MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM C. GORGAS, M.C., U.S.A. 307 



ceremonies. A special memorial service in honor of the late 

 Major General was held in Washington on Sunday evening, 

 January 16, 1921. Besides the diplomats, officers of the army 

 and navy, members of Congress and other officials, there was 

 present a large gathering of the many friends and admirers of 

 General Gorgas. The exercises were under the auspices of the 

 Southern Society of Washington, of which he was the former 

 president. Major General Peter C. Harris, the Adjutant Gen- 

 eral of the United States Army, who presided, paid a glowing 

 tribute to the life and career of General Gorgas. The other 

 speakers who followed in the same vein were: Dr. Clarence J. 

 Owens, Past President of the Southern Society; His Excellency 

 Mr. J. J. Jusserand, Ambassador of the French Republic; His 

 Excellency Sefior Don Frederico Alfonzo Pezet, Ambassador of 

 Peru; The Hon. Dr. Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, Minister of 

 Cuba; Hon. Sefior Dr. Don Rafael H. Elizalde, Minister of 

 Equador; Hon. Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War; Hon. 

 Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy; Hon. Sefior Don 

 J. E. Lefevre, Charge d'Affaires ad interim of Panama; Major 

 General H. K. Bethell, Military Attache to the British Embassy; 

 Dr. L. S. Rowe, Director General, Pan-American Union. Cable- 

 grams of tribute to General Gorgas were read from the residents 

 of Uruguay and Costa Rica and from the government of Columbia. 

 Since Major General Gorgas' death a number of movements 

 have been started to honor his memory. A Senate joint resolu- 

 tion by Senator Heflin, of Alabama, is before Congress, which 

 would authorize the expenditure of $50,000 in the erection of a 

 monument in the city of Washington. Another movement pur- 

 poses to raise a fund of $2,000,000 to establish a medical school 

 as a memorial to Major General William C. Gorgas. The 

 present plan is to have the entire nation contribute to the fund 

 and to locate the school at Tuscaloosa, Ala., where General 

 Gorgas lived as a boy. Dr. Scale Harris, of Birmingham, Ala., 

 is chairman of the National Committee. Lastly, a Gorgas 

 memorial institute has already been established in Washington, 

 D. C. The purpose of the executive committee is to further a 

 movement to introduce the sanitary methods devised by the late 

 Surgeon General Gorgas into all the civilized countries of the 

 world. 



