Evening star., 1961-06-11
Cities
and People
Equestrian
Equonimity
By ROBERT ]. LEWIS

a rather strange title.
1t was called "ODTAA"-
and it meant "One Damned
Thing After Another"
That might be a good
name for a history Of the
ups-and-downs of Washing
ton statues, which lately
can't seem to stay out of
the news.
They're mute, yet contro-
verSial.
They're stationary, yet
accident-prone.
DefenselesS on their ped
eStalS, they are asSailed on
all sides.
The other day, Gutzon
Borglum's bronze likeness of
William Jennings Bryan was
hoiSted onto a truck and
hauled off to Salem, Ill,
after standing peaceably for
81 years in Potomac Park.
Now there's a move afoot
to Danish the effigy of PreSi-
dent Garfield from the place
in front Of the Capitol it
has occupied since 1887.
= y
AROUND THE country,
people are getting the idea
Washington doesn't like its
statues.
More and more requests
are coming in from cities
and towns that would like
to get their hands on some
of our memorials.
Can we expect that even
tually Washington will be
stripped clean, and have to
start all over again, from
scratch, if it wants its viStaS
adorned with public art?
Assuming a long view Of
this thing, one can have
some hope that the answer is
mo"
In the first place, some Of
the monuments are pre-
sumed to be so bad that no
one would want them.
In the second place, a lot
of the work is almost too
heavy to move.
Take the Washington Mon
ument, for example.
Some cities might like to
have an ornament like this.
1t might be suitable for
Olympia, capital of the State
of Washington.
Or maybe for Washington
Park, ILL.,, which would place
it in the same State to which
the Bryan statue has been
taken.
But dismantiing a monu-
ment like this would be
hardly worthwhile. A city
wanting an item of this ma
ture could get one more
cheaply by building its own.
- ?
WITH SOME memorials
too heavy to cart away and
others less desirable from
the standpoint of pure art,
there remains only the rest
to worry about.
There is no question that
today the threat is greater
than at any time since 1912.
That's the year it was dis
covered So tons of scrap
metal could be melted down
from Washington'S bronze
and iron monuments.
At that time-when metal
was needed for defense pur-
poses during World War IL
it was only natural that the
first statue to come under
: searching scrutiny was Clark
Mills equestrian figure of
Andrew Jackson.
Not only was this Lafayette
Square statue Washington'S
very first piece of sculpture
and thus apt to be con-
sidered a bit outmoded.
1t was also a candidate for
the melting pot for another
compelling reason: It's bronze
came originally from cannon
captured from the British
during the War of 1912.
What more logical and
appropriate fate could such
a statue have had than to
go right back into the caul-
drons of war whence it had
sprung?
THE FACT alone, that An
drew Jackson and the other
bronzeS survived this serious
wartime threat is no great
cause for optimism.
Of far greater Importance
is a sort of callouSness to
criticism that seems to be
built into each Washington
statue, good or bad.
Old-timers recall protests
long ago against Illuminating
Statuary after dark.
Senator Phelan of Califor-
MIA set the policy on that
matter.
It's bad enough to be
obliged to view them by day,
he said, without lighting