Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-13
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

OF George washington, now roughly IL
months ahead of us, on February %,
1882. The intention is to take advan-
tage of this anniversary for the high
est possible service to America. The
commission in charge, a group of ex-
ceptional men and women, is not bound
by any precedent; indeed, it is not
bound by any limitation whatever. The
broad purpose is to do the best that
possibly can be achieved by Imagination
and carried out by energy and high
taste. The objective, briefly stated, Is
to to the best; the immediate purpose Is
to find out what is best. To that end
1t Is hoped that the imagination of
everybody in America will go to work.
The chief function of this commits
sion is to stimulate; the reason for its
existence will be best fulfilled If the
largest number of individuals and
groups catch fire from the spirit of the
preparations. and of their own initia-
tive begin their own ways of celebrat-
ing. The commission, of course, will
do much directly; it will have charge
of the essentially national part of
the celebration, it will cooperate, it
will coordinate to the degree that CO.
ordination is desirable. But the great
function of the commission is not to
monopolize, but to diffuse: to cause
everybody in America to take part, to
bring about such a ferment of interest
throughout the country as will result
in the largest and highest expression of
Americas aggregate imagination.
Stimulates Suggestions.
For the moment the most immediate
Of the commissions purposes is to slim
ulate suggestions, to get suggestions to
it. In a formal announcement the
commission says:
Washington Bicentennial Commission
are anxious to receive from the public
generally such suggestions as may help
to carry forward the general plan.
We want the people themselves to give
us suggestions. Correspondence is So
licited upon any phase of the program
It is especially desired that officers -oi
towns, cities and school districts write
their views upon the subject, and also
the associate directors would welcome
communications from officers of all
kinds of civic organizations both local
and general. All such suggestions will
be given prompt and careful attention
and it is hoped that from them this
general program may be enlarged and
improved and new methods found.
Such persons as are kindly moved to
make suggestions should send them to
the associate directors of the commits
sion-Sol Bloom of New York, who is
a member of Congress and can be ad.
dressed In care of the House of Rep.
reSentatives at Washington, and Lieut.
Col. Ulysses S. Grant, Sd, whose ad.
dress, likewise, is Washington, D. c
(Col. Grant is the grandson of the
Civil War General and President Of
the United States who bore the same
name)
While these two associate director
have charge Of details, there are /!
other members: President Hoover, Vic
! President Curtis, Speaker Longworth
Senators Simeon D. Fess of Ohio, Ar
thur Capper Of Kansas, Carter Glass o
Virginia and Lee S. Overman of Nortl
Carolina; four Representatives, Will
G. Hawley Of Oregon, John Q. TilSon o
Connecticut, Joseph w. Byrns of Ten
neSsee and r. Walton Moore of Virginia
together with Henry Ford, Bernard M
Baruch, Prof. Albert Bushnell Hart o
Harvard University, Hanford MacNidel
Wallace McCamant, Mrs. Anthem
Wayne Cook and Mrs. John Dickinson
Sherman.
Imagination and Taste Needed.
To say what is the best way to cele
brate this particular anniversary calls
in the first place, for imagination ant
in the second place for taste and dis
elimination. Taste will differ Broadl
speaking, some conditions can be Sc
down as desirable; others as less SC
1t can be taken for granted that tn
celebration will not fall back upon tn
familiar form Of great exposition 10
Gated in single city, such as the no
very happy sesquicentennial of tn,
Declaration of Independence, held IL
Philadelphia in 1925.
That kind of thing will not be at.
tempted. 1t has sometimes been sue.
cesSful in the past. The celebration OF
the 400th anniversary of the discovery
of America by Columbus, which tool
the form of the Worlds Fair at Chi
cago in 1893, was not only great spec
tacle, but became a concrete stimulation
to art and many other useful aspects
of American life. What can be done
by that kind of celebration, however
has already been done. The broad
spirit of the coming bicentennial OF
WaShington's birth contemplates some
thing more universal. AS it has been
put by Associate Director Bloom: 1--WE
have no exposition in mind; there will
NC IIO WOLl 1dh, IlO
of material evidences of the Nations
growth. The celebration will be
in the nature Of revival of knowledge
of and appreciation for our greatest
American. We want to offer an
opportunity to each man, woman ano
child in America to participate in this
national celebration. It is proposed tc
foster and encourage in all parts of the
country-local, regional and State cele-
brations."
Celebration to Be Nationwide.
The purpose, in short, is to diffuse
the celebration as much as possible to
make 1t Nationwide, to cause the largest
number of individuals to take part and
the maximum number of separate COM
munities to hold their own celebrations
Some details, without doubt, will be
Nationwide in their scope. There will
probably be, at one time or another,
Nationwide radio "hook-upS" with a
very small number of speeches, possibly
only one speech, that of the President
Of the United States. But, however,
much of the celebration takes the form
of single events spread over the Nation,
the larger purpose is to cause every
local community to have its own ceie-
bration.
Local celebrations by individual vii
lagos and larger communities will, Of
course, take account Of the fact that 1t
is Washington's Birthday that is being
celebrated; they will be related to
George Washington. But the celebra-
ton as q whole will be more broad and
more useful If 1t is conceived that the
purpose is for every local community to
look back upon its own past without
regard to whether or not that past had
direct connection with George WASH
ington. Necessarily, the bulk of all the
in the West and Middle West, settled
less than 100 years ago, cannot have
had any direct association with WASH
ington. Toe spirit of the celebration as
a whole VIII be satisfied by having each
community look hack unon IFS own GEN.