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SALUTES
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SALUTES: December
Many sculptures in Manhattan are linked to important dates in U.S. or world history. Here are a few for December.
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December 1, 1787: Alexander Hamilton issues Federalist Paper #15
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December 25, 1936: Death of Arthur Brisbane, Patron Saint of Yellow Journalism
December 1, 1787:
Alexander Hamilton issues Federalist Paper #15
* Alexander Hamilton, by Carl Conrads, dedicated 1880. Central Park just west of the Metropolitan Museum, at about 83rd St.
Immersed as I often am in history, I sometimes find myself asking "chronologically challenged" questions such as: What would the Founding Fathers have said about the United Nations? Here's an excerpt from Federalist Papers #15 (12/1/1787), by Alexander Hamilton:
There is nothing absurd or impracticable in the idea of a league or alliance between independent nations, for certain defined purposes precisely stated in a treaty; regulating all the details of time, place, circumstance and quantity; leaving nothing to future discretion; and depending for its execution on the good faith of the parties. Compacts of this kind exist among all civilized nations subject to the usual vicissitudes of peace and war, of observance and non observance, as the interests or passions of the contracting powers dictate. In the early part of the present [eighteenth] century, there was an epidemical rage in Europe for this species of compacts; from which the politicians of the times fondly hoped for benefits which were never realized. With a view to establishing the equilibrium of power and the peace of that part of the world, all the resources of negotiation were exhausted and triple and quadruple alliances were formed; but they were scarcely formed before they were broken, giving an instructive but afflicting lesson to mankind how little dependence is to be placed on treaties, which have no other sanction than the obligations of good faith; and which oppose general considerations of peace and justice to the impulse of any immediate interest and passion.
This is one of four outdoor statues of Alexander Hamilton in Manhattan. Also available on this site: a walking tour of the four Hamilton sculptures and a partial transcript of my walking tour on Hamilton, delivered October 2004 for New York Heroes. For more on this sculpture, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan.
December
5, 1963: Death of Herbert H. Lehman
* Lehman Gate, by Paul Manship. Entrance to Central Park Children's Zoo, near Fifth Ave. and 66th St. Faces west; best viewed in the afternoon, with lots of light coming through the trees.
A laissez-faire capitalist can find copious amounts to condemn in the legislative actions of Herbert H. Lehman, who died 40 years ago today. As Governor of New York from 1932 to1942, he pushed through massively expensive social and economic legislation that paralleled his mentor Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal: relief for the unemployed, aid to farmers, public housing, minimum wages, unemployment insurance, and social security.
But let’s consider the lighter side of Lehman. In honor of his fiftieth wedding anniversary, he and his wife donated funds for the Central Park Children’s Zoo, which opened in 1961. The Children’s Zoo has since been revamped, but the bronze Lehman Gate by noted sculptor Paul Manship still stands at its entrance. Across the top of the Gate, frolicking with astonishing agility on coiling vines, are three boys, two goats and a selection of unidentifiable (to me, at least) birds that always remind me of Ogden Nash:
But a bird in the open never looks
Like its picture in the birdie books -
Or if it once did, it has changed its plumage,
And plunges you back into ignorant gloomage.
That is why I sit here growing old by inches,
Watching the clock instead of the finches,
But sometimes visualize in my gin
The Audubon that I audubin.
Manship’s most famous work in New York is the gilded Prometheus at Rockefeller Center, but he also produced the Paul Rainey Gates at the north entrance to the Bronx Zoo, the beloved Group of Bears in the playground just south of the Metropolitan Museum, and the little-known Governor Alfred E. Smith Flagpole (Governor Smith Memorial Park, intersection of Catherine and Cherry Streets), a charming conglomeration of bear, deer, beavers and owls.
For the complete Ogden Nash poem, “Up From the Egg: The Confessions of a Nuthatch Avoider,” go to http://rvas.grrtech.com/humor.html .
December 11, 1882: Birth of
Fiorello La Guardia
* Fiorello LaGuardia, by Neil Estern, 1994. East side of LaGuardia Place, just north of Bleecker St.
This striding, gesticulating, chattering figure is one of the most charming and energetic portrait statues in Manhattan - no matter what one thinks of the politician represented. LaGuardia (1882-1947) was born near the site of this statue, on Sullivan St. He became the first Italian-American congressman in 1916, and cosponsored the Norris-LaGuardia Act that restricted federal courts from issuing injunctions to stop labor disputes.
In 1933 he was elected mayor of New York. During his 12-year term, he took control of the City's two privately run subway lines, consolidated much of NYC government, and cracked down on illegal gambling. He hired as director of the Parks Department the dictatorial Robert Moses, who oversaw an enormous expansion of the NYC parks through the 1930s and 1940s. La Guardia also appealed directly to the federal government for funds for New York's bridges, tunnels, reservoirs, sewer systems, highways, schools, hospitals, and airports. (The West Side Highway, East River Drive, Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Triborough Bridge and the airport that now bears his name were all constructed during his tenure.) By the time LaGuardia left office, New York had a heavy debt, facilities it could not afford to maintain, and a burgeoning bureaucracy.
And this from a man who ran as a Republican! Tut, tut.
Four mayors attended the dedication of the LaGuardia statue: Beame, Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani. Estern's other works include a bust of JFK in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. A bust of LaGuardia by Jo Davidson stands near the LaGuardia Houses in lower Manhattan (Madison between Clinton and Jefferson Sts.).
For more on this sculpture, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan.
December 25, 1936: Death of Arthur Brisbane, Patron Saint of Yellow Journalism
* At Fifth Ave. and 101st Street, a granite shaft is set against the wall of Central Park, with a seat at one side; above the seat, a sunken medallion with Brisbane's portrait in profile (by Richmond Barthe) is carved into the granite.
Brisbane is famous for his admonition to reporters: "Never forget that if you don't hit a newspaper reader between the eyes with your first sentence, there is no need of writing a second one." He's also notorious for his role in fomenting the Spanish-American War while working for Hearst's New York Journal (1898), and is credited with the popularization of such "modern" newspaper techniques as short sentences, lots of illustrations, huge headlines, and overuse of exclamation points. With a column published in 1,000 daily and weekly newspapers for two decades, Brisbane could (and did) claim to be the most widely read writer in the history of the world.
This is his biographer's well-considered evaluation of Brisbane's life's work (Oliver Carlson, Brisbane: A Candid Biography, 1937, pp. 17-18).
Was Brisbane a great man?
The answer depends upon the yardstick used. If greatness be measured in terms of mass appeal - then Brisbane was truly great. If it be measured in terms of financial success - again the answer must be in the affirmative. If it be measured in terms of achievement within his profession - then too, he is great, for his innovations in the field of journalism were pioneer efforts in creating the "yellow press." But if the yardstick be an intangible something such as truth, integrity, consistency or humanity, the answer must be in the negative....
He craved power, popular success, and, above all, money.... His philosophy of life, if such it may be called, was a vulgarized pragmatism which believed that any means used in attaining the end sought was proper and justifiable, provided that it was adequately seasoned with ripe old moral and religious precepts plucked for the occasion.
And his perpetual advice to his readers to THINK, while it was, perhaps, well meant, and fed his own ego, certainly didn't improve his own powers of cognition. His active mind, had it been harnessed to some important problem for more than a few consecutive moments, could have made important contributions to any field he had chosen to explore. He read widely, but not well. He thought quickly, but superficially. These qualities, which fitted him so well as a newspaper editor appealing to the mass mind, at the same time unfitted him for a more profound and worthwhile contribution to American though and letters. But the fact of his great influence and appeal makes even his mediocrity important. In an age in which manipulation of public opinion has become the fulcrum of the political lever, Arthur Brisbane's strange career is an astonishing document.
Does this remind anyone else of Gail Wynand in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead?
The inscription on the Brisbane monument reads: "Arthur Brisbane 1864-1936, American editor and patriot. He spread before all a panorama of the events of his times. He was the champion of work and peace before all mankind. He gave to the people a clear understanding of the history of all the ages. He imparted to millions an appreciation and love of the literature of the literature, art and religion which have ennobled the world."
Brisbane will appear in vol. 3 of the Forgotten Delights series, Politicians and Media Moguls. For information on vol. 1, Forgotten Delights: The Producers, click here.
December
30, 1873: Birth of Al Smith. (Got Milk?)
* Alfred E. Smith, by Charles Keck, 1946. Governor Smith Memorial Park, Catherine St. between Monroe and Cherry.
On January 1, 1919, the day Al Smith (1873-1944) was inaugurated for his first term as governor of New York State, the upstate farmers of the Dairymen's League began a 2-week strike. They refused to deliver milk to New York City because, they said, the Milk Conference Board (a group of wholesalers and distributors) had set prices too low.
In his inauguration speech, on the other hand, Smith called the high price of milk a “public menace,” and argued that as an essential commodity, milk should be regulated the same way utilities were.
Was the price too high or too low? The price of milk had nearly doubled over the course of World War I, and my guess is that by 1919 it was beginning to decline as the economy settled back to a peace-time footing. But milk was an easy target for government action. It was an important source of nutrition for low-income city-dwellers, and there were no substitutes. On the other hand, dairy products accounted for about a third of the income of New York farmers. Low prices and high prices were both bad.
To his chagrin, Smith found that he did not have authority to control milk prices: the bureaucrats involved reported directly to the state legislature. But here in New York, liberal intellectuals and legislators have long believed that the government knows best and should impose its superior knowledge on the citizenry. In 1933 the New York State legislature created the Milk Control Board to fix minimum and maximum retail prices for milk. (You can read an appalling 1934 Supreme Court ruling against a storekeeper who dared to sell milk for less than the minimum price at http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/nebbia.html .)
With the late-20th-century shift to a service economy and the decreasing number of farmers in the Northeast, not to mention the availability of manufactured formula and of milk so pure you can store it on a pantry shelf, you might assume that regulation of milk prices is ancient history. Unfortunately once they get on the books, such regulations tend to stick. A quick Google search turned up an 8/8/2003 press release from Senator Charles Schumer’s office assuring his constituents that he had drafted legislation by which farmers would receive payments when the price of milk fell below a certain point. The funds were to be provided from assessments on milk processors and “federal funds” (read: your tax dollars).
Although Smith wasn’t able to regulate the price of milk in 1919, guess which of the following he did support or sponsor during his tenure as governor (1919-20, 1923-26):
- Rent control
- Tenant protection
- Low-cost housing
- Increased workers’ compensation
- Restriction on maximum hours per week that women could work
- Increased public aid to mothers, infants and dependent children
- Increased funding for public education
- Government construction, operation and regulation of the NYC subway system
- All the above
If you said “All the above,” you’ve got a pretty good grasp of what New York City politicians typically do to maintain their popularity.
The Smith statue stands in a park near the Alfred E. Smith houses, a low-income housing development sponsored by Smith in the Lower East Side neighborhood where he grew up. Behind Smith is a relief of children at play that illustrates Smith's campaign theme song, "The Sidewalks of New York." A couple yards away is a flagpole by Paul Manship, whose based is composed of animals native to New York: much more charming to look at than Smith, once you know Smith's politics and principles.
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