It's John Mifflin Hood, the legendary president of the WM. He was responsible for getting the city a healthy return on its investment in the Western Maryland I think by selling it to the Gould interests.
Yes, he is facing east instead of west. The WM's headquarters had been in the Standard Oil Building (now yet another stupid condo project) across the street. I think he stood in front of that facing west before the plaza was reconstructed in the 50's.
As for Maryland being run by communists, I thought that was common knowledge. You should see the party boys doing flips and twists trying to unseat our first republican governor in 40 years... Not to be overtly political, but we have had the Blue State Blues for decades...
Lee
