No Salomon Statue

School book histories of the American Revolution lay great stress upon such striking items as the sparks struck out by Paul Revere's horse or the Bunker Hill order about not firing until the whites of the enemy's eyes were visible. Financial affairs, being less emotional, are less noticed, but still there is usually some mention of Robert Morris, who is described as having lent large sums of money to the Continental Government and later spending many years in a debtor's jail. Last week in Manhattan the Morris story was gone into in some detail, owing to its connection with an even more neglected Revolutionary figure, one Haym Salomon. Mr. Salomon was a Jewish banker in Philadelphia. To him Jews wished to erect a statue in Madison Square, Manhattan. When the Municipal Art Commission refused to approve the statue, the cry of race prejudice was raised and Revolutionary history was retold to demonstrate Mr. Salomon's right to a monument. It was the Jewish "contention that Mr. Salomon had loaned to Robert Morris much of the money which Mr. Morris later contributed to the Continental Government; it was the Commission's contention that Mr. Salomon's exploits were largely legendary.

Morris. Robert Morris (1734-1806) was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and a member of the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1778, during which period he virtually controlled the financial operations which supplied money for Washington's army. From 1781 to 1784 he was superintendent of finance. In 1781 he personally advanced to Washington large sums of money and during most of his Revolutionary service he raised money as much or more by the strength of his own personal credit than by the credit of the Continental Congress. During a time when Colonial money was of so little value that "not worth a Continental

[banknote]" became a popular expression, Mr. Morris succeeded in laying hands on money enough to keep the Revolution, however staggeringly, on its financial feet. It should be added that the later poverty of Mr. Morris was not the result of money advanced during the Revolution. During the time of the Confederacy (1781-1788) Mr. Morris owned almost the entire western half of New York State; 2,000,000 acres in Georgia and a million acres each in Virginia, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. It was the failure of a London bank and the dishonesty of a partner that drove him into bankruptcy. Thus the U. S. Government was not directly responsible for his predicament, though it did seem as if some effort might have been made to save him from the three years he spent in a debtor's prison. Mr. Morris died in 1806.

Salomon. Haym Salomon was born in Lissa, Poland, in 1740. In 1775, while living in New York City, he was sentenced to death by the British for a reputed attempt at blowing up the British fleet in New York Harbor. He bribed his jailers and escaped to Philadelphia. In 1778 he was considered one of the country's wealthiest merchants and bankers, and, according to the Salomon side of the statue controversy, he lent $350,000 to Robert Morris. His sympathizers also credit him with having negotiated loans from France to the Continental Government and claim that his services were purposely minimized in order that Mr. Morris might get all the credit. Mr. Salomon's total advances to the Government are estimated at from $400,000 to $600,000, none of which, it is said, was ever returned to him. He died in 1785 and his estate fell into unskilled hands which reduced it to bankruptcy.

Records. So the Salomon version --but unfortunately there has appeared little documentary evidence to support it. Salomonites say that the records of Mr. Salomon's loans were lost when the British burned the White House in 1814. But he is not mentioned in the late Professor John Osborne Sumner's history of The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution, and Dr. Worthington Ford of the Massachusetts Historical Society and Dr. Victor Paltsits of the New York Public Library, who investigated his career for the Art Commission, found insufficient data to justify a memorial.

Chairman Robert W. De Forest of the Municipal Art Commission said that the refusal to approve the statue was based upon dissatisfaction with the site (Madison Square), and that the decision was without prejudice to the selection of another site, but Jews were not satisfied with the implied suggestion that their hero might be remembered in some less conspicuous portion of Manhattan. Mr. DeWitt M. Lockman, artist and member of the Art Commission, suggested that an excellent compromise would be a general memorial "of an allegorical nature" to all the Jews who helped in the Revolution. Mr. Z. Tygel, Secretary of the Federation of Polish Jews, who were raising $75,000 for the Salomon statue, maintained that Mr. Salomon was unfairly being denied due recognition. In connection with the racial aspect of the problem, it was recalled that authorities last winter had frowned upon an effort which two Buddhists made to erect a statue of Buddha in Central Park (TIME, Dec. 14, 1925).

Assuming that there will be no Salomon statue, what other members of the Jewish race might be candidates for monumental remembrance? There have been six Jewish U. S. Senators--Philip Judah Benjamin, Louisiana (1853-61); Simon Guggenheim, Colorado (1907-13); Benjamin Franklin Jonas, Louisiana (1879-85) ; Isidor Rayner, Maryland (1904-10) ; Joseph Simon, Oregon (1897-1903) ; David Levy Yulee,* Florida (1845-51 and 1855-61). There were ten Jewish Representatives, no Jewish Senators in the 69th Congress. A Jewish Cabinet officer was Oscar Straus who was Secretary of Commerce & Labor in Roosevelt's Cabinet (1906-09). Probably the highest public office held by a U. S. Jew today is the seat on the U. S. Supreme Court bench occupied by Louis D. Brandeis.

* Before becoming a Senator, David L. Yulee served in the House of Representatives under the name of Levy.