Show lincoln ilis his spirit Es Is with the age ages martyr emancipator IL myth M A at abe Is forever F brever by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator like everything else in this political year preparations for birthday in 1948 are chiefly a matter of scram bling through the great emancipators writings to find a text for a highly partisan outburst but february 12 is the oc casion for more than a barrage of political speeches to me lincoln Is real because he and my childhood conception of my grandfather are strangely blended both I 1 ke merlin s camelot are build ed forever because to roe me they never were at all they were myth rather than tact fact a myth not of my own making but handed down through two generations my mother as a little child saw lincoln like a man sleeping she thought as he lay jay in state in C chicago h I 1 c a g 0 my grandmother stood beside her swathed in the heavy mourning veil of the day which she felt perhaps was as much for or lincoln then as it was for her sol soldier ie bus hus band who had given his life in the same cause baukhage to my mother staring at that coffin in chicago there always re bained a confused impression of mourning tor for the man she thought was not dead but sleeping and the father she never had seen perhaps that feeling was imparted to me my mother described the scene to me it was clearly etched in her memory like the rest of the strange hegira which she took westward with her widowed mother from a little town in new york state as a bride my grandmother had po p leered the west with her young new york state farm born husband of course the memories were blurred and blended undoubtedly with later repetition of the event but the p was clear and I 1 only wish 1 I could repeat it in my moth er a own words the train trip west the arrival in the great city the crowd about her as she advanced slowly with her mother into the great hall then the coffin which she did not know was a coffin for there was no such word in her t ny cocab her mother let go the little g rl a hand to move back her own heavy veil then the little 9 rl A remembered being lifted in the strong hands of the guard about him she could re call only a blue tunic shiny brass buttons and the smell of tobacco then the face of the sleeping man and her mother s quiet tears the body of 0 the martyred president as you know was taken from the east room of the white house to the capitol where it lay lacy in state then it was carried across the country pausing for homage in several cities until it reached spring field lincoln s home I 1 repeated my mother a story after her death as best I 1 could on the air and there were sequels letters one from a lady in new england for whom the broadcast had awakened memories her father had been one of the union solders sold ers chosen to stand guard at the catafalque in chicago it might well have been be he who lifted my mother the soldiers who had been chosen for that honored duty were permit ted to d vide the gold fringed drape that covered the coffin she wrote me and she consigned to me a frag ment wh ch I 1 cherish there were many other letters one from the niece of one of lincoln s cabinet members william pitt lessenden an other enclosing the announcement shown in the cut those were two sequels to the story of the little girl and her weep ing mother I 1 think the everlasting sequel can be read again and again in the story of america as the story of lincoln is projected far on into history I 1 think I 1 have seen it pro ejected in the crowds who come ito to washington avid with guidebook and camera to collect souvenirs only this week the garrulous cab driver who carried me from union station was full of a story of south americans who spent endless hours accord ng to his timing at the lincoln memorial the memorial remains a shrine for all vis tors native and foreign a place where flippant chatter is stilled before that almost living replica warmed to life out of cold marble by the inspired hand of daniel chester french it lives as the spirit of abraham lincoln lives to the little child beside the cata falque except tor for her mother mothers s tears there was no mourning in that moment only something alg sol 01 dmn something import important nt some thing that touched old and young alike because it had in it the c cosmic rhythm of the epic and as well the simple soul touching melody of the folk song and I 1 wonder if it there thre was not some intang ble some eternal ity of what lincoln d d or what his character has etched into the his C 01 1 funeral ceremonies ira IN OF or no III to T be b 1 ID the ROTUNDA OF or THE CAPITOLI off 0 N ahwal mal ath 1865 al 3 0 clod P M t run 1 D DC g tj by bud I 1 2 rod rew S of S by t hi OF 8 F ra a H U 1 ch 2 cam ye M bm re luarria a a i tory of america that gives ameri cans the assurance that his spirit especially in these times when evil gods make their black magic to be muse the minds of men is not dead but sleeps waiting only the clarion call of the people whom he loved to wake it into action 4 free speech russian style the russians celebrated christ mas with a c criticism of rus sian factories by the commercial d rector of the soviets largest department store the diorec tor compla ned tl at the factories were prodoc ng infer or products he wanted more and better goods more washing mach nes vacuum cleaners refrigerators and decent turn furn ture are you surprised that such criticism is permitted if you are you don t understand the soviet system criticism is al lowed as a sound method of cor reeling erecting faults although it t necessarily displace the cure which means banish meat ment temporarily or perma pernia bently to siberia just as in the good old days I 1 am reminded of columnist lowell Mel mellett letts s story about the scope of russian criticism on his trip to russia he was shown around by a very clever female guide mel lett asked her about freedom of the press and she said oh ch yes they had a tree free press the press contin bally criticized things including government enterprises well would they be allowed to criticize stalin mellett melle tt wanted to know why the girl was sur what has that got to do with if you couldn coulden t criticize him because there is nothing about him to criticize 0 0 secretary marshall wants the eu ell recovery plan to be run by a single administrator not an eight man board as has been suggested if the old saw that the best working committee is a committee of three with two members out of town is correct perhaps marshall is right january saw three presidential messages presented to congress each document had many a pas sage born only to waste its tra fra grance on the desert air of an un sympathetic majority too foo bad the republicans don t care for mr truman s budget the budget message was printed up so nicely bound so neatly and it IS unique unique in that it is the b g gest peacetime budget ever present ed to any congress |