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Bill to have Edison statue languishes 
November 28, 2011 

COLUMBUS -- Over the last year, Ohio lawmakers have fought over everything from collective bargaining rights to congressional redistricting, and from election law to budget cuts. 

And through it all, a bill that most people considered to be a feel-good, easy decision has quietly gathered dust in a legislative committee. 

It’s been nearly a year and a half since Ohioans “elected” prolific inventor and Milan, Ohio, native Thomas Alva Edison to stand for Ohio in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. 

Thirty percent of the nearly 50,000 Ohioans who cast ballots in a process overseen by the Ohio Historical Society said they wanted Mr. Edison to replace the state’s 31st governor, William Allen, from the mid-1800s. 

Mr. Allen, who also served Ohio as congressman and senator, tolerated slavery and opposed President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, as did many of his Democratic colleagues. But those views have not worn well over time. 

Senate Bill 2, recommending Mr. Edison to the Statuary Hall, unanimously passed the Senate for the second time in April, but was all but forgotten in the crush of what have been considered more pressing issues since. It remains in a House committee. 

House Speaker Bill Batchelder (R., Medina) had to think back when reminded this bill was still pending. 

“I don’t think anybody was making a very strong case for Senator Allen,” he said. “I thought it was a good idea to do something else. There is some conflict within the various [caucuses] over the question of Mr. Edison versus the Wright Brothers. 

“I think they’re all three great folks, but at this point that may have something to do with the dilatory nature of the treatment of that legislation,” he said. 

In the meantime, Mr. Allen continues to stand as one of Ohio’s two representatives in Statuary Hall. Lawmakers have no plans to replace Ohio’s other representative, assassinated President James Garfield. 

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mark Wagoner (R., Ottawa Hills), said he expects lawmakers to respect the wishes of Ohioans who voted. 

“Everybody does,” he said. “We’ve tried to run this in as fair and as transparent a process as we could,” he said. “I think we’ve been successful in doing that. At the very least we should recognize the hard work of the Ohio Historical Society and the voters who went to the polls at local historic sites.” 

Senate Bill 2 reached the House State Government and Elections Committee shortly before the drunken-driving arrest of its chairman, Rep. Robert Mecklenborg (R., Cincinnati), became public knowledge. By July, he’d been forced to resign. 

Rep. Matt Huffman (R., Lima), whose maternal grandfather had ties to Orville and Wilbur Wright, was brought in temporarily as chairman for the primary purpose of passing a new post-census congressional map. 

With that map now law and the focus of a potential Democrat-led voter referendum and court challenge, Mr. Huffman expects to be replaced as chairman. 

“My personal sentiment -- don’t interpret this as why the bill hasn’t gotten out of committee -- is that the Wright Brothers are more appropriate to the history of this state,” Mr. Huffman said. 

“Thomas Edison is one of the great minds of our country, but there’s a national park named for him New Jersey. … I would vote for the Wright Brothers.” 

He noted that, while Mr. Edison won the “unscientific” balloting conducted by the historical society, the vote was tight, with the Wright Brothers coming in second with 28 percent of the tally. 

“If push came to shove and it came to the floor, would I vote ‘no’ on the bill?” he asked. “I would have to think about that.” 

Among other things, Mr. Edison is credited with inventing or perfecting the phonograph and incandescent light bulb. He later purchased his Milan birthplace, and it’s now a museum. 

Proponents of the Wright Brothers have argued that, while Mr. Edison was born in Ohio, he left to achieve his accomplishments elsewhere. The Wright Brothers’ groundbreaking airplane flight may have occurred in North Carolina, but the testing and design that led to that moment occurred in the Dayton area. 

An argument against the Wrights’ selection, however, has been the fact that rules require that a state’s representative be of a single person. How would someone choose between Wilbur and Orville? 

A special joint House-Senate committee narrowed the field of contenders to 10 before putting the choice in the hands of school students, historic site visitors, and others via the historical society balloting. 

The other eight contenders were Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin; James Mitchell Ashley, the Toledo congressman who helped Mr. Lincoln win congressional passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery; black track star Jesse Owens, whose Olympic gold medals mocked Nazi-era racial propaganda; congressman and civil rights leader William McCulloch; Civil War general and President Ulysses S. Grant; women’s suffragist Harriet Taylor Upton; Challenger astronaut Judith Resnik, and oral polio vaccine inventor Albert A. Sabin. 

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