Waving McKinley, Friend of the Cotton Industry
Adams, Massachusetts
As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, years before he became President, William McKinley crafted the McKinley Tariff Bill, which made it more expensive to buy items manufactured overseas. This was very profitable for the stockholders of companies that made things in America, like the cotton mills of Adams, Massachusetts.
After McKinley had become President and had then been assassinated, the mill owners commissioned a statue -- sculpted by Augustus Lukeman, unveiled on October 10, 1903 -- that honored McKinley. He's supposed to be gesturing with his arm during the speech that pushed through the Tariff (a scene reproduced in full on the bas relief plaque on the front of the monument) but it looks like he's waving to the passing cars.