The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-05-05

tournament of the two great Western Euro
pean capitals Austria's metropolis now en-
tiers as o competitor. May she succeed in
worsting her two mightier rivals and in bring
the present exhibition to q successful ter
mination, despite the criticisms that have
been hurled against her.
OPPOSING IDEAS ON INTERNATIONAL FAIRS.
These periodically recurring international
fairs will always be criticised after peculiar
individual prejudice or coloring. One indi-
vidual views these universal struggles as the
greatest feats Of the century-a considerable
step towards that much-desired goal when all
the nations of the earth shall unite in one
great brotherhood and speak one language.
Other individuals see in these exhibitions
nothing but Babel-like confusion Of tongues
and dsagreeable collecting together of every
possible industrial object.
Well, the truth, as is very often the case,
lies between the two extremes. No one, after
serious impartial consideration, believes that
by these exhibitions we can be brought nearer
to an era of eternal peace or to the solution Of
impending social problems. We all know
very well that in reality they are only grand
spectacular displays, which hardly bring in
an adequate return for the material and men
tai effort bestowed upon them.
THE PRINCIPAL BENEFITS TO THE woRKINoMAN.
Still, they are not without strikingly useful
qualities. In the first place, they give vast
and detailed picture of the advance Of civiliza-
ton during the decades preceding them and
afford in their details to the man of industry
rich opportunities for instruction and ex-
perience. particular point is that these ex-
hibitions enable the practical workman to in
form himself of the progress of industry and
to take home life-like and faithful picture Of
the conditions of progress in his individual
sphere.
THE VALUE OF SKILLED LABOR
After all, the chief tendency of our present
development, in the transitory stages of which
there is much that is obstructing and oppres-
sive, is to increase the value of labor and the
worth of the laborer. Whoever is able in any
branch of industry to perform any specially
good work finds, under the present condition
of affairs, abundant means of subsistence, and
in this light the Universal Exhibition has o
tendency to elevate the working classes when
sufficiently intelligent and energetic to make
the proper application of the new impressions
gathered there
POLITICAL ASPECTS OF THE PAST AND PRESENT.
In one sense the Vienna Exhibition will
surpass most of its elder sisters. In the
cloudlessness of the outward political horizon
abroad the only one that can be said to have
We'd with it was the London Exhibition of
1851. The Paris Exhibition of 1855 took
place while the Crimean war was raging.
Over the London Exhibition (of 1862 there
hung peculiar, political, oppressive atmso-
phere, and there was also the critical aspect
of the German question; and as regards the
Paris Exhibition of 1867, it was scarcely any
thing more than pale but lurid ray Of peace
from out of threatening war clouds.
GERMANY's DIFFICULTIES SOLVED.
OF course the situation is not so now.
The German question which oppressed the
atmospheres of the Expositions Of 1862 and
1867 is now solved It has led to hearty
entente cordiale between old Austria and the
new German Empire and now peaceful and
friendly feeling, under which the Vienna
Exhibition was opened, prevails. May the
Exhibition equal the expectations based upon
il and inaugurate in the industrial rivalry of
nations q new epoch of peaceful progress.
THE HERALD'S GERMAN TRI-