HEROES: Commoner in Bronze

A thin misty rain fell on the banks of the Potomac. The President of the U. S. looked out on a sodden spectacle from a covered stand. A dripping crowd of men and women milled over temporary canvas footpaths; others, holding umbrellas, sat on chairs set on boards to keep them from sinking into the muddy turf of West Potomac Park. The central figure of the gathering was enveloped in a soggy shroud of white canvas. A little boy, David Hargreaves, tugged desperately at a red, white and blue cord but the shroud refused to come away. Two husky policemen finally seized the heavy canvas, dragged it off by main force to reveal the face and figure of the little boy’s grandfather — William Jennings Bryan, posed in bronze as if about to speak to the drenched gathering below. It was not Bryan’s voice that rang through the murky air, but the voice of his onetime friend, Josephus Daniels, who began four years ago raising funds for the statue. Day before Mr. Daniels had arrived from his far-off post as Ambassador in Mexico City, partly to visit at the White House, partly to bring the text of the New Mexican Claims agreements but mostly to speak in praise of his fellow member in Woodrow Wilson’s Cabinet. Ambassador Daniels reviewed the whole life of the Great Commoner from the “Cross of Gold” to the evolution trial at Dayton, Tenn., told how he “made” three amendments to the Constitution: the 16th (income tax), 18th (popular election of Senators) and 18th (prohibition). At mention of the 16th everyone applauded, including the President. At mention of the 18th many a spectator looked beyond the statue to the tall tower of Christian Heurich’s Brewery running full blast. Said Ambassador Daniels: “During these years men condemned him, denounced him, flouted him, despised him, cheered him, loved him, honored him, had faith in him, followed him. They would oppose him or rally to him. But in all those years none could be indifferent to him.” President Roosevelt arose and said: “This memorial. … I gladly accept on behalf of the U. S. As we look back I think that we would choose the word ‘sincerity’ as fitting him most of all.” Thus was honor done to a dead states man and to a living sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, present in the drizzle with wife, son and daughter. Bryan is the sixth hero whom he has immortalized in Washington.* A chance for him to do a seventh hero ended lately when the House killed Senate Joint Resolution 21, permitting the erection of a Borglum statue to Colonel Robert Ingersoll (TIME, April 2).

*The others: Colonel Greenway of Arizona, Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, Zebulon B. Vance of North Carolina, all in Statuary Hall in the Capitol; Abraham Lincoln in the Capitol Rotunda: General Phil Sheridan in Sheridan Circle.