The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1983 (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1983-11-01 / 11. szám
November, 1983 THE EIGHTH HUNGARIAN TRIBE Page 5 HUNGARIAN—AMERICANA-BYPAUL PULITZER THE HUNGARIAN CONNECTION WITH THE “MOTHER OF EXILES” AMERICA’S UNWANTED ALIEN m “Liberty Enlightening the World” was a lonely lady, indeed, in 1890. —Photo courtesy of the New York Historical Society “Frenchman’s Folly!", they called it. And “Bartholdi’s Baby!” “It’s just a mad artist’s ego trip!” “Why should we pay for it?” they asked. “If the rich want it, let the rich pay for it!” “It’s New York’s problem,” they said. “Let New York worry about the money — not the whole country!” “Anyway, it will probably sink the ship that tries to bring it over!” they predicted. This, and much worse, was said about it by many Americans and echoed in print in the nation’s newspapers and magazines. These public expressions of rejection, in turn, triggered such a nationwide hullabaloo that many politicos became convinced it would be an act of prudence on their part to hop aboard the negative bandwagon. Grover Cleveland, for example, the Governor of the State of New York in 1884, who became the 22nd President of the United States in 1885, actually felt compelled to veto a Bill, passed by the State Assembly, Press cartoonists had a field day ridiculing “Bartholdi’s Baby”. authorizing the City of New York to contribute $50,000.00 towards the cost of constructing only the pedestal upon which it was to be erected! The American people, it seemed, had spoken. They did not want it. Nor were they in the mood to pay for any part of it. Responding to what appeared to be a consensus, the White House and the Congress assumed ostrich-like postures. To the people of France, however, who had with great difficulty, but with much enthusiasm, scraped together $400,000.00 (an enormous sum in 1882) to pay for their share of it, the attitude of the American people was incomprehensible. To some Frenchmen it was an insult. Their outburst of indignation caused a strain in Franco-American relations. Nevertheless, despite the public furor it generated on both sides of the Atlantic and the frigidity this created between Washington and Paris, it did make its American debut thanks to the help of patriotic Americans. And its debut was so dramatically successful that, to this very day, it is the trademark of what the United States of America stands for and a symbol known to and recognized by all the peoples of the world’s family of nations. It is the Statue of Liberty — proudly holding aloft the flaming torch of freedom for all the world to
