New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-09-14
THE UNITED STATES AT PAEIS.

THE UNITED STATES At PARIS.
The great Exhibition at Paris is virtually
over, the awards having been made, though
not officially published. The result, as far as
the United States is concerned, is precisely
what The TRIBUNE predicted it would be
months before the Exhibition opened. Many
of our manufacturers. convinced by their ex-
perlence at Philadelphia of the importance of
this representation before the world as an adj
vertisement, exerted themselves to conquer all
difficulties, and TO make creditable display
of their wares The reward of their efforts is
the large list of medals and diplomas glvep to
this country. In agricultural implements we
take all the highest prizes, all the second, and
majority of the third. In machinery, scales,
instruments of precision, beer, and parlor
organs we rank first In dental instruments
we, as usual, pass all competitors. In books
we take three of the five prizes in gold work.
street cars, printing presses, sewing machines,
canned goods, the highest honOrs. In short,
there is scarcely an exhibit of any kind by a
reputable arm which has not commanded sue
cess, and we venture to predict that every firm
which has thus advertised itself over the
world will find that it has secured proper
tiOnate increase of custom.
But the fact remains that our exhibit as
whole was totally unworthy our position as
one of the first four civilized nations and
that the fault is due to the wilful blindness OF
the Government to the Importance of our
proper representation. Many OF our best man
ufactuTers refused to make any exhibit at all,
so short was the period allowed by the mex
cusablo delay of Congress ; and those who did
make one did it at the disadvantage OF great
and unnecessary outlay, hurried work and
cramped space in the buildings.
We hear many sneers at our inferOuty IN
every display which called for knowledge OF
art or the power of artistic production. For
this the Government is certainly not to blame.
Nor is anybody else, for that matter 1t is half
a century too soon to look for any revelation
of high artistic power among us. To each
man his work Our work as a nation so far
has been to open a continent of un-
broken forest, and to compel machinery
to take the place of too scant labor. We have
done this work, and done it well. Until the
present generation art was almost an unknown
element in our civilization. Not one home
bred American in. a thousand has ever seen a
really great picture or statue; the European
is born and reared III the constant presence OF
all the beauty which past ages have be-
dueathed to the world. Our artists, 1T Is COM
planned, have, as a rule, sent to this ExhlDl-
ton only limitations of French and German
schools. Why, of course we are not original;
men are like children they must go through
the age of servile imitation of their elders
before they feel the stirring of independent
creative power within themselves. A few OF our
artists have shown that they had eyes to see the
material at home and the imagination to use 1t,
and they have won oil the praise which was
given us in this department at the Exhibition.
Art will take care of itself in this country.
The American has as sensitive nervous OF
gapization as even bis Italian brother; his
eye is rs keen, his hand as def; the dramatic
sense is not lacking Once convince him that Art
is as necessary a part of life to him as agl1-
culture or machinery and his energy and de-
votion IN her service will be as great.
Our deficiency in this branch of representa-
ticn at Paris is no disgrace to us. The dis
grace lies in the fact that no hint was given
of our magnitude as nation, of our mex
haustible agricultural or mineral resources, OF
our national progress in science, or the arts
of war or peace. The country which was
meant to be and is the home for all the
world. gave no sign Of its capacity as home,
invited nobody to enter. Our readers probably
remember with what dramatic force the ca
pacity and resources of the Australian colo
MES were set forth in Philadelphia and their
advantages urged upon emigrants. The re-
suit was that hundreds of emigrants actually
left this country for Van Diemen's Land.
What if our Government had given such an
exhibit of its strength and the machinery of
its working as it did in the Government
building in 1876, and each State had
made a representation of its individual
resources and capacity 1t would have been
such representation as no other nation could
offer, grand IN scope and significant in every
detail. Il would not only have brought immi-
grants and capitalists to our shores, but have
done much to give us our proper place among
nations. We could have made it with but
small comparative cost and effort. But we did
not choose to make it, and the place we hold
in the Trocad6rO was of the shop, SLOPPY.
Next time perhaps we shall be wiser.
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There is a good deal in the preamble which the
New Hampshire Democrats adopted with their plat