought of the dead. In idle hours the officers and clerks would chew and smoke and tell an ecdotes When man from the country or a small town-some son of a veteran of the civil war-goes to the capitol and walks around to the marble structure north of the building, he is impressed by the beauty and nobility of the great Confederate monument.
 There is another objection. To com memorate the deeds of the soldier some thing should be erected that would last at least five hundred or a thousand years But no business building can be expected to last that long. The needs and growth of business require a change
 New accommodations would have to be provided and this memorial might need to be torn down. But great monu- | ments unlike houses of business do not ] change with the decades, or even with | the centuries
 "The whole theory of using this me l morial fund for common purposes is 1 wrong. In the future other funds will