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Show 1 liolLlLL FOR BOYS li SERVICE of com Editor Standard: The suggestions made through the columns of your pa-- pa-- per regarding a memorial in honor of the boys of Ogden and Weber county who responded to the call of our country coun-try have all been deeply interesting to" me. As the movement seemed to ; , be taking a satisfactory drift, I have not felt disposed to "butt in," but there : was just one word in Dr. Condon's ar-' ar-' tfcfc in, your last night's paper that I ' 5 want to object to. ; ' I most heartily agree with him that ;; the memorial should not be built of ; perishable material, but in both mate- i rial and construction it should, as nearly near-ly as possible, be made as indeslrucl-able indeslrucl-able as the everlasting hills in wliose bosom it is set. A frame building containing con-taining a collection of relics would be decidedly cheap and entirely inade-;1 inade-;1 quale to represent the supremo sacrifice sacri-fice that has been offered by our loyal ' :ons Let it bn an eternal and impcr-; impcr-; ' liable memorial, bui let it bo anything any-thing but a shaft, which though it may be ever so beautiful from an artistic $i?ndpoint, serves no other "purpose ; than to please the eye as did the monu- nients of heather idolatry. V'e want an imperishable record I made of the names of our boys, one hat will go down in the annals of the ! world, though the printed page may be ! destroyed. But aside from it being a : work of art, there is no reason why it v should not serve anomer purpose, es-I es-I pcciall if that purpose is an appropriate appro-priate one Our boys were selected for the service serv-ice of our country because of their J physical fitness. A memorial devoted J to the interests of physical fitness, not only of the present generationbui of! all the generations to come, seems to j me to be the most fitting testimonial I i that we can offer to the young man-; man-; hood that represented us In th great " war. I I believe it is safe to say that Og- den is the only city of its size In the United States that does- not boast a public gymnasium. Small country towns or less than one-tenth the population popu-lation of Ogden have modern, up-to- K date buildings and equipment for the :fe physical training of their young men W and women, while our boys have no I place to go, unless they belong to a , lodge, or are disposed to spend their ! leisure hours in a smoke saturated pool hall i No one will question our need of 1 such a place for our young people whose physical opportunities are limited lim-ited by the nature of our city life. An j Institution of this kind, say in Lester park, under proper management. would become a very popular placeand a credit and source of pride to every citizen citi-zen of our city and county. L-.'t it be called Memorial hall and let it be elaborate elab-orate enough in structure and equipment equip-ment to justify the name. A room for war relies would be very appropriate, and it would not be hard to find a place of prominence for n bronze tablet containing con-taining the names of these who have i I laid down their lives for the cause of j r j made the same offering but were ' spared to return to us. Life membership in the benefits, of ' 1 such an Institution for our soldiers and sailors would be a substantial recog-; recog-; nltion and appreciation of their serv-, serv-, j ices and would not lack any of I he me- morlal elements of the most artistic i shaft that was ever constructed. , ' Our need and our opportunity seem I to have united themselves in this ; . proposition. Let's put it over, for now ; is our chance. The money .spent on a i , granite or marble shaft, if put into a 1 memorial hall would serve a double 1 purpose, and satisfaction a hundred ' fold would come to those who contribute. contrib-ute. I would expect to do my share toward the erection of a shaft, if that Is decided upon, but I believe that I f represent a very large percentage of ' the people of Ogden when I say'thal ; my contribution will be ten times as i , much, if necessary, toward the cost of. . an institution devoted to the democ-': democ-': ; racy of social relations and physical ; i fitness, as it would be toward the cost of a memorial shaft. Furthermore, it . ; will be given ten limes as freely. Yours for Memorial hall, II. M. MONSON. |
