Evening star., 1961-11-28
State Awaits Audit
Of Savings Concern
STATUE CENSUS
Forgotten Heroes
Live On in Marble
BY WILLIAM GRIGG
Star staff Writer


If there is a shortage of any,
thing in Washington, it is not
of statues.
The Nations Capital is stud
ded with statues to generals,
inventors, founders, practition-
ers of homeopathic medicine, a
discus thrower, part of a bat
terry of field artillery and,
Secretary of Interior Udall to
the contrary Notwithstanding,
Nathan Hale.
The Star made an informal
survey of our local outdoor
statuary, prompted by Mr..
UdallS remark that our memo
rials provide little in the way
of a waypost on the road of
American history.
Also Hale Statue
True, as Mr.. Udall said, there
is a statue to a Gaucho, but
there is also one to the patriot
Hale. which doubtless had
escaped the notice of the noun
tain-climbing cabinet officer.
Some of the statues are OBJ
scure but all are of people who
were prominent in their time
and place. The Gaucho leader
referred to in dedication cere-
monies at the Octagon House
by Mr.. Udall is a national hero
in Uruguay.
The State Departments per-
sonnel who deal with inter-
American affairs may have re-
minded Mr.. Udall by now that
the Gaucho is Jose Gervasio
Artigas. He was set up at
Eighteenth street and Consti-
tuition avenue NV. in 1850 by
the people Of Uruguay.
They consider him their
greatest patriot. His was a
pioneer development of the
modern philosophy of liberty
and responsibility through re-
publicanism and practical de-
mocracy.
Developer of Monitor
The survey also found that
visitor looking for a way
post on the road of American
history" would find a very good
one in the designer of the screw
propeller.
He is John Ericsson, who
sits meditating near the Lin
coin Memorial. He developed
the Union ship Monitor, which
helped save the United States
by meeting and matching the
South's Merrimac, which other
wise could have blocked any
Union port it wished.
Wandering through Meridian
Hill Park, The Star surveyors
found Dante, who clutches his
Divine Comedy" Mr.. Udall
asked yesterday if this Ma
tion's respect of poet and
painter" is adequately reflected
with monuments only to Dante,
Longfellow and Francis Davis
Millet, an American artist.
The park also has a statue
of Joan of Arc, a gift from
the "femmes des France" to
the "femmes d'Amerique."
The Smithsonian Institution
area of the Mall also revealed
some seldom-seen memorials
to little known men. DR..
Samuel D. Gross, for instance.
He was also one of the
founders of the American
Medical Association and the
American Surgical Society.
There is also a memorial to
Daguerre, father of photog-
raphy.
And quite naturally there is
Joseph Henry, first secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution
itself.
Largely Military
But the survey found the
largest number of Washing
tons statues devoted to mill
tary men.
Revolutionary officers abound.
Engiand's side in the conflict
is represented somewhat by a
statue placed at Eleventh street
and Massachusetts, venue
NV. in 1922. 1t is to Edmund
Burke, who defended the Co.
lonies' position in the British
Parliament.
Among Civil War heroes, the
statuary is weighted toward
the Union, with Albert Pike
(whom a hotel in Little Rock, !,