The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1876-08-10

The Cincinnati Commercials Phila-
delphia correspondent says of the
Centennial Exposition and the rail
roads:
The press of the country friendly to
the enterprise, and all should be,
might as well face the music at once,
and do some plain talking to the rail-
roads. Their cooperation is necessary
to make the attendance a success.
Times are hard, as we hear about for
ty times day, business is depressed
and money scarce. Hundreds OF
thousands who expected to come
have abandoned the idea because the
Eds refuse t~ Si.-- I0Ieo
fnoSe is rof o reader OF this who can
not maine those of his neighbOrs who
had expected to go, but have aban-
doned the idea, or are about to do so,
on account OF the rspscity Of the rail-
roads. Every American should feel
an interest in making this Centen-
nia Exhibition a success in at
tendance, as it is sssuredly a success
in every other point of view. All
that is needed is for the people to
come and look at it. Should the rail-
roads not reduce rates, and the au-
tumn months make no better exhibit
Of attendance than the summer
months, November 10 will find Us
with only about four millions of pay
ing admissions to boast of This will
be worse than Vienna, which was a
confessed fsilure-an inglOrious fall
ure Mind you, Of the two and hall
fninno Of aA daka f.rlIry
onethird are dead-head, and count
for nothing upon the book of receipts.
The total cash receipts to August L
estimating the few remaining days OF
July-will be about SS15,0 900, repre-
sehting l,163,000 paying admissions.
At the same rate, the total paying ad-
missions to November 10 will not re-
suit in above 100000 Of revenue.
This would be disgrsceful. 1t wOdld
be worse than Vienna. In such an
event, we might, indeed, call it q
Centennial Exhibition, for certainly q
hundred years would elapse before we
could expect another.
Heretofore have written hopefully
of the autumn months, and in COM
mentihg on the slim summer at
tendance have predicted that all
would be made up in September and
October. But we find that there is no
basis for such hopes in the experiences
Of Paris and Vienna. 1 have care
fully studied the figures and find
more to discourage than to encourage.
Besides, and more to the point than
all, | am in receipt Of information
from various parts Of the country that
the people are becoming discouraged
at the delay of the railroads in giving
them half fare, and are abandoning
the idea of coming.
We all know how universal the be-
lief last winter that the roads would, f,
at least, do as we'll by this great Cen
tennial Exhibition rs is their custom
for camp-meetings, political conven-
tioDs and county fairs. We do not
see evidences here of the presence of
the plain people that we would like.
In fact the bone and sineW are not
here, have not been and will not be
unless the roads give them half-fare.
That is the plain truth Of the matter.
What bone and sineW we see come
from imm ediately around Philadel-
Dhia-railroad fare being q matter OF
no moment. What is wanted is a
rate to tempt the people who live five
hundred, q thousand and two thou
sand miles awsy. Will the railroads
give these people chance 4?