Memorial to Oscar S. Straus to Be Erected in Washington

The House Library Committee yesterday ordered a favorable report on the resolution of Congressman Celler of Brooklyn, authorizing the erection of a monument or memorial in Washington to the late Oscar S. Straus, Ambassador to Turkey under President Taft, and Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President Rooseevlt.

After hearing the statements of Congressman Celler, Leo J. Rowe, director of the Pan-American Union, Herbert Knox Smith, formerly associated with Oscar Straus in the Department of Commerce and Labor, Representative Fred M. Davenport and Representative Robert Luce, the committee voted unanimously for the favorable report of the resolution. It was stated here that this is the first time a monument to a Jew was authorized to be erected in the national capital.

Messages endorsing the resolution were received from Henry Morgenthau, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, George B. Cortelou. Dr. Lee K. Frankel, Charles P. Neill, Robert Underwood Johnson, and Dr. Cyrus Adler.

The resolution read: ” Resolved, that the director of Public Buildings and Parks of the National Capital be and hereby is authorized and directed to select a suitable site and to grant permission to any association or associations organized within two years of the date of approval of this resolution for that purpose, to erect as a gift to the people of the United States on the (Continued on Page 4)

public grounds of the United States in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, a monument or memorial to the memory of Oscar S. Straus, provided that the site and the design of the monument or memorial shall be approved by the Commission of Fine Arts and that it shall be erected under the supervision of the director of public buildings and public parks of the national capital and the United States shall be put to no expense in or by the erection of said monument or memorial.”