Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-10-11
MEMORIALS NEW AND OLD
BY Frederic j. Haskin

Memorials to Warren G.. Harding,
twenty-ninth President of the United
States, are being projected by a
group of his admirers. according to
an announcement made by Presi-
dent Coolidge. 1t is planned to place
a Harding statue in the former
Presidents home town, and 1t is ex-
pected also, hat a memorial of diff
ferent type will be erected at the
national capital.
The announcement invites atten-
ton to a remarkable growth in the
fashion of erecting statues and me-
MORALS to great Americans. In the
last ten years there has been a not
able increase in the raising of grace
full statues or stately edifices to per-
petuate the fame of men who have
performed great public services.
. = =
An interesting contrast in the type
and size of memorials today and a
half century ago is furnished in
Washington. Not long after the Civil
War, a conflict OF magnitude and
great significance, a peace monu-
ment, was erected at the western
edge of the Capitol grounds. 1t was
regarded at the time as a splendid
memorial. Today this monument
seems of comparatively insignificant
proportions. 1t is a column with a
few figures grouped about its base
and is so small that n would
scarcely notice it in passing were 1t
not for its location. 1t may be re-
garded as an interesting measure of
the increase in wealth of the Amer
ican nation, of its capa bilities for
building and it's taste in monumental
art, that a half century later me-
MORALS connected with the same
event, the Civil War, dwarf the old
Peace Monument into significance.
The Lincoln Memorial. built at a
cost of millions; the Grant Memorial;
the great marble amphitheater at Ar
lington; the large marble building,
used as Red Cross headquarters,
which was erected as a memorial to
the women of the Civil War, and a
number of other monuments and edi-
fees, all rising out of n national
conflict, are greater than the original
peace monument.
The Washington monument re-
mains the greatest and most impress
sive memorial ever built by the
American people. A new George
Washington memorial auditorium is
to be erected at Washington and one
Is in course of construction across
the Potomac in historic Alexandria.
The Woodrow Wilson Foundation
has been started, during the life
time of the former President, and it
is expected some great monument
will be erected to Mr.. Wilson.
1t seems that one a nation starts
the fashion of erecting memorials
and statues, it persists in it. This
was true in the days of ancient
Greece, and later, in Rome. Gibbon,
the historian of the Roman empire,
asserts that in the time of Constan-
tine, the dead population of Rome
was greater than the living popula-
ton. BY this he referred to the fact
that by actual count there were more
statues of men and gods standing
around Rome than there were living
men, women and children in the
special department the sole duty of
which was to care for the statues.
In those days it was the custom of
a Roman emperor, during his life
time to erect many statues of him
self.
He also erected statues of his IA
vorite pagan gods.
On the palazzo before the capitol
at Rome stood a statue to represent
each Roman province. There was an
ancient legend to the effect that IL
a revolt occurred in any province, a
bell attached to that PROVINCES
statue would ring and warn the Ro-
man senate.
When the Romans conquered
Greece, they brought over some OF
the finest statues carved by such
famous sculptors as Phydias and
Praxiteles and used them to adorn
the Roman palaces. Some centuries
later when Belisarius was defending
the tower of Hadrian against the
Goths under Vitiges, his men took
scores of ancient Greek statues they
found in the tower and hurled item
down from the battlements upon the
beseigers.
From the time of Constantine few
statues were built. The golden age OF
RqEle had passed and the turbulent
times were discouraging 20 the pro-
.duction of works of art. When the
ATCll OIL SOlSldllinS was DoAlI' otdt
ues were taken from some of the
older edifices to adorn it because
there was no living sculptor who
could do work good enough.
The destruction of statues, me-
MORALS and works of art was tre-
mendous throughout the Roman do
minions during the last 500 years or
the empire. Gibbon says that the
Christians destroyed nor temples
and statues of pagan emperors n
gods than eve the b~arharians. The
Christians destroyeds chiefly the
statues of bronze or other metals,
leaving or only defacing the marble
statues. The reason for this was that
the metal in the statues OF bronze
and such material could be beaten
into swords and cast into cannon
whereas the marble statues were not
useful for such purposes. However,
many a memorial was broken up
and the pieces used as mere build
ing material for the walls of houses.
The great Temple of Venus which
the Emperor Hadrian had built on
the site of the Cruclfixion was de-
stroyed by the Christian Emperor
Constantine, who used the material
to erect a Christian church on that
holy spot.
Justinian was one of the latest
builders. His capital was at Con-
stantinople and there he. built st.
Sophia, completing the work in the
incredibly brief period of six yearS.