Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-27
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

A bill Is pending in the British
| Parliament to stop American desecra-
| ton of England's historic buildings
| This does not refer TO tourists vanity
! in carving their initials upon the
| walls Of Westminster Abbey or chip
| ping bits off the Irish Barney Stone,
| Americans who are 100 per cent
Yankee would do none of those things
The bill refers to the craze Of our
nouveau richie which incites them TO
! buy famous ediflCes, tear them down,
| label the parts, ship them TO the
| United States, here 10 rebuild them.
! II is reported that Warwick Prtory rs
| to be brought over, piecemeal, to be
used in reproduction of SulgraVe
! Manor, the home of John Washington,
grandfather of our country. and is to
| be erected under the shadow of Mount
| Vernon. The rumor may be false, but
| the protective measure is true Dill.
X x
Mr.. Charles Moore. president of the
| United States Commission on Fine
Arts, states that he had friend who
was negotiating, some years ago, for
| the purchase Of SulgraVe Manor, In
tending to maintain it in stu as her
English residence, but she found it too
small for her needs. Now an Amert
| can society owns it and preserves 1t,
! but it's smallness will not bar the
shipment Of enough bricks from the
| Priory TO rebuild a replica. President
Moore sees no reason to stop the col
| lectors-if they pay cash.
He suggests that Nirginians might
begin nearer home in moving historic
buildings There is Libby Prison. for
example. away off in Chicago. Why
u icI,
all it's memories are unpleasant
Therein Neal Dow used to preach tenn
perance and In other parts the prison
ers conducted schools for French and
Spanish. Bring it back from Chi
cago, where it is neglected and for
gotten, rather than disturb the an
| cestral home of Washington, the Eng
lishman, says Mr.. Moore.
AT the British embassy no great pro
test Is expressed against our import
ing old England-if we pay in ad
vance. Why should not an owner dc
what he likes with his property, II
he needs the cash? And some owners
| in England do But rest tranquil as
| to Sulgrave Manor; 1t Is safe in the
hands Of a society to preserve 1t. AS
| to Windsor Castle or Stoke FoSlS-
we'll, Henry Ford might buy them for
| his collection with the Wayside Inn
X X 4; K
The above exhausts the laisse7
faire sentiment. Others are shocked
at the bad taste. Stop them! There
is Mr.. Minnigerode, director of the
C'orcoran Art Gallery. vigorously pro
testing over the outrage. lie ais
ayovs speaking for his gallery, TOR the
i IN,
! But he sympathizes with the poor
English. French and italian possess
Ors of old masters. Why should they
be TEMPTED? Our dollars are irreslst
THE. Who In Europe can compete
with the Metropolitan Museum of New
York. which has just received from
the late Frank Munsey $50 100000 Oh
| $40 900 900, producing an annual IN
| come Of millions with which to import
art? 1.-THE world Is ours"'-the art
world. Oh, the pity Of 1t, for the
F,uropeans who will be making Pill
! grinlages to America to find art!
Y Y y y
The American Institute of Architects
| Is very much distressed over the sit
uation. Why. If Americans don't stoE
| importing "confections'-t. ready
made buildings Qike millinery, what
| will American architects nave 10 de
sign? Suppose the news came that
the English had ''struck ile' In Asia
! Minor and were coming here to DuS
| Mount Vernon and the Octagon House
| to move them to Piccadilly Circus
How would we like that?
There could be no objections to hav
| ing our architects produce replicas OF
| st. PaulS Cathedral or any Scottish
| castle, but the imnorters are not in
| terested merely in replicas of the de
! signs What they want is the bricks
/ the stones. the beams and the moat:
of their castles. The case is like tha
| which Dooley described to HinnessS
concerning the Carnegie libraries
(which were GpginGing up evegywhege