The Washington times., 1927-12-30
MONITOR MY t H
Barred HERE

The American Council Of Learned
Societies comprising II organi2a-
tions covering the fields of eco
ilomics. sociology, political science,
history and photography. today be.
gan the last day of its deliberations
which have occupied the attention
of the nations leading savants for
the past four days at Washington's
leading hotels.
Today's subjects covered a wide
range of discussions, including price
levels and prosperity; the family,
diplomatic and legislative process:
the Government and the press: the
church. including a paper on the
Pope's attitude on free speech: a
paper on the political consequences
OF the Mexican revolutions: reform
in naval construction and its signifi'
canoe in modern history. and the
influence of the anti-slavery move
ment on Anglo.American history.
ExplOdes Myth
OF principal public interest was
the last days sessions of the Amer.
lean Historical Society at the VII.
lard. Here another hoary myth OF
American history exploded.
The romantic glamor which has
been woven by patriotic American
about the historic battle
between the Monitor and the Merri-
mac in the Civil War, according to
Prof. J. P. Baxter, of Harvard, Is
made of the same cloth as the long
accepted story ebout George Wash
ington and his cherry tree.
Prof. Baxter does not agree with
Mayor william Hale Thompson, OF
Chicago. that the most heroic incl
dents of United States history are
being systematically deflated by the
Kings henchmen in the interest OF
British world domination, but he con-
tends vehemently that we should
look our history squarely in the
face. He disarms response from
supporters by bestow-
ing the lost glory of the Monitor
and the Merrimac incident. not upon
England but upon the France OF
III.
France Led Way
Manuscripts hitherto unused In
Paris, London and Washington,
Prof. Baxter told the assembled
professors, indicate that France,
not the United States, played the
leading role in the introduction OF
The results commonly at
tributed to the combat between the
and the Merrimac have
been greatly exaggerated. From
1860 until 1864 the French fleet, on
paper at least, was superior to the
British in armored vessels"
Prof. Baxter's paper on ''The Sig
nificance Of Reform in Naval Con.
struction" stimulated widespread
comment among historians. Here.
tofore the battle between the Moni.
tor and the Merrimac, one of the
pivotal incidents of the Civil War,
has been regarded generally as the
dividing line between the era Of
wooden and ironclad naval ships.
"The annihilation Of the Turkish
fleet by shell fire at Sinope in 1853
led Napoleon III to construct five
armored floating batteries, three Of
which proved their worth in the
capture of Kinburn, in October,
1855. BY 1860, thanks to the en-.
thusiastic support of the emperor
and to the genius of his chief naval
constructor. Depuy de LONE, they
had solved, with the Gloire, the
problem of the seagoing ironclad.
when the news of the action
between the Monitor and the Merri-
mac crossed the Atlantic, nearly
one hundred arnored vessels were
already built, building, or author.
lied in Europe. That first fight
between Ironclads crowned the revo-
luton in naval architecture, it did
not begin it."