New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-08-24
CENTRAL PARK AND THE FAIR.

The first meeting of the Committee on Site
and Buildings was chiefly remarkable for the
prompt expression Of opinion from influential
members against the Use of Central Park.
This feeling was so strong as to lead Cornelius
y. Bliss to offer resolution ruling the Park
out of consideration entirely. The successful
opposition to this resolution should not be mis-
construed. Ii was deprecated on the ground
that such action was premature, and this view
was taken by men like exNlayOr Cooper, who
is as firmly against the use of the Park as Mr..
Bliss, and like Roswell p. Flower who seems
to have had no prediction in its favor, but
believed the committee should not limit itself
at the outset. The only member of the COM
mttee, apparently, who was outspoken in favor
CT taking the Park, was Judge Hilton. The
attitude Of the committee is thus left in doubt,
with the probabilities against their deciding
for this site. Almost all the manifestations Of
public sentiment that have seemed worth heed
ing have been against this project. The news
paper canvass, published by one of our es-
teemed contemporaries, in which few hun
dred persons volunteered votes for Central
Park as site, is hardly entitled to much
weight. Many of these persons reside outside
of NewlOrk, they are not citizens Of infiu
ence, and their whole number is so small that
this showing of opinion need not be cOnsid-
cred. The opposition of men like Cornelius n.
Bliss and William w. Aston, who represent
the class upon which the Fair must largely de-
pend for It's success, would outweigh the votes
Of thousands, if there were thousands who
are not above the suspicion Of voting for the
sake of seeing their names in print When Mr.
Bliss declares that the certainty that Central
Park is not to be selected would aid very much
in the raising of funds, the inference is easy
that he knows that many subscriptions will be
withheld if the Park is to be sacrificed.
There is a series of objections to the use of
Central Park-first, that the damage will be
great and likely to continue for many years /;
second that the Park cannot be reached by
water, which is of great importance, both for
the conveyance Of goods and Of excursions (;
third, that the Park has not sufficient available
space for such an Exposition as we hope to
have and should have. There is law of
steady progression in worlds fairs, with, of
course, exceptions. The Worlds Fair of so
should not be an exception of that kind. 1t
should improve upon all its predecessors. The
buildings Of the first International Exhibition
that in London in 1851, covered only eighteen
acres, and the Paris Exhibition of 1855 only
twenty four and a half acres, but the dimen-
sions of worlds fairs have grown since that
time. The Paris Exposition of 1867, twenty
two years ago, occupied nearly 200 acres, and
we shall need much larger territory than
that for such display as is proposed here. 1t
is not to be forgotten that this exhibition is to
be unique in that it will commemorate an
event Of unreasonable Importance in the his
tory of the race-the discovery of the Western
Hemisphere. 1t should display the progress Of
mankind in America since the first white set
tlement. From this point of view it will be
the first distinctvely American Worlds Fair.
4 magnificent picture can be presented of the
gradual peopling Of these two continents by
the English and Spanish races-of the civiliza-
tons that have passed away, and of those that
have taken their places. But to carry out any
such nlan as this with all its attendant feat