Editing Statue of Liberty (section)

====Fundraising====
Fundraising in the U.S. for the pedestal had begun in 1882. The committee organized a large number of money-raising events.{{sfn|Khan|2010|pp=163–164}} As part of one such effort, an auction of art and manuscripts, poet [[Emma Lazarus]] was asked to donate an original work. She initially declined, stating she could not write a poem about a statue. At the time, she was also involved in aiding refugees to New York who had fled [[Pogroms in the Russian Empire#1881–1884|antisemitic pogroms in eastern Europe]]. These refugees were forced to live in conditions that the wealthy Lazarus had never experienced. She saw a way to express her empathy for these refugees in terms of the statue.{{sfn|Khan|2010|pp=165–166}} The resulting [[sonnet]], "[[The New Colossus]]", including the lines "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free", is uniquely identified with the Statue of Liberty in American culture and is inscribed on a plaque in its museum.{{sfn|Moreno|2000|pp=172–175}} Lazarus's poem contrasted the classical Colossus of Rhodes as a frightening symbol, with the new "American colossus" as a "beacon to the lost and hopeless".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bruinius |first=Harry |date=May 16, 2019 |title=What Does Lady Liberty Stand for? A Look at Changing Attitudes. |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2019/0516/What-does-Lady-Liberty-stand-for-A-look-at-changing-attitudes |access-date= |work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |issn=0882-7729}}</ref>
[[File:PulitzerGlass.jpg|thumb|''Liberty Enlightening the World, or The Statue of Liberty'', a stained glass window commissioned by [[Joseph Pulitzer]] to commemorate fundraising for the pedestal. Originally installed in the [[New York World Building]], it is currently located in Pulitzer Hall at [[Columbia University]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 23, 2023 |title=A World Room Welcome |url=https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/rbml/2023/01/23/a-world-room-welcome/ |access-date=January 25, 2023 |website=blogs.cul.columbia.edu}}</ref>]]
Even with these efforts, fundraising lagged. [[Grover Cleveland]], the [[governor of New York]], vetoed a bill to provide $50,000 for the statue project in 1884. An attempt the next year to have Congress provide $100,000, sufficient to complete the project, also failed. The New York committee, with only $3,000 in the bank, suspended work on the pedestal. With the project in jeopardy, groups from other American cities, including Boston and Philadelphia, offered to pay the full cost of erecting the statue in return for relocating it.<ref name=Levine/>

[[Joseph Pulitzer]], publisher of the ''[[New York World]]'', a New York newspaper, announced a drive to raise $100,000 ({{inflation|US|100000|1885|r=-3|fmt=eq}}). Pulitzer pledged to print the name of every contributor, no matter how small the amount given.{{sfn|Bell|Abrams|1984|pp=40–41}} The drive captured the imagination of New Yorkers, especially when Pulitzer began publishing the notes he received from contributors. "A young girl alone in the world" donated "60&nbsp;cents, the result of self denial."{{sfn|Harris|1985|p=105}} One donor gave "five cents as a poor office boy's [[Lesson of the widow's mite|mite]] toward the Pedestal Fund." A group of children sent a dollar as "the money we saved to go to the circus with."{{sfn|Sutherland|2003|p=51}} Another dollar was given by a "lonely and very aged woman."{{sfn|Harris|1985|p=105}} Residents of a home for alcoholics in New York's rival city of Brooklyn—the cities would not merge until 1898—donated $15; other drinkers helped out through donation boxes in bars and saloons.{{sfn|Harris|1985|p=107}} A kindergarten class in [[Davenport, Iowa]], mailed the ''World'' a gift of $1.35.{{sfn|Harris|1985|p=105}} As the donations flooded in, the committee resumed work on the pedestal.{{sfn|Harris|1985|pp=110–111}} France raised about $250,000 to build the statue,<ref name="Mitchell 2014 p.">{{cite book | last=Mitchell | first=Elizabeth | title=Liberty's Torch: The Great Adventure to Build the Statue of Liberty | publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press | year=2014 | isbn=978-0-8021-2257-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KioFBAAAQBAJ | page=221}}</ref> while the United States had to raise up to $300,000 to build the pedestal.<ref name="Andrews 1896 p. 133">{{cite book | last=Andrews | first=Elisha Benjamin | title=The History of the Last Quarter-century in the United States, 1870-1895 | publisher=Scribner | issue=v. 2 | year=1896 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vAlFAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA133 | page=133}}</ref><ref name="Facts on File 1927 p. 543">{{cite book | title=The World Almanac & Book of Facts | publisher=Newspaper Enterprise Association | year=1927 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGU3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA543 | page=543}}</ref>

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