umns represent the States of the Union at the time of Lincoln's death. You enter the room where the giant statue of Lincoln sits on a flag-draped chair.

As you gaze at this immense marble statue of the beloved Lincoln, his kindly face lightens your serious mood. You think about his keen sense. of humor and recall his correspondence with 11-year-old Grace Bedell, of Westfield, N. Y. Grace wrote to him, suggesting that he grow whiskers on his thin face. If he would, she promised to get all four of her brothers to vote for him. He replied, asking if it would not make him look silly to grow whiskers. She assured him that all the ladies like whiskers and they would make their husbands vote for him. Lincoln enjoyed her letters so much that he stopped in Westfield to see her on one of his trips. These letters and others are preserved in the Lincoln Museum in your Capital City.

The Jefferson Memorial is a circular, white marble shrine that has four entrances to the beautiful Memorial Room. Here stands the huge bronze figure of Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third President of the United States. On a frieze you will read his famous words against any form of tyranny over the mind of man.

The Tombs of the Unknown Servicemen east of the Amphitheater in Arlington National Cemetery are among the best known memorials in our country. The tombs stand as memorials to all American servicemen who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars and also in the Korean War. Always, day and night, there is a lone guard, in parade uniform, who paces back and forth before this shrine. It is an impressive sight to see the changing of the guard, every hour on the hour. A guard is on sentry duty for a 24-hour period. During that period, he is on active guard duty 1 hour; then off for 3. It is an honor to be selected for this kind of duty. You see the finest type of soldier from nearby Fort Meyer performing this solemn task from sunrise to sunset every day of the year. It must be a lonely time after sunset, when the gates are closed to visitors. An interested visitor watched the changing of the guard one day. She followed the soldier who had been relieved and asked: "Do you get extra pay for this tiring and lonely task?" The trim, erect young soldier replied: "No, Ma'am. To serve as a guard at the Tombs of the Unknown Servicemen is the highest honor that can come to an enlisted man. Every man in my battalion hopes he will be chosen. We work hard to get into the Honor Guard from which selections are made."

Iwo Jima The U. S. Marine Corps War Memorial

Four miles from the Capitol, just north of Arlington National Cemetery, stands a heroic memorial to U.S. Marines who have given their lives. for our country. This statue is probably the biggest cast-bronze statue

ever made. It shows the flag-raising scene on Iwo Jima's Mt. Suribachi during World War II. The four Marines who are shown in the flagraising are four times life size and stand 64 feet high. Each helmet is 11 feet in circumference and each canteen is big enough to hold 16 gallons. Along with the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial, this statue honoring U. S. Marines is a sight visitors should not miss.

The Organization of American States and the American Red Cross

The current events class agreed that all of the nations of the world belong to one big family. On a small plot of ground in your Capital City stands the beautiful Pan American Union Building. It is owned and maintained by 21 different nations. They are the American Republics that have pioneered in international understanding under the name of Organization of American States.

As you enter the building, you are fascinated by the Latin American patio. It has a revolving glass roof, a splashing fountain, and spicysmelling tropical trees. As you go up the wide stairways you notice the mosaic floors and the colorful wall decorations. A gallery joins the stairways.

In this gallery hang the flags of the American Republics in alphabetical order. Jane will be able to identify them for you because of her hobby of collecting flags. She says that her favorite one is the flag of Guatemala. On it is a golden-green bird, the quetzal, that dies when it is caged. It is a symbol of liberty.

Among the busts look for Simon Bolivar, the George Washington of Venezuela. The guide will show you the big assembly room, the Hall of the Americas, and the adjoining Council Room. Finally you will visit the Aztec garden, where the statute of Xochipilli, the God of Flowers, haughtily presides over the blue reflecting pool.

You are sorry to leave this beautiful building that houses an ideal of world friendship. But you want to see the American National Red Cross that houses another kind of ideal-that of service. You know what kind it is because you have been members of the Junior Red Cross since you first came to school.

Jane does not have to identify the Red Cross flag because it is an international one that the whole world salutes. In times of disaster, floods, fires, epidemics, as well as war, the Red Cross is there to serve.

The American National Red Cross building which looks like a huge colonial mansion, is a national headquarters and a memorial. It was built in memory of the women who nursed the ill and wounded of both

the North and South during the Civil War. In the lobby and the floor below you will see historical exhibits, statuary, and displays of current projects.

The tour of the Capital City is over. The sightseeing bus will take the tourists back to the Station. The young visitors are glad that the last two buildings visited were ones of international significance. They want to remember Washington as a Capital City in one big world.

Did this city just happen? Most cities did, but not the Capital City. It was created for a specific and unusual purpose. The Nation needed a single, permanent home for its new Government. When the Revolutionary War ended, the Continental Congress had met in four different places. Its Members had grumbled many times about the hardships of moving. So many moves had made the Government seem weak and unstable. These grumblings were softened after nearly 5 years of sessions in comfortable Philadelphia. Then something exciting happened that stirred the Members into action for one permanent home.

One day the Continental Congress was holding its usual, dignified session in Independence Hall. An angry mob of ragged, half-starved soldiers cursed and shouted threats of violence outside the windows. These soldiers wanted their back pay and other claims settled. The Continental Congress had not been able to pay them or settle claims earlier because it had no money. The Nation was almost bankrupt.

The Continental Congress rushed a request for protection to the Executive Council of Pennsylvania. It was meeting at the same time in Independence Hall. It refused to help and the local police would do nothing. Such unwillingness to cooperate with the Continental Congress was not unusual in any State or city during these early days of our new Government.

Real fear made the Members of the session want to adjourn and leave, but that would be cowardly. They must face possible physical danger to hold the respect of their countrymen for the young, faltering Govern

ment.

At the end of the day, however, they voted that after adjourning, in a few days they would convene on the campus of Princeton University. No one had been harmed by brickbats or bullets, but the outrageous happening influenced action toward a single, permanent home for our Government. Such a home must be controlled and protected by Congress, and not by the laws of any State or city.

During the Princeton session, a bill was introduced for a permanent Federal town on the quiet banks of the Delaware River or the Potomac. Then the Continental Congressmen began a 7-year argument over the place where the town should be. Towns, cities, and States struggled for it. The bitterest feelings of all raged between the North and the South. The rivalry was so strong that two Federal towns seemed to be one way out. An angry Congressman is reported to have shouted, "Why not. put our precious Government on an old hay wagon and haul it north and south? Why not haul the new statue of the Father of Our Country on another wheeled platform? Any old oxcart will do." Suddenly the deadlock was ended by a curious, clever compromise.

By this time the Constitution of the United States had been adopted, and George Washington was our President. Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, wanted the new Nation to be on a sound financial basis. He believed that the Federal Government should pay for all debts owed by the States. He wrote this into a bill which was introduced in Congress. Northern States favored a strong central government which would assume the war debts; the Southern States were opposed.

Hamilton had an idea. Why not get help from Jefferson, a Virginian. and a great Southern leader. Hamilton would promise to get votes for a