Among the resolutions adopted is the following:

Resolved, That we heartily endorse that part of the report of Department Commander Abraham concerning the removal of the Iowa Soldiers and Sailors' Monument to a more suitable site in the City of Des Moines22.

At the Home-Coming Encampment, in Des Moines, June, 1913, the Thirty-ninth Annual Encampment, the Commander, Capt. John D. Brown, in his annual address, made no reference to the removal of the Soldiers and Sailors' Monument, but at the Camp Fire, Tuesday evening, June 10, 1913, Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, being introduced, spoke as follows:

This year our governor and legislature have performed a great service to the veterans of the State, in enlarging our Capitol Grounds and in giving the proper setting to our Memorial Monument (applause), to our war veterans, and when their work is completed as planned, then those that follow us will look back upon it as one of the most beneficial acts of our State, and give the credit due to our governor and our legislature for their foresight and patriotism. And I hope every comrade while he is here will go up on the Capitol Grounds and look at it as it is today, and then go into the Capitol and see the plan of what it will be in a few years more, and what our monument there will be, that everyone will go to see it, and I hope that Commander Brown, the commander of the G. A. R., will take the proper action for the veterans of Iowa in thanking that legislature and the governor for their great work for us. (Applause.) 23

In the session of June 12th, the committee on resolutions, consisting of John F. Lacey, Henry H. Rice, A. W. Jaques, Henry Karwarth, E. A. Snyder and M. W. Harmon, reported among other resolutions the following:

Resolved, That we approve of the enlargement of the Capitol Park so as to make the grounds suitable in area and character for the patriotic monuments and memorials already erected and that may hereafter be required by our prosperous commonwealth.

On motion of Major Lacey, adopted".

22 Resolution, Iowa Department G. A. R., June, 1912. Journal of Proceedings, 38th Annual Encampment, p. 73.

23 Address of Gen. G. M. Dodge, before Iowa Department G.. A. R., Des Moines, June, 1913. Journal of Proceedings, 39th Annual Encampment, p. 124-5.

24 Resolution, Iowa Department G. A. R. June, 1913. Journal of Proceedings, 39th Annual Encampment, p. 49.

Special attention therefore has been given to the eventual appropriate treatment of our great Soldiers and Sailors' Monument. With grounds ideally enlarged and treated, with the certainty that the monument will outlast even the Capitol itself, the center of the viewing population upon State property will be eastward of the latter. The mass and height of the monument, the honor in which the men and events it commemorates will forever be held, demand its placement at the intersection of the two principal streets of the enlarged grounds, on the easterly axis of the Capitol. There in the center of such a parade ground as would admit of appropriate patriotic or military occasions, now impossible except in streets, with its four sides clearly visible a thousand feet and more, its grandeur and impressiveness would be incalculably enhanced. The best thought is that this great work, after its ideal placement, shall be regarded as the deliberate artistic expression of the generation producing it and even if any slight deficiency of artistic merit then remain, the whole will be of too sacred a character to be touched by other hands. For the average mind will more and more revere it as the sacrifice which it betokens farther and farther recedes, and as tradition more and more hallows the monument itself.

Out of all this was brought a plan contemplating:

1st. The immediate and correct placement of the Allison Memorial, contracted to be erected in 1915, at a cost of $50,000.00.

2d. The eventual appropriate placement of our great Soldiers and Sailors' Monument.

3d. The eventual removal of the heating plant to the railroad, relieving the State of the perpetual hauling of coal and ashes and saving the priceless property from the insidious but fatal work of gas and smoke.

4th. Provision for an eventual office and storage room for the Adjutant General, which at present costs the State an annual rental of about $5,000.00.

5th. An eventual Executive Mansion, such as has already been provided in Montana, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, Vir

ginia, West Virginia, Nebraska and New York, and is proposed in other states.

6th. Provision for eventual office buildings such as are proposed in California, where ornamental grounds of some thirty-one acres, instead of being impinged upon for a building site, are being protected by the purchase of adjacent grounds at a cost of nearly $700,000.00. Many other states already have or contemplate similar equipment in buildings other than their capitols.

7th. Provisions for an eventual Supreme Court building, wherein the priceless records of that tribunal, together with its library and other indispensable auxiliaries may have perpetual growth and constant accessibility; such buildings have been provided in the states of Connecticut, Florida, Illinois and Missouri, and are proposed in other states.

8th. Mr. Masqueray observed and proposed the restoration of the natural scenic value of the capitol site; recognized the probable commemoration in future by monuments and other structures of noted men and events of Iowa; the lack of parade grounds so greatly needed on occasion; the value of an unobstructed view from trunk line trains but a thousand feet away".

There is danger of surrounding areas becoming unsightly, rendering the whole in some sense incomplete. It was, therefore, thought proper to suggest the acquisition of an area in

The writer was of the company when Right Hon. James Bryce, British Ambassador, on his last visit to our State, inquired what building it was whose gilded pinnacle he could see from his train. "That is the Capitol of Iowa," Governor Carroll responded, "I think our people will improve the surroundings soon." The Ambassador then uttered the substance of his well-known remarks to the American Civic Association, to which he said:

"The world seems likely to last a long, long time, and we ought to make provision for the future.

"The population of the world goes on constantly increasing and nowhere increasing so fast as in North America.

"A taste for natural beauty is increasing, and as we hope, will go on increasing.

"The places of scenic beauty do not increase, but, on the contrary are in danger of being reduced in number and diminished in quantity, and the danger is always increasing with the accumulation of wealth, owing to the desire of private persons to appropriate these places. There is no better service we can render to the masses of the people than to set about and preserve for them wide spaces of fine scenery for their delight. "From these propositions I draw the conclusion that it is necessary to save what we have got, and to extend the policy which you have wisely adopted, by acquiring and preserving still further areas for the perpetual enjoyment of the people."