Shelby's towering monument to pork

Human Events, Oct 20, 2000 by Carney, Timothy P

The House of Representatives passed the Interior Appropriations bill on June 15. It provided for $14.6 billion in spending. The Senate passed its version of the bill July 1.8, providing for $15.5 billion in spending. Then members of the two chambers got together for a conference to negotiate a compromise.

The final, bill ended up at $18.8 billion, plus, $1.6 billion in emergency spending-$4.9 billion more than even the Senate had approved.

How did that happen?

Well, one line item that was not approved in either chamber before it appeared in the conference report was: "Vulcan statue, AL 1,500,000."

Vulcan, Roman god of fire and metallurgy, is memorialized in a 56-foot-tall, 120,000-pound iron likeness atop a 123-foot pedestal on Red Mountain in Birmingham, Ala. For 96 years it has stood there in tribute to the local iron industry.

But now Vulcan is suffering. He has sustained heavy metal fatigue since Italian sculptor Giuseppe Moretti built him with Alabama iron for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. For most of his life he has stood atop his pedestal in Vulcan Park, forming the city's most striking landmark. The statue and the park are both-owned and run by the city.

A few years ago, the people of Birmingham realized that Vulcan needed help. The Vulcan Park Foundation formed an alliance with local businesses and the city government to raise funds for the statue's renovation.

The entire project, which includes a multimedia educational video on Vulcan itself as well as on the City of Birmingham (because most people don't know, for example, that more kidneys are transplanted annually in Birmingham than anywhere else in the world), is estimated to cost between $10 and $14 million. So far, the foundation has received only $5.2 million in gifts,.including nearly $1.million from the city government.

Alabama Statue Lovers

Facing the miserliness of Alabama statue lovers, and the possibility that. Vulcan might not be restored in time for its 100th anniversary in 2004, the city of Birmingham hired a lobbying firm to come to Washington and plead with lawmakers for federal assistance.

Stewart Dansby, executive director of the Vulcan Park Foundation; says that all the Alabama lawmakers he spoke with were receptive to the idea, but that in the end it is Sen. Richard Shelby (R.) of the Senate Appropriations

Committee who deserves the credit for slipping the $1.5million item into the Interior conference report.

Why should autoworkers in Detroit or fishermen in Maine pay for Vulcan's restoration? Dansby describes the statue as a "unique American icon" that stands as a tribute not only to Alabama's ironsmiths, but to all immigrant workers at the turn of the century. It is the largest of all American-built statues.

Now; however, it will also stand as a monument to pork. Shelby's press secretary, Andrea Andrews, explained his action by noting that Vulcan "is an important priority for the city of Birmingham" that "has historical significance."