The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-04-30
Dy JAMES ARTHUR M,KNIGHr


 As the colossus of all the annals of mankind there is no adequate way to depict the mighty Washington ex cept by a figure that will appeal to the common eye, and that the common brain can never forget.
 Washington was so human. so sim pie, so obvious in all his moods that he appeals naturally to the average human intelligence. By the force of his mind and character and his com handing presence he had fixed his status as chief among men long before the idea of throwing off the yoke of Great Britain had taken form in the minds of the Colonials. He had long since accumulated a comforta ble fortune through his own direct and scrupulous business methods and enterprise. He ranked as the head of the American landed gentry" and under the British system, would have been certain to rise to titled rank in the proudest and most dignified aristocracy If the modern world
 But at heart, he was a true demo- crat. That was why he became the friend and convert or Thomas Pains real English plebian in the common sense though man of giant intellect and heart and understanding like another Marcus Aurelius.
 Washington, like the other leading patriots of the colonies hoped only for fair and equitable adjustment with the mother country. He sought to obtain the repeal of the obnoxious stamp taxes. and to secure for the colonies their rightful representation in the British Parliament so that they could have a voice in the passage of the laws affecting their happiness and their interests. But Thomas Paine went a step further He saw that the time was ripe for the col onies to strike out for themselves as new nation. and that the form of this nation might easily be made the truest an1 best republic ever estab- lished by men. In Paine's three rev olutionary books; Common Sense, The Age of Reason" and "The Rights of Man" he set down the arr guments in favor of his thesis with such power and conviction that Ben Jamin Franklin said he did not. be- lieve any other writer has lived who could have done the work SO we'll Paine's entire plan was adopted by | the constitutional convention, and the Declaration of Independence shone forth in the clouded sky of an, en- siaved. lighting up the minds of men as they had never before been en- | frightened
 When the armed struggle of the revolution was over, and the naked ano hungry soldiers of Washington | had the satisfaction of seeing the British lay down their arms in final surrender, 1t was not surprising that representativss of the Handed gen try and the aristocracy of the col- | onies waited upon the victorious and idolized general to proffer to him a regal crown. and urge him to found monarchy to be hereditary in his | family with himself as the first king. Washington demolished this royal bubble with a sweep of his giant hand. No. He had given his life freely to set the colonies free from monarchy and he would hear of no form of government but the repub- | lie that was planned when the die of open rebellion and revolution was cast.
 This was such an act of abnegaticn as cannot be matched in human his tory. 1t was the owner of a master intellect rejecting power and decid- I ing to aid his fellow men to estab- fish free government of which they themselves were to be the only mas ters. He would not soil his clean hands, nor sully his respondent fame with the muck of monarchy. nor with royal diadems' which add no lusts' to their wearers, but never fail ss place 8 burden of tears and blood ana horrible exactions upon the peo- ples who have to support them.
 These few lines are enough to sug gest the kind of man this great colos- sus is intended to depict. The details for it's Construction and erecting will ihave to be worked out from the orig