The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-05-31
President Harding Acce is
Cleaning White Temple
in the Name of
the Nation.
PEOPLE STOOD FOR HOURS
UNDER THE BLAZING SUN
Claimed Temple of Freedom and
the Man Whose Memory
1t Enshrines as
Their Own.
tsy rhs A..oeIatea Fre..,

WASHINGTON, May 30-The homage
of q people was poured out today at
the Shrine erected by decade of patient
labor to Abraham Lincoln. Under the
thoughtful gaze of his marble likeness,
dim in the shadowy background of the
cleaning white temple, his countrymen
have raised to him, thousands of Amer
leans We're gathered.
Men great in the councils of the nation
We're there. The President came to
accept in the Nations name the me-
mortal reared at the river brim. A
former president came gladly to give ac-
counting of his trust as head of the
commission that saw the great work to
it's completion. Senators, representatives
cabinet officers, admirals and generals all
We're there's but il was not these lavish
as were their tributes 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
We're spread over the lawns, and cluster
ing 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, none might estimate. But
when the last word had been said, when
the President 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 for itself the things that have
been wrought in the peoples name.
There was little of military splendor
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 ded-
Gated the silSen emblem of reunited
country on the steps o. the memorial.
The words of the formal orders at this
service We're spoken in voices shaken and
thin with age and the hands that held
the banner aloft trembled under the
weight of years but the high courage
and resolve that fired the veterans half
century ago and beyond the res m Of
time as is the memory of the great
leader they honored.
Along the front benches on lower
terrace. facing the great statue above,
We're gathered the veterans. To the
right, 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 Flanking these, to the left,
bare score of gray clad veterans of the
Armies of Lee. or other southern gem
erals, stood proudly to salute the flag
that Lincolns vision and high courage
preserved as the flag of one people.
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 re-
ward he could have known, would have
been the knowledge that his wisdom had
been fulfilled, that the broad waters of
the Potomac, flowing within a stone S
throw of the memorial, marks no bound
airy between two nations, but that from
sea to sea Americans are one people.
Mr.. Harding's voice thrilled as he paused
to draw attention TO the gray clad vet
Grams and recall that twice since Lin
coin die men of the southern states,