TO DISCUSS MERGING FUNDS FOR STATUES

Municipal Art Society Officials To Confer With Robert Garrett

FEAR LEGAL DIFFICULTY

Would Combine Bequests For Single Monument To Honor Generals Lee And Jackson

Whether Gen. Robert E. Lee will be commemorated with two statues or merely share honors with Gen. Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson in one monument will be the question tomorrow night when officials of the Municipal Art Society confer with Robert Garrett. An effort then will be made to reconcile the stipulations of two wills providing for the erection of the memorials.

Robert W. Williams, president of the art society, said last night “he was very much afraid” that plans to combine the sums left by J. Henry Ferguson and Mrs. Elizabeth B. White, Mr. Garrett’s great aunt, would prove difficult if not impossible.

Fund Grows To $40,000

Mrs. White’s will, executed in 1917, provides for the erection of an equestrian statue to General Lee. The funds stipulated have grown from $19,000 to $40,000 since that time. A proviso in the will designates Druid Hill Park for the site of the monument.

The are society was left $100.000 by Mr. Ferguson in 1928 to erect a statue commemorating the parting of Lee and Jackson before the Battle of Chancellorsville, in which Jackson was mortally wounded.

May Clear Away Difficulty

With the suggestion to combine the sums for the erection of one memorial coming from several quarters the meeting tomorrow night may do much in the way of clearing up the difficulty created by the differing stipulations of the wills, Mr. Williams said. regardless of whether or not the legal obstructions may be ironed out. he said, the plan to erect the dual statue of the generals will be carried out at some future date.