After 1932 the work dragged on with frequent interruptions and without sufficient funds. Workmen were complaining of the daily climb to their stations—1,500 feet with a rise of 500 feet, which the sculptor himself made several times a day—resulting in a working time loss of from an hour to an hour and a half every day for every man on the job. To date, approximately seventy per cent of the roughing out of the entire surface to be carved had been completed and thirty-five per cent of the finishing, within a total working time of twenty-two months and an average of four to six drillers at work.
The personnel of the Commission was so changed by illness, death and lack of interest that it became increasingly hard to get a quorum at the semiannual meetings. Mr. Cullinan had resigned as president to be succeeded by Fred Sargent of the Chicago and North Western Railway. Only Gutzon could not resign. As he remarked, the rock of Rushmore was riveted to his neck.
A new phase of the work began in 1934 when the federal government assumed the burden of financing the memorial. Frequent stoppages, constant lack of sufficient power and skilled workmen, plus the unpredictable condition of the stone, had greatly increased working costs. Congress first voted to remove the fifty-fifty matching restriction attached to the first appropriation, making it immediately available, and next passed a second appropriation of $200,000. There were those near Mount Rushmore who said it was about time.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
—AND FINAL PEACE
So then there was no trouble at all save bureaucratic misunderstandings and the vagaries of Rushmore rock. Accurate estimates of the time required to finish the work were impossible because of the constant shifting and reconstruction of design. The stone on Mount Rushmore, although the best in the Black Hills, offered interesting surprises. Some new reddish substance appeared on Lincoln’s cheek. Silver and tin crystals were found at the end of his nose. The feldspar crystals on Rushmore are unusually large and add to the difficulties. This was especially true on the lapels of Washington’s coat where no powder could be used. Finally Jefferson’s head had to be slightly turned so that the poor stone came in the hollow between his cheek and nose and could thus be removed entirely.
An unfailing support to the sculptor through these difficulties was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who wrote a dozen or more sympathetic letters. One of them he closed by saying, “I am very much interested in the work you are doing, and will be glad to remove any drawbacks that may handicap you.... With best wishes always....”
So it is not surprising that he was present at Rushmore on August 30, 1936, for the unveiling of the head of Thomas Jefferson. He had been touring the West to see for himself the results of desperate drought and had been routed to reach Rapid City on time.
At the President’s request the exercises were informal. Flags of Bourbon France and Hapsburg Spain, fluttering from the top of the mountain, were lowered as the huge American flag was swung back to reveal the face of Jefferson. In a few words Gutzon asked the President to dedicate this memorial as a shrine which for years to come would bring people of all the earth to see what manner of men struggled here to establish self-determining government in the Western world. Mr. Roosevelt responded:
On many occasions when a new project is presented to you on paper and then later you see the accomplishment, you are disappointed. But it is just the opposite of that in what we are looking at now. I had seen photographs. I had seen the drawings. I had talked with those who were responsible for this great work. And yet I had no conception until about ten minutes ago, not only of its magnitude but of its permanent beauty and of its permanent importance.
Mr. Borglum has well said that this can be a monument and an inspiration for the continuance of the democratic-republican form of government, not only in our beloved country but, we hope, throughout the world.