COST OF MEMORIAL BUILDING: It is proposed that the cost shall not
exceed $5,000,000, to be appropriated by an Act of Congress for such
purpose. (If the memorial were in the form of a bell-tower only, the
cost should be between one and two million dollars.)
DESCRIPTION OF CARILLON: This should consist of about 50 perfectly
tuned bells, giving a range of four octaves or thereabout, and a
complete playing mechanism for both concert and automatic play.
MATERIAL FOR BELLS: Copper to the extent of 60,000 pounds, sufficient
for a carillon of 50 bells, would be derived from captured enemy war
materials. (In the absence of bronze cannon among the American
captures, this copper would be obtainable from 86,000 pounds of
shell-cases, to be furnished by the War Department at the direction of
Congress.) The requisite tin, some 15,000 pounds, might best be
supplied under terms of contract by the bell founders.
COST OF CARILLON: Such a carillon complete with playing mechanism
would be obtainable at a cost not exceeding $40,000.
USES: Such a memorial would afford ample opportunity for every type of
memorial treatment: Architecture, sculpture, inscription, tablet, mural
painting, and the housing of relics and records etc.; in fact possess
every advantage that an arch or other memorial structure could possibly
give and avoid the objectionable sentiment that many people feel toward
the triumphal arch idea.
Music, whether played automatically or by hand, is always under control
and can be played soft or loud as the bell-master may decide. Some
wonderful snatch of melody would play automatically morning and evening
or during the noon hour, changed from time to time for the sake of
variety or to suit the particular season, while on one evening each
week the bell-master would present a formal concert.
LOCATION: A memorial of this kind should be well in the midst of the
city, that many might enjoy its music by the mere opening of a window
or a door, and that other thousands might have ready access to concerts
without long journeys for that purpose. (As many as 30,000 people are
said to have gathered for a concert of this kind at Malines, Belgium.)
Preferably, tho not necessarily, such a building should be on elevated
ground, and near sufficient open space such as a park would afford, to
accommodate large numbers of people who would gather for the concerts.
Many have suggested Sixteenth Street Park as an ideal setting for it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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