The midland journal., 1945-03-30
LOOKING
AAE4D
y GEORGE S. BENSON
l Presidtnf--HardiKg college
SearrE ArkaHsas
Marred Monuments


The most pathetic piece of statu-
ary ever saw was a 92-foot image
of Rameses II, fiat in a jungle, shy
an arm and leg and all but lost.
1t weighs countless tons. Uprighting
it baff1ed Egyptian engineers for
centuries. ! am no art critic but /
was impressed most of all by the
skill and devoted craftsmanship still
showing on the weathered stone. Its
helplessness was depressing.
Monuments resemble regulations.
They can be damaged beyond repair
by commonplace things, soon forgot
ten. Storms too trivial to have a
name can, in a few short hours,
undermine huge foundations and
leave stalwart landmarks buried in
dirt. There are only two factors in
volved, whether you view 1t literally
or figuratively: How sturdy is the
structure? How fierce is the storm?
Noble Intentions
Looking with a sort of pity at the
supine figure, a relic of Moses day,
my thoughts raced back to we'll
learned chapter of American history.
AS a youth / almost wept over An
drew Johnson, truly great man.
Before he was many years dead,
the things he advocated were proved,
in the light of actual events, to be
sound and right. But Tennessee
school children were forgetting his
name.
BY birth Southerner and by al
legiance a Democrat, Johnson was
an independent thinker who wanted
the United States to stay all in one
piece. He wanted to carry out most
of the policies that Abraham Lincoln
had established, but he couldn't.
Maybe Lincoln could have succeed
ed with the 1856 postwar problem;
maybe nobody could. History shows
only this: A great mans reputa-
ton scaled down; all but lost.
People the Same
In my high school years had
imagined that President Johnson's
misfortune was primitive, too crude
for my enlightened time-but not so.
In few years it became our un-
happy lot to watch Woodrow Wilson,
one of the grandest characters
America ever produced, racked on
the same bed Of torture; postwar
prejudices, divided party, a Con-
gress he could not manage, and
some personal traits wide open to
ridicule.
President Johnson had amazing
foresight and will that would not
be walked on. We know that now.
He opposed the peoples representa-
tives and his place in history was
carved for an unsympathetic crank.
President Wilson had vision I'M
clouded by prejudice, vision that
overreached his century. But Will
sons contemporaries called him a
dreamer and painted out name
that should have frightened the
pages of history.
Might Have Been
President Wilson'S 1920 postwar
plans for revamping Europe (called
so visionary, if they might have
been backed by other men Of his
day and political station, could have
made World War II unnecessary.
More than a trillion of dollars and
millions of lives might have been
spared. But avaricious rulers
couldn't see the vision any better in
Wilson'S day than in Johnson's day,
or today.
Through lenses fashioned from the
past, we can watch history repeating
itself with alarming fidelity. Storms
lower again over postwar problems.
National figures with international
ambitions are liable to forget their
responsibility to the representatives
of the people. We face another un-
predictable struggle, and we may as
well be ready to watch some high
images fall, never to rise from the