Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-25
Suggests University
To Honor Washington
To the Editor of The Star:

To the Editor Of The Star:
The Washington Bicentennial Com
mission is meeting again. The news
papers make casual reference to mat
ter of apparently slight Importance.
For the great question seems to be
which of two courses to prefer for a
highway leading from the city to Mount
Vernon.
II the bicentennial anniversary of the
birth of the great first President is to
receive suitable commemoration 1t
should be done by something truly
heroic and something making the
broadest contribution to civilization.
Mere monuments cannot do that.
Roadways, convenient as they may be,
cannot. Verbal protestations of fealty
cannot. The commission should take a
much larger view of its task than now
seems to be taken.
It is strange that any one should
hesitate in deciding what would be the
most fitting memorial to Washington.
He has told us himself what he desired.
And, fortunately. it is the very thing
that would confer most profound and
| enduring benefit upon the American
people.
There is now before Congress a plan
for a national university, meeting the
requirements of such an institution as
Washington outlined, and for which he
left his famous bequest. This plan
creates a super-university with which
all American colleges and universities
would be intimately associated. 1t
could not interfere in the slightest with
any existing institution; 1t would, on
the contrary, be beneficent influence
over all. 1t would bring to the Capital
the flower of American scholarship as
well as many eminent scholars from
foreign lands. It would also bring a
choice group of the most promising
young scholars as it's student body. 1t
would be, indeed, a crown for American
education. It would be relative to- our
time, what Washington wished for in
his day. 1t would realize the fondest
dreams of the first President. Really
what could be nearly so appropriate as
memorial to Washington?
And this could be provided out of the
results of the personal sacrifices OF
Washington himself. AS Is we'll known
he refused to accept any salary as
commander n-chief of the revolution
ary forces because of the poverty of
his country. Now that country, made
possible by his great devotion, has
grown fabulously rich. Why not, In
grateful appreciation of his generosity,
repay that debt in the way that would
be the most delightful to him. could
he but know about it? Why not pay
to the memory of Washington the
S51 900 he refused and, as those who
truly appreciate his devotion, add rea-
sonable interest to the principal sum?
FY1t. a HNfrI T.
versity. Then in the same creditable
way, dispose of the embarrassing gift
of SOS, 900 made by Washington for the
beginning OF a national university
That would provide an adequate build
ing fund.
BY the adoption of such a program
the commission would be building the
most suitable of memorials to the great
President. It would be discharging
debts of honor which have long en-
barraSsed Americans who knew about
them. It would be creating an 1nstitu-
ton that could not possibly interfere
with any existing institution, but would
be a big brother to all of them. 1t
would give to the scholar the recognl-
ton he now, more than ever before
greatly needs. 1t would establish a
center of culture for the western world
There is but one way of dlSposlng OF
this ardently expressed wish of Wash
ington for a great university. 1t may
be postponed again as it has been in
the past, but it will be only a post
ponenent. When Mr.. Carnegie came
to washington to endow this university
In fulfillment of the dream of Wash
ington he was induced to modify. his
plans. but he declared that within
generation 1t would be possible to carry
through the plan without the opposition
he then encountered. That was twenty
seven years ago. The prophecy OF Car
negie Is due for realization in 1882.
OLIN TEMPL1N.