No Concrete Jeeps

Viewing the elephantastic $2,750,000 World War I Liberty Memorial above Kansas City's famed Union Station Plaza, the late Will Rogers delighted art critics and deeply wounded the pride of Kansas Citizens when he asked: "What is it? A silo?"

Thousands of other U.S. war memorials, better and worse than Kansas City's, have drawn like comments, from plain men and professional critics. Nevertheless, they exist. The U.S., in fact, began World War II with a rigid militia of statuary almost as big as the standing army. Now, with the U.S. entering its fourth war year and some World War II memorials already abuilding, something of a revolt against traditional war memorials has sprung up. The U.S. people have apparently decided that they want no concrete jeeps, or LSTs in marble. By last week city after city had begun to plan more useful ways of honoring the nation's fighting men:

P: The citizenry of Chattanooga, Tenn., eternally picketed by statues commemorating Civil War battles, planned a $500,000 memorial park on the Tennessee River's Moccasin Bend.

P: At Coral Gables, Fla., a citizen's association, shocked by Florida's juvenile delinquency, has raised $50,000, begun acquiring property for a youth-center memorial. The center will provide teenagers with tennis courts, a softball diamond, library, snack bar, recreation room and a patio for dancing.

P: Plans for memorial buildings to house veterans' organizations blossomed everywhere. Georgia ex-servicemen hoped for $2,000,000 in state funds for an air-conditioned pink and white marble building. Cleveland veterans had ambitiously ordered architect's plans for a $7,000,000 structure; Detroit Legionnaires had raised $250,000. Many Legion posts dreamed hopefully of buildings with bowling alleys, cafeterias, auditoriums.

The University of California talked of Liberty scholarships, open only to World War II veterans, in memory of graduates who have died in battle. The Iowa City (la.) Junior Chamber of Commerce was hard at work on a $50,000 scholarship fund in honor of Nile Kinnick, Iowa's 1939 All-America halfback, who was killed in action.

Lest the U.S. forget some of the memorials it has put up and will long have to put up with, Harvard's architectural Dean Joseph Hudnut warned:

"These things are not harmless. Monuments . . . exert a force. Their malice is unpitying. General Grant gallantly overcame his enemies, but he will never overcome his monument."

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