Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-12-14

Washington, Dec. 1.-THE design
for the proposed Roosevelt Memorial,
of which John Russell Pope of New
York is the architect, was submit
ted to congress today by the Roose-
welt Memorial Association.
James r. Garfield, president of the
association, gave out the following
statement regarding the design, the
site and the architect:
At the center of an island of white
granite, set in a circular body OF
water, flanked by majestic colon
nades, living shaft of water rises
with prodigious power 200 feet. From
the base of the fountain, Symbollcal
ships carry the message of Roose-
velt's life to the four points of the
compass.
That, in brief, is John Russell
Pope's design for the national me-
mortal to Theodore Roosevelt. Nc
tablet and no guide-book need ex-
plain why a spring of living water
was chosen as the symbol of thai
source of inexhaustible vitality.
Roosevelt was a son of the South
as we'll as the North; and his me-
mortal has been designed to be, il
a sense, a gateway between the two
sections. The curving colonnades
set to east and west. offer no OBJ.
struction to the eve looking south
ward from the White House int
Virginia. The memorial, therefore
commentaries not Roosevelt only
but also that final closing of tn,
breach between the sections, wheI
| the son of a northern father and {
| southern mother became President O.
| a more perfect union"
But that living column rising ou
/ of Potomac waters has a wider anC
more profound significance. Roose
velt's spirit sprang out of the deel
sources of his nations history an(
sank back into them only to ris,
| anew, cleansing the air and inspir.
| ing his countrymen with it's power
it's sparkle, it's simplicity, its essen
/ tial beauty. The fountain, ever.
, changing in its rising and falling
now flashing in the sunlight, now
. scarcely visible in a cloudy dusk, j:
always the Potomac; even as Roose-
welt, legislator, soldier, governor
President, apostle of civic righteous
ness and the square DEAL of nation.
al unity and the helping hand across
/ the sea, is always-America.
A son of the North and the South
of the East by birth, of the West
by adoption, knowing no barriers o.
| race or creed or class, at home il
every state, among friends amid al
manner of men-through the confus
! ing details of multifarious lif,
arises clearly and powerfully the
living, radiating spirit of his Amer.
| icanism.
i 1t is to Roosevelt the American
exemplar of patriotic devotion, tina
| this design is dedicated; not to eXal
an individual but to recall the basic
/ American principles which that in.
| dividual upheld and defended
The island from which the foun.
! tain rises is ESQ feet in diameter
| the basin, 600 feet; from the centre
of one colonnade to the center OF
| the other is 500 feet; the colonnades
! themselves are each go feet long ant
60 feet high. The column of water
is forced upward by a modern auto
matte electrical power pump, and is
entirely independent of the Wash.
ington water-supply. The water is
| from the Potomac river, entering the
, Tidal Basin on the west, passing
. through the ponds to east and wes'
of the central feature of the plar
and cleansing the Washington Chan
| mel through tidal gates.
The site, used by permission Of
the congress as the basis for the
competition in which Mr.. Pope was
selected as the designer for the ma
tional memorial to Theodore Roose-
Welt, is situated in what is now the
| Tidal Basin Cor Twining Lake, or
the line of Sixteenth street projected
southwark from the White House.