Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-04-06

The project for q national exposition in
Washington has at last got before Congress in
shape for simultaneous consideration by both
houses. II deserves the favorable attention of
every member. II the government can appro-
pirate liberal sums for the representation of
this countrys advancement in the arts of peace
Mt foreign worlds fairs, there Is no reason why
10 should not give q like impulse to an enter
prise purely domestic. 1t Is to the interest of
every state and Territory 10 advertise its re-
sources as widely as possible. Washington IS
the capital OF the nation in the broader as well
ss the narrower sense. 1t is the city which
every traveller, American or foreign, feels that
he must visit, no matter what other cities he
neglects. 1t is gathering within its borders the
cream of American society-political, financial,
artistic and literary. The seat of government
IL rapidly becoming the seat and center of other
popular activities. There is no place therefore,
which could be chosen with equal fitness for
such q display as Is proposed in the resolutions
before Congress; and no occasion, surely, could
be found more appropriate than the anniversa-
ries of the discovery of the new world and the
foundation of its great republic.
If Congress can afford to enact laws for the
protection Of the American iron and silk and
wooden industries, which f1tly represent the
condition of most of the heavier manufacturing
interests in this country, it certainly can afford
to defend from unjust assault an industry
which has, until lately, never asked for Its aid,
and which is In every way worthy of encour-
Agement. The dairymen of the United States
have more than two billions of dollars invested
In cattle, lands and buildings. This capital is
not concentrated, or divided between a few
itch corporations, but is distributed over the
lace Of the whole Union, and shared by many
thousands Of farmers whose entire livelihood is
derived from the traffic in milk, butter and
cheese. Butter is, of course, the product of
chief importance. Some sixteen hundred
million pounds are produced yearly in this
country. More would be made, and an i'm
rnense export trade could readily be built up,
but for the manufacture of two hundred mil
lion pounds of oleomargarine and butterine,
which, usually sold under deceptive brands,
not only satisfied considerable part of the de
rnand in the United States but has shut the
doors of more than one foreign market in the
faces OF American shippers of dairy supplies in
Discriminatory.
Now, bogus butter and its manufacture per-
form no useful function worth speaking of. The
compound itself does not contain the nutritive
principles which aze found in butter. Its manu-
facture effects nothing beyond furnishing en-
ployment for q few people who, If they were not
engaged in making the imitation, would find
room for their activities in making the genuine
article. On the other hand, dairy farming does
make It's influence felt for the public good as
well as for the comfort of the individual 1t
reclaims exhausted soils. Farms in the older
eastern communities, which have run down to
such point as to leave their owners only the
sorry alternative between migration and bank
ruptcy, can be redeemed by 1t, and assessed at
fair valuations for taxation to support the gov
ernment All the dairy farmers ask of Congress
is relief from an Ubiquitous competition with
fraud. This is no favor. 1t is merely justice