Hi, I'm Jeb Bakke reporting for Curious City.

Chicago is covered in statues, and to an average passerby, these works of art are so frequently

encountered, they become a part of the landscape.

But monuments don't just pop out of nowhere.

It takes a tremendous amount of planning, money, and support to bring a public statue into

being, like the figure cast in bronze on the corner of North Pulas, and support to bring a public statue into being, like the figure

cast in bronze on the corner of North Pulaski and West Foster. It's a man, an unassuming figure

with two cigar boxes at his feet. Who is he? Why is he here? And, like, why is it so small?

That's curious city listener John Cahill.

He used to pass by the statue every day on his drive to work.

And what struck him every time was...

It's the small stature of the statue.

Right.

Yeah, you even said every morning you'd say,

Good morning, tiny gompers.

I love this. Tiny Gompers. Okay.

I love this.

Tiny Gompers is, in fact, Samuel Gompers, an average man who had an outsized impact on our working lives.

And his statue is in none other than Gompers Park on Chicago's northwest side.

So I was wondering, like, is it small on purpose?

Like, you're supposed to be an every man?

Or was it paid for by, like, some dark money interest group that wanted to humiliate him?

...