The New York herald., 1921-10-17
SIMPLE WAR SHAFTS
FAVORED BY CURRAN
No Time for Costly Memorials
With So Many Heroes in
Dire Need.

Borough President Henry II. Curran,
Republican Coalition candidate for
Mayor. assisted in laying the corner
stone OF neighborhood war memorial
at Pitkin avenue and Grafton street.
Brooklyn, yesterday afternoon. The cere-
monies were under the auspices of the
citizens memorial committee and the
soldiers and sailors memorial commit
tee Of the American Legion and Veterans
of Foreign Wars He said he had been
glad to come. taking time out of his
campaign. because he favored simple
memorials rather than costly monuments
to-day when the sicz and needy soldiers
required attention, and because the
chairman. Alexander Drescher, was his
old colleague in the Board OF Aldermen.
II want to congratulate you on what
you are doing said Major Curran, but
more than that on the spirit which
prompts you to do it in this way.
never had any patience with any of
the projects for huge. expensive city
wide memorials. Perhaps they will come
later. but the time for them Is still far
away We can better use the money
our sick and wounded veterans. Our
first duty Is to the sick and wounded Of
to-day. Later on, when this war haSsNe-
come memory, and the gentle mantle
OF time has softened the edge of Its hurts
and It's anguish. we can build great
memorial that will tower aloft through
the generations as a living token of
the tenderness of New York's regard for
the memory of her sons and daughters
who fell in this cause.
In the meantime you are building in
Brownsville this modest monument to
the memory of your own Intimate
friends and neighbors who fell in the
service of our country.
You are doing this with your own
funds, and it springs from a real and
intimate regard of what the war meant
TO you in your own homes. This is the
kind of memorial that counts. This is
the kind that is real. We have more Of
them than you think.
II have seen the little neighborhood
memorials in every part OF the city. In
my own neighbcrhood a flag staff in
Washington Square bears on it's pedes-
tel. in craven letters. the names of men
who were my friends. who lie in France
to-day: and there. hard by the Wash
ington Arch, you will see the colors
floating from this memorial flagstaff
every day of the year.
I'm The Bronx. the trees that line the
Concourse bear. every one of them. a
bronze tablet upon which appears the
name OF Bronx man who did not come
back.
'If you go beyond the boundaries OF
our wonderful city, YOU will find In VIII
! lage after village memorial that has
sprung up from the village green. We
have very few village greens in New
York, but even in the brick and stone
that make up the outward. visible garb
OF our city we find the same spirit be-
meath. and the little memorials are
springing up in one neighborhood after
another. They take the form of tab
let's on the walls at times. and where
there is monument on the ground
there is usually very little grass around
1t. Some of them may seem poor
thing as you look at them. bat away
beyond and behind the physical discom-
fort and ugliness in which we live In
many parts OF New York I know that
there shines the spirit of.service. of pa
triotism and regard for those who have
gone, which makes possible such cere-
mony as this"
While the unveiling ceremonies were
under way DR.. Leo Greenbaum, a
Brownsville physician. circled overhead
In an airplane. dropping flowers. and
Rabbi Herbert l. Leventhal. pointing at
the monument. said "This gives the an
swer to the lie of the Ku Klux Klsn
and Fordism. Patriotism Is not con-
fined to any creed
District Attorney Harry +. Lewis. AL
derman Francis Bent, who represented
Mayor Hylan; former Alderman Alex
ander I. Drescher and Representative
Lester d. Volk were other speakers.
The monument represents soldier
surmounted by winged Vistory. contains
the names of eighty-two Brownsville
men and is inscribed. In Memory Of
Ou Glorious Dead