A MEMORIAL BUILDING WITH BELL TOWER AND PEACE CARILLON.
A CONCRETE STATEMENT LOOKING TO THE PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA PRESENTED IN THE FOREGOING PAGES:
OBJECT: It is here proposed that in the city of Washington there shall be erected a national memorial to commemorate the heroes and events of the great war, seeking to keep the chief emphasis on the esthetic and moral side rather than on that of physical triumph of armed force.
DESCRIPTION: A memorial building of monumental architectural proportions, to include as an essential embellishment a bell-tower at least 200 feet high to the bells and of sufficient lateral dimensions to provide a bell-chamber 25 feet square.
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.