M’Kinley Memorial Fund

     The time has now come when the people of Illinois have an opportunity to show that in affection for the memory of the late President they yield to no other State in the union. And yet it should be in no spirit of State pride that the subscriptions are made. It would be much to the discredit of the State if its contributions should fall below the sum which might justly be expected from it, and it would be a matter for congratulation if Illinois should be conspicuously generous, but the real motive should rise above such considerations and find its source in reverent admiration of the American citizen who lived according to the best principles of American citizenship. The nation can never regret the erecting of a monument to a man who was an embodiment of so many of the nation’s ideals.
     The process of securing the money for this memorial, however, is through the channels of State organization, and the Illinois State auxiliary of the McKinley National Memorial association has now issued its call, backed by a proclamation from Governor Yates. It is through this auxiliary that the citizens of Illinois will be expected to contribute their share of the funds necessary for the monument at Canton. There can be no doubt that the call will meet with a quick and satisfactory response. To urge the people of the State to contribute according to their means is superfluous. But there is some danger that there might be a delay in accomplishing what will, of course, be accomplished ultimately but which ought to be accomplished at once. Let the subscriptions be made immediately, let the money be collected as soon as possible, and let the committee, after a careful discussion of plans, build the memorial arch or other structure without the dilatoriness of which such bodies are often guilty. It is only a mark of proper respect to the dead that his grave should not remain long unhonored.
     If the befitting monument is, as Milton suggests, “the labor of an age in piled stones,” it is not necessary that that age should be spent in raising the money to pay that labor. The actual designing and erecting of the memorial should not be done in haste, but the subscribing period should be as brief as possible.