Arizona republican., 1922-05-31
HOMAGE Of PEOPLE
POURED OUT At
SHRINE DEDICATION
Memorial Day Sees Gull
mination Of Decade OF
Effort To Erect Fitting
Memorial To Stand For
ever Beside Monument
IRepublican A. p. Leased Wirel

lhcpuDtCSn -, r. EedScu wire
WASHINGTON, May 3O-The
homage of people was poured out
today at the shrine erected by a
decade of patient labor to Abraham
Lincoln. Under the thoughtful gaze
of his marble likeness, dim in the
shadowy background of the gleam-
ing white temple his countrymen
have raised TO him, thousands of
Americans We're gathered. Men great
in the councils of the nation We're
there. The president came to accept
in the nations name, the memorial
erected at the river brim. A former
president came gladly to give ac-
counting of his trust as head of the
commission that saw the grett work
to its completion Senators, repre-
sentatives, cabinet officers, admirals,
and generals all were there; but it
was not these, lavish as were their
trusts to the great dead who made
the day historic in American annals.
1t was the swelling tide of humble
people who stood for hours under
a blazing sun to claim this temple
of freedom, and the man whose
memory it enshrines as their own.
Far as the eye could reach from
the high base of the memorial,
Americans were spread over the
lawns and clustering under the
trees that grace the setting. How
many may have been there to hear
the words of the speakers, caught up
and flung to far distances by the
amplifiers that studded the coping
atop the marble structure, no man
might estimate. But when the last
word had been said. when the Pres
ident had gripped hands with Robert
Lincoln at the foot of the fathers $
statue, the public broke over the
barriers and swept unchecked up
the wide steps to see fof itself the
things that have been wrought IN
the peoples name.
There was little of military Splen-
dor about the dedication services.
Just a flourish of trumpets TO mark
the coming and going of President
Harding and the solemn ritual with
which the men of the Grand Army
of the Republic dedicated the siiken
emblem of a reunited country on
the steps of the memorial. The
words of the formal orders at the
service were spoken in voices shaken
and thin with age and the hands
that held the banner aloft trembled
under the Weight of years.
Aloft the front benches on lower
terrace facing the great statue above
were gathered the veterans To the
right a handful of old men had
donned again the blue that gave
them front place in the days events
and stood to act as guard of honor
when the President arrived. Flank
ing these to the left, a bare score
of gray clad veterans of the armies
of Lee or other southern generals
stood proudly to salute the flag that
Lincolns vision and high courage
preserved as the flag or one people
Gray Joins With Blue
The sight of these bent men in
grey drew President Harding from
the written text of his address. He
was saying that to Lincoln, greater
than any other reward he could
have known would have been the
knowledge that his vision had been
fulfilled that the broad waters OF
the Potomac flowing within a stone
throw of the memorial, marks no
boundary between two nations but
that from sea to sea Americans are
one people. Mr.. Hardings voice
thrilled as he paused to draw atten--
ton to the gray clad veterans ana
recalled that twice since Lincoln
sons of such men as these old war
riors. had come in their strength to
fight for the flag to which their
fathers returned after the bitter
sixties.
"How it would comfort his great
soul" the President said, ito know
that the southern states join SIN
cerely in honoring him and have
twice since his day joined with an
the fervor of his own great heart IN
defending the flag. How 1T would
soften his anguish to know that the
south long since came to realize that
vain assassin robbed it OF Its most
sincere and potent friend when 1t
was PROSTATE and stricken - when
Lincoln's sympathy and understand
ing would have helped to heal the
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