Evening star., 1934-05-20

When the joint session of the Con-
gress meets this morning at II o'clock
to commemorate the Tooth anniver-
sary of the death of the Marquis de
Lafayette, Representative Mary The
resa Norton of New Jersey will have
the unique distinction of being the
first woman to assist as master of
ceremonies on such an occasion at
the Capitol when the President of
the United States is the guest of
honor.
As chairman on the part of the
House of the Joint Committee on
Arrangements, Mrs. Norton will pre-
sent the French Ambassador, M.
Andre de Laboulaye, who will deliver
an address.
Representative Sol Bloom of New
York who so ably managed the ma
tional George Washington celebration
a few years ago, is chairman of the
special committee, for what is to be
the most brilliant honors ever paid
to a foreigner by this Government
Gen. John Pershing, or whoever said,
Lafayette. we are here" can again
repeat the assurance that the Amer
lean people feel that the debt of
gratitude they owe to the Frenchman
does not lessen with the years, and
that in sending the flower of Amer
lean youth to fight on the battlefields
of France, in the World War, they
gave material evidence of that graft
tude.
The arrival of the French cruiser
schoolship Jeanne dArc-charming
name and tribute paid to the Maid of
Orleans-at Annapolis on the 18th
began a round of festivities in honor
of the Trenches, who received a sa-
lutte of 81 guns. This is to be French
week in the United States, and all in
honor of Washington's friend Marie
Joseph Paul Yves du Motier, Marquis
de Lafayette.
The President, the Senate and
House, the Supreme Court, the Army
and Navy, the diplomatic corps and
priests and laymen will figure in the
most colorful pageant the classic
halls of the Capitol have perhaps
ever before witnessed. And the su-
perb voice of Lawrence Tibbett will
sing The Star Spangled Banner"
and the national air of France. The
MarseillaiSe." will be sung by Leon
Rothier of the Metropolitan Opera.
There has always been some contro-
versy as to which States and cities
Gen. Lafayette visited on his parting
trip to this country in l824-25. AS
there will doubtless be pilgrimages to
these places during the Summer, Mr.
Walton Moore, Assistant Secretary of
State. has carefully prepared a list
of such places in Northern Virginia
and Albemarle County Va. Many of
them are historic and within a few
miles of the Capital.
One hundred and fifty-nine years
ago today the Mecklenburg Declara-
ton of Independence was signed, just
about a year and six weeks before
Philadelphia. The Marquis of La
fayette, speaking at a public dinner
in the mansion at Raleigh, N c., in
1925. gave this toast: The State of
North Carolina. its metropolis. and
the goth of May. 1775, when gener
GUS people called for freedom, of
which may they more and more for
ever cherish the principles and enjoy
the blessings
There has been much controversy
over the Mecklenburg Declaration,
but the historian, George Bancroft,
who was too much given to dry facts
to be a colorful historian, and who
was not possessed of the genius of
the English language as was Macaulay,
nor the chatty style of Green, neither
the dramatic Carlylian style. after
careful investigation, asserted his be-
lief in the declaration of Mecklenburg
when he said: The first voice pub
licly raised in America, to dissolve
all connection with Great Britain.
came not from the Puritans of New
England, nor the Dutch of New York
nor the planters of Virginia, but from
the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of
North Carolina"
On Friday last, after 26 years from
the time of presentation, the statues
of Gen. Washington and Gen. Robert
Edward Lee we're officially accepted
as gifts from the State of Virginia
by the Congress.
Was it not in 1906 that Virginia
offered the statutes of her two dis
tinguished sors? One copy of the
Houdin Washington statue in Rich
mond, and the other by Valentine, as
gifts to the Nation. There we're dis
senting opinions as to whether Lees
statue in his Confederate uniform
should rest in Statuary Hall at the
Capitol
On Friday, however, Senator Da-
vid Walsh of Massachusetts, presided
at the ceremonies, and DR.. Francis
Gaines, president of Washington and
Lee University at Lexington, Va, was
the chief speaker 1t was to this uni
versity that Gen. Lee returned
after the war and made it his life
work to be the guiding influence to
the young men of the South, in those
trying days of reconstruction. when
his sage counsel and wisdom were so
much needed.
While America is all agog over the
brain trust and members of Con-
gress actually come to blows on the
subject. Paris has completed plans