New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-08-27
THE EXPOSITION 4 TEACHER.

The Worlds Fair, according to Mr.. EDWARD
Atkinson, ought not to be great advertising
show which would be fiat, tiresome ana I'M
endurablc but should be so planned as to have
high historic and educational value. And yet
what education can be OF greater Vaiue una"
that which teaches the best modes OF living
and Of production in this and all other couh-
tries? In the end all the history and all inc
schools can teach nothing Of higher interest,"
or greater usefulness. Modern civilization III
all ito most refining and ennobling features, de-
pends at last upon the employing OF modern
methods of living and of providing for human
wants. A true and good woman, who has given
much of her time and strength in labors among
the suffering and the poor in this CITY, re-
marked not long ago that the wretchedness she
encountered was chiefly due to the ignorance
of those who suffered. They could not hVe
in comfort or decency because they uiu noO
know how to i've They could not earn de-
cent livings, because they did not know now
to earn. All the rest that Christian charity
could possibly do for them would be OF small
consequence compared with the possibility OF
teaching them how to make better use OF their
own faculties and opportunities.
II was a criticism, not of harshness ana
cruelty, but of overlooking sympathy. ms
waste of means and forces which results from
not knowing how best to earn or to i've lar
exceeds all other wastes or losses. Every
step which helps to lessen this Ignorance Tor
great mutitudes of human beings is definite
and lasting blessing to the race. For every
learner becomes teacher. The woman VINO
u. - with lnDCt labor
and waste goes back to country village u
teach hundreds of her neighbors by her ex-
ample Each of them in turn helps to teach
others and so the expenses of nation are
lessened. the means of satisfying the wants OF
\ nation are increased, because better methods
were exhibited perhaps by single man or
woman. where many could see them
It is in this direction that the great exposi-
lions of industries and products of all nations
repay most richly all thai they cost. But what
is all this, at bottom, but the very kind OF Or
ganized ard wholesale advertising which to
Mr.. Atkinson appears so tiresome? 10 him.
harry in superior cultivation, the larger knowl-
edge of what other men are doing may not be
a necessity. But to ninety mine out OF hun
dred Of his fellow-men such knowledge is the
pearl beyond all price. And he who places 1t
within their reach is in peculiar sense their
benefactor The inventor or manufacturer. who
has something to sell of practical value to
mankind something which will lessen human
labor, save loss or add to comfort, serves him
self indeed but serves others far more, when
he makes his invention or device practically
known. But in large proportion of cases
that cannot possibly be done, except by public
exhibition of the invention or device in actual
operation.
So of the products of the earth in different
parts of the world; human happiness would be
greatly increased the needs of mankind would
everywhere be better supplied if all the re-
sources of nature were known to all, as they
are to some of the race. But men do not bring
from far-off lands the products there known
but unfamiliar elsewhere, except in the hope
Of benefting themselves by establishing or
increasing trade. The advertising purpose.
which Mr.. Atkinson seems inclined to dis
parage, is after all the motive power which
operates most effectively to extend the worlds
knowledge and interchange Of it's resources.
The nation which does not find some mode of
advertising its capabilities and powers, though
it may be of all others the most ingenious and
skilful, will find little exterior demand for its
products The world does not move forward
in word without advertising at every stage
human welfare, its discoveries of new re-
sources and appliances for the enrichment Of
human lives.