William McGurn: Go for Bust, Mr. Romney

William McGurn is a Vice President at News Corporation who writes speeches for CEO Rupert Murdoch. Previously he served as Chief Speechwriter for President George W. Bush.

Mitt Romney may have pandered when he told a London crowd he would restore the bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office. Then again, symbols play an important role in politics. Now Mr. Romney has given us another by choosing as his running mate Paul Ryan, the market-minded Republican congressman from Wisconsin.

In this spirit, let me suggest a man whose bust would be a good companion for Churchill as well as for Mr. Ryan. His name is Sir John James Cowperthwaite.

In America, Cowperthwaite's name languishes in obscurity. That should change. Cowperthwaite was the Hong Kong financial secretary whose free-market convictions helped the war-weary colony grow into an economic powerhouse. Milton Friedman once explained the significance of this example: "Hong Kong's been very useful to me and it would be hard to overestimate the debt Hong Kong owes to Cowperthwaite."..