Evening star., 1925-02-22

Ridge, where the FTeemasons
of the United States are build
ing a magnificent memorial to
George Washington, the one President
among all our Chief Executives who
was at one and the same time the
head of our Government and the
master of his lodge, Is eminently suit
ed for such a temple.
1t lies on the fair highroad that runs
between the City of Washington and
the Mount Vernon estate. Historic
Importance is. moreover, attached to
the ground, for when Jefferson and
Adams were delegated to select To-
cation for the Capitol Building of
the Federal Government, they chose
Shooters Hill.
Washington owned many acres in
its immediate vicinity, and he
promptly vetoed the decision. for he
knew full we'll that his land would
have a greatly increased value if it
lay in the shadow of the dome of the
Capitol, and he did not wish to place
himself in position, as President of
the United States, to merit the criti-
cism that would have followed had he
favored the proposed plan.
1t was a constant concern with him
TO keep the high office which he held
unsullied, and he succeeded in this
high endeavor better than he knew.
Washington had assumed his duties
rs President with his wonted sense
of responsibility and he wrote:
Il walk on untrodden ground; there
Is no action the motive of which may
not be subjected to a double inter-
probation; there is scarcely any part
of my conduct that may not here
after be drawn into precedent"
His vision of his country was i'm
perialistic; he saw beyond the present
in which he moved far into the fu-
ture, and he builded on a scale COM
mensurate with his vision, irrespective
of whether the stones he handled
were small or large.
Not only is the immediate site well
2 selected in itself, but 1t Is doubly ap-
propriate in that it lies IN Alexandria,
Va, the home of many of Washing
tons activities. There 1t was that he
voted, and from there how often his
diary records that he set out on some
momentous undertaking. as, for in
stance, when he started to journey to
New York for his inaugural, and was
feted by his friends and neighbors
in Alexandria
There must have been a certain
sadness in that last entertainment.
for Washington's high Office would
forever, after he had assumed it, bar
him from the wonted ease with which
he had been met by his neIghbors.
Moreover, in Alexandria his will was
recorded, that generous will that re-
membered with portions of his estate
Al of his relatives.
Having no children of his own, he
had loved and cared for the many
nieces and nephews that were happy
in claiming him for their uncle. Too,
1t was in Alexandria that he served
as master of his lodge, and his life
bore testimony of the high principles
of Freemasonry for which that lodge
stood. No other location in the coun-
try could SO unerringly claim for IT
self the master structure that is to
house the spirit of Washington.
~
THE history of the world is So
norous with the song of the
building of temples whose chambers
were to hold in eternal remembrance
the lives of the worlds great men and
the worlds lofty inspirations Time
in its relentless fashion might shat
ter the walls and columns, but the
temple still stands in the memory of
men, an eternal treasure from out
the eternal ages.
Solomon's temple has lain in ruins
for many centuries, but ii still rises
with its cedar beams and golden orna-
ments toward the blue heavens of
remembering people; and the perfect
upon the violet-crowned Acropolis of
Athens still blooms In the natchless
garden of Attic glory. AS they built
for eternity, so are they building in
Alexandria, and the design they have
chosen for Washington they have
borrowed from the ancient builders
who built so enduringly.
The plan of the memorial was
evolved by the ancients in their struc-
g. =
bors. They were known, as towers and
held in their SUBMITS hres that burn
ed steadily night and day. Perhaps
the best known examples of such
flares were the towers at Rhodes and
at Egyptian Alexandria. Their fam
ing mission was guiding mariners
into safe ports, and how often has
Washington been such a light in the
darkness of confused political think
ing, his words and his acts serving
as precedents to guide our ship of
state.
When the beholder of this new
temple shall understand the signif-
canoe of the structure ne will acclaim
its plan as a perfected Interpretation
of the influence of Washington upon
the country whose foundation he was
permitted to build. 1t would seem as
though no other design could quite so
thing so ethereal as the visioning
spirit of the farseeing Washington,
and that is the last great test of true
art, that 1t shall &e utterly and ul-
timately appropriate to the idea 1t Is
meant to convey.
The design is to be carried out In
the most enduring material known to
builders, in order that for all time
the ideal that Is Washington may be
portrayed in strength and in beauty,
and that stone is Conway pink gran
lite, cut from the enduring hills OF
Red Stone, N. H. More than that, 1t
has been decided that all support for
the great weight Of the structure
~shall be furnished by stone and ce-
ment; hence steel and iron will not
be employed, for rust and decay will
attack such materials In time, and no
known disintegration will be incor-
porated into the building.
During this Winter season all work
upon the building was discontinued
in order that the freezing weather
might not in any slightest degree .af-
feet the quality OF endurance that Is
an essential in the plan Of the temple.
X x
ONE Of the marvels Of the structure
~ is the gigantic monolith that lies
like immovable bedrock beneath the
memorial. It was fabricated from ce-
ment and gravel. its 5000 cubic yards
of concrete being, cross braced and
bound together by 1890 tons of rein
forcing steel Upon this solid founda-
tion will rest the building, the specifi-
cations of which call for an overall
depth, east and west, of 240 feet, a
width of 1s8 feet, and a height of 333
feet. It's vast size can be conveyed by
the statement that the Lincoln Memo