Evening star., 1931-12-06

matChWood alOft there IN the elements ShlVered
under the blast. Damp ropes rove through
ponderous blocks were like hairy bars as they
vibrated from the ton-and-a half burden of
dull white they supported.
thousand glasses-fsld glasses and tele-
scopes they were, and even opera glasses
were trained on the lofty drama from more
secure places below.
From somewhere up there, a mans voice,
almost god-like in its power so near the
streaking clouds, sang out its command above
the tumult of the winds:
Lower a-waaa -a-a-a-y!"
The sheaves in the great blocks turned. The
hempen bars heightened. The wind-lashed
men held their breath A great stone pyramid
settled slowly on newly-spread cement. The
tackle was quickly unshipped and the pyramid
was crowned with an aluminium tip. The Flag
of the United States broke out to the wind
from somewhere above the timber frame and
cannon thunoered in salute below.
The Washington Monument was fnished
And then, meeting in the top of the shaft
near possible to the capstone that had
been set few minutes before, the Washington
National Monument Society," which had steered
the memorial project through mutitudinous
trials to that successful climax, adopted
resolution which officially proclaimed the
monuments completion. 1t was:
Resolved, That we are thankful to have had
the opportunity of this occasion, and at this
elevation. to congratulate the American people
on the completion of this enduring monument
of our Nations gratitude to the Father of His
Country"
And this-47 years ago this afternoon
THE setting of that 3 330o-poun capstone with
its aluminium tip on December g. 1884
marked the end of struggle through the mire
OF dilatoriness, political and religious erup-
tions, and indecision which, but for the stall
wart determination of the gentlemen who con-
stitutede the Washington National Monument
Society might have produced national dis
grace instead of a Nations tribute to its hero
As it was. 1o1 years elapsed between the reso-
luton of the Continental Congress to erect
memorial to George Washington and the place
ment Of the metal tip on the peak of the fin
ished shaft.
In its resolution of August 7, 1888 the Con-
tlnental Congress expressed its determination
to erect an equestrian statue of Washington \
meaning then to honor him as the man who
led the Colonial armies in the Revolutionary
War. The sculptured general and his horse
the early Congress agreed, were to be mounted
on pedestal on the four sides of which were
to be carved representations of the -four prin-
cipal events OF the war in which he commanded
in person"
The changes through which that original
idea passed in tie memorials evolution from,
an equestrian statue TO a stately marble shaft
555 feet in height are rivaled only by the swift
change in American national events which
paralleled them. Confronted with an iInpend-
ing revolt Of the unpaid soldiers even when it
resolved to honor the commanding officer of
those soldiers, the Continental Congress became
virtually fugitive body, meeting where and
when it could Washington himself prevented
the threatened revolt by personal appeal to
his old troopers. The Constitutional Conven-
tion was held in Philadelphia and under the
instrument 1t produced Washington became the
first President serving his country with dis
tnction which heightened his right to be hon
ored by memorial
From the original idea for statue the
memorial ran the gamut Of mems inspiration.
There was proposal shortly after Washing
tons death, in 1899, to build "a marble monl1-
ment" in which, with the permission of his
family the patriots body was to be entonbed
1t subsequently was proposed to enshrine
Washingtons body in a crypt beneath the floor
OF the rotunda of the Capitol and erect over
that grave a sculptured likeness of the man
Another idea called for the construction of a.
great pantheon out OF which would be reared
5O0-foot obelisk, the whole structure to be a
stately tomb for Washingtons body that was
to rest in its center
In 1925 President John Quincy Adams re-
minded Congress of the congressional resolu-
ton of 1899. But the reminder was unbeeded
and in 1882 the question was introduced to
Congress again when it was proposed to trans
Ter Washingtons body to a tomb beneath the
Capitol rotunda. This idea failed of ac-
compiishment when differences of opinion
arose over the moving of the body
At last, though, Congress agreed to place a
sculptured likeness of the patriot in the ro
tunda and in 1s41, it actually was erected
there. This statue was moved subsequently to
the east park of the Capitol and later trans
ierred to the Smithsonian Institution where it
stands today
Then in 1853 Congress appropriated $50 ooo
ior the creation of equestrian statue of the
FIRST President by the then eminent sculptor
Clark Mills. This bronze sculpture representing
Gen Washington at the Battle of Princeton
was placed in the public circle at Twenty
third street and Pennsylvania avenue now
Washington Circle. where it has remained
But those two statues were not the kind Of