The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1929-07-08

GENERAL HUGHES AND MEMORIALS

(OII1claJ City, state 8nO NOuuSy NcWSpApcIJ
GENERAL HUGHES AND MEMORIALS
The unwilling of the life-size bust Of General Alexander
Hughes in the Liberty Memorial building :,
besides honoring the memory of a pioneer in the creation
and development OF North Dakota, was a conformity to
one Of the Oldest impulses OF humankind.
Men always have been animated with the desire to
perpetuate the heroic measure OF their leaders and OF
their races in enduring tablets or shafts Or sculptured
figures. in stone or metal. Greece and Rome were filled
with these. Archaeologists now dig up examples OF still
elder memorials of this kind from the buried cities OF
the Mcsopotamian cradle land OF civilization. Even the
junglcs of India yield up massive monuments to past
elas and leaders from the rccesses Of their tangled trop-
ical vegetation.
America has become prominently a land OF ront-
ments to its historical figures and achievements, to It's
gen:usc3 CT culture and science, to its economic and IN
dustrial development. Nation. states and towns have
multiplied the teeming memorials of these things that are
worth the while to keep alive in the form OF memories for
their own generations and as traditions to animate the
future generations of the race. These go back to the era
of the Indian. of the Revolution and down through the
successive epochs whether in wars or in the achievements
of peace.
A symbol OF the impulse greets the visitor at the very
portal of the country, where Bartholdi's gigantic statue
of Liberty Enlghtening the World b!azcs welcome from
its torch to the returning American and the incoming
alien seeking a home and citizenship in the New World.
Bismarck has not expressed this impulse as generally as
have other cities, but it is coming to it. The statue OF
Sakakawea on the capitol grounds is one of its evidences.
The rich historical lore in which the state abounds will
sooner or later take the form Of memorials in statues and
tablets and shafts. The bust of General Hughes is ouch
an example. The Pioneers who are behind the gift have
plans for many other such memorials.
The nations need for such memorials finds its source
not in vainglory nor even in the mere memory Of the
heroic dead, the passed genius or the perspective Of an
event zone and parrcred to history. For in the last an.
alysis, we put those things on pedestals. not for the sake
OF the dead men whose deeds we are commcmorating. but
for ourselves. It is as If we were striving to catch, III
s%culptured marble and craven bronze, some essence of
a bygone greatness SO that We could preserve it forever
and not let the earth lose it.
Take our great battlefiefis as an illustration of the
motive for setting up these MISUNDERSTANDING, which
leads them all III enduring commemoration of the titanic
struggle there in July, 1868, with its rocky hillsidcs and
rich rolling farmlands studded with statues and shrines
to the men who fought there and to the causes for which
they died those three hot days OF 1863.
In a great many ways, Gettysburg is a good thing to
forget. It is an enduring reminder of the fact that there
was nowhere in the land enough sanity and toytH arance
to find a ~peaceable solution to mems differences. Yet.
since Gettysburg. and the things that went before and
after it, had to be. there are things about Gettysburg. as
about any great battlefield, that it is good for us to re-
member.
Something like 1900 men came together at Gettys-
purg-canle from all parts or the SPRAYING, growing
country. And for three dreadful days they proved a
thing which has been proved on every battlefield in his
tory, but which can never be proved too often; that there
IS something in man that can rise supreme over fear and
pain and death-an impershable, unconquerable some
thing that can never be choked out by stupidity or
tramped down by soft living. but that endures forever as
q living proof that the race has in it a deep streak of
great nobility.
Let no man think that these memorials, at Gettysburg
and elsewhere. are things that glorify war. They are not.
War Is a fearful curse, now as always. But the lurid light
that war casts on the acts of men throws into strong re-
lief the bravery and self -forgetfulness and kingly yalor
that lift mankind above the level of the beasts.
Gettysburg IS a peaceful place now. The bronze gen.
erals and marble soldiers have the place to themselves.
browsing In the Pennsylvania sun beside the brass cam
non that will never fire another shot. AS long as the
nation lasts they will stand there, reminding Americans
that death Is a small thing-that here, years ago. men
came to grips with destiny. looked destruction in the eye
without quailing, and scaled the last fre-ringed heights
Of endurance.
And the bust Of General Hughes here has its value in
clarifying one who wrought in peace, in the creation of a
commonwealth which is one OF the 10 states Of the union.
He was . valuable citizen Of North Dakota. and it is
wise to commemorate the deeds Of all these makers of the
state and Of the nation to which even their labors in be-
halt Of their home commonwealth contributed enduring
substance.
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