LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HONORS MEMORY OF HEROES 



A N impressive ceremony attended the planting of a 

 -**- Japanese elm tree on the grounds of the Congressional 

 Library, December 7, placed in honor of the four men from 

 the Library who gave their lives in the World War. The 

 men were Corporal Charles Edwin Chambers, Company 

 C, 312th Machine Gun Battalion, 79th Division; Lieuten- 

 ant Edward Theodore Comegys, nth Aero Squadron; 

 Corporal Frank Edward Dunkin, Company I, 54th United 

 States Infantry, and Corporal John Woodbury Wheeler, 

 Company B, 104th Field Signal Battalion, 29th Division. 

 The Librarian, Dr. Putnam, presided at the exercises 

 and paid high tribute to the character of the men, saying 



four men, but also of the cause which they served. It 

 should be with us a living thing, a growing thing. It 

 should have within it a power to serve. It should re- 

 fresh and invigorate us in times of peace ; it should steady 

 us and give us faith in times of stress. And it should en- 

 dure to the lasting profit of the community we serve, and 

 of that everlasting cause which, though wars may cease, 

 will always, in some form, require of us the sacrifice of 

 self." Appropriate remarks were also made by Repre- 

 sentative Julius Kahn, Chairman of the House Committee 

 on Military Affairs; by Colonel E. Lester Jones, Direc- 

 tor of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and by Captain 



Underu jod and Underwood, 



MEMORIAL TREE PLANTING AT THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY 



As a tribute to four employes who died in the World War, the staff of the Library of Congress planted a memorial tree on the Library grounds. 

 The librarian. Dr. Herbert Putman, who presided at the ceremonies, is shown standing on the platform. 



that the memorial placed for them there on the Library 

 grounds was most fitting and that "of all forms of 

 memorial a tree is the most symbolic. It is a living thing. 

 It is unselfish; the elements that it draws to itself 

 warmth of the sun, moisture of earth and air it gives 

 forth again in beauty and in protection. We plant it, not* 

 to bury it, but to enlarge its life and opportunity. It 

 is to grow, in stature, in vigor, in beauty, in service. It 

 is to endure, not merely in its own generation, but in 

 the later generations which will be its offspring. So 

 the memory which it holds for us : the memory of these 



7 



Garland Powell, who commanded the Aero Squadron in 

 which Lieutenant Comegys first served. A section of the 

 Marine Band furnished the music and through the cour- 

 tesy of the commanding officer of Boiling Field, agroupof 

 airplanes flew over the audience during the exercises. Dr. 

 Putman put the first shovel full of earth about the rocks 

 of the tree, and he was followed by Captain Averill, Su- 

 perintendent of the Library Building and Grounds, and 

 members of the staff and relatives of the four men. The 

 tree has been registered on the Honor Roll of the Ameri- 

 can Forestry Association by Mr. J. Bentley Mulford. 



