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Liberty in the Dark  [[Image]]

(Special to The World)
WASHINGTON, May 23.- The Statue of Liberty, America's most famous landmark, gift of the people of France to the people of the United States, is to be no longer shrouded nightly in a mantle of darkness, holding aloft a torch so faint that it is as a candle to the glaring lights of New York City. 
The great Bartholdi statue is to be illuminated at night; it will be made to stand out as clearly in darkness as it does in daytime, emblematic of the spirit of "Liberty Enlightening the World"...

By EARL HARDING
IT WAS thirty-five years ago that The World, which had earlier raised the money required to erect a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, brought news from Washington that Liberty was no longer to be Lady in the Dark when nighttime came. By Act of Congress, its illumination at night had been authorized, provided that funds to install a lighting system would be raised by public contributions. The World agreed to sponsor the fund campaign.
That much was told, but there was an important chapter in this story which The World, holding to a promise it had made, did not print. That chapter would have revealed that the idea for this illumination did not originate with the newspaper, but was born and fostered in the minds of two men who not only had the imagination to conceive it, but the technical skill to know how the job could be done.
There is no longer any reason for keeping silence. The two men are gone, and the purposes which dictated their request for no personal publicity have been met. Now free to tell the story- and I knew it as few did even among the group most active in The World's campaign- I consider it a privilege to relate this bit of history from documents in my own files. 
Telling it will not only help complete the historical record, but it may serve to explain why Independence Day, back in 1916, was observed in a very special way by Cities Service men and women throughout the far-flung oil and utilities "empire" then building under Henry L. Doherty's leadership. They were, as old-timers will recall, out collecting pennies, dimes, and dollars for the Statue of Liberty illumination fund. 
The story begins with the daily travel of George Williams, then new business manager, and later head of the Cities Service stockholders' bureau. George lived on Staten Island and twice daily he commuted by ferry, passing by the Statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island. Frequently his return home was after night fell, and Liberty had disappeared in the darkness. 
On one occasion he voiced his thoughts about this to Mr. Doherty:-
"No one can see the Goddess of Liberty at night unless the moon is full," Georgie said to The Chief. "What's the matter with us utility men- why don't we floodlight Liberty?" 
"That's a fine idea," replied Mr. Doherty, "but we would be accused of self-interest if we undertook it. The critics of business would say that we did it to promote the sale of juice. Of course it would set a fashion for floodlighting every monument in America. But you'd better take the idea up to Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. It's a 'natural' for them. Keep our names out of it, but if The World hesitates, tell them that I will stand back of it and meet any deficit." 
Four hundred thousand French school children contributed their centimes and francs to build Bartholdi's 151-foot bronze Statue as a gift to the American people. What a disappointment it must have been to these generous and inspired friends that, for a long time after it had been delivered to our shores, their gift was left prostrate, like an unwanted waif without a home, or even a base to rest upon!
Joseph Pulitzer then threw his energy and the rising power of his newspaper into a crusade which gathered school children's mites and grownups' checks into $100,000 which built the pedestal on Bedloe's Island. 
President Grover Cleveland, dedicating the statue and pedestal on October 28, 1886, said: "Here it is that Liberty has her altars, and their fires will be kept alive by willing votaries." 
George Williams, magnetic salesman, told me "those 'votaries' need to be waked up!" He sold the floodlighting plan to The World in one brief visit, and direction of the fund raising campaign fell to me. 
Special legislation was introduced in 
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