The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-08-31
A LIVELY RACE.

All the world Just now Is agog watch.
ing the great race In which Chicago Is
pi,ted against New York to win the locs.
ton of the proposed worlds fair Of 1892,
In commemoratlCn of the 4th century of
the discovery of America by Christopher
Columbus. New York thinks Of course
she ought to have the fair, because she Is
the greatest and wealthiest city Of the
country, and It's financial and commercial
center, par excellence. Chicago, ou the
other hand, claims 10 be, If not In wealth
and population, yet In many other ways,
quite as great a city as New York, and To-
Gated vastly nearer the center Of the coun-
uy's population and business. AS the st.
Louis Merchants Exchange naively hints
20 New York "If the fair Is held in New
York, foreigners visiting 1t will see no
more of the country than Columbus did"
And the New York SIN, In spirit Of
wonderful magnanimity for that sheet, has
the candor 20 concede that, considering the
history of Chicago, her rise from bog In
half a century, and her more wonderful
resurrection from nearly total destruction
by fire 10 so few years, is really In herself
"the grandest and most glorious exhibition
which the new world can give to man.
kind" SO the wise men Of Chicago have
had their heads together and decided that
five millions OF dollars shall be raised i'm
mediately as a guarantee fund that the
necessary grounds and buildings shall be
Ia full readiness for the accommodation of
the great fair when II comes. This Is two
millions more than were expended In 1876
at Philadelphia, and Congress loaned the
Philadelphians half of that sum TO ena'
BILE them to meet the necessary outlay,
And that Chicago will raise the whole of
this money, large as the sum is, without
delay, there Is no doubt. She has already
raised nearly 100000 of 1t, with the
promise of million and a half from the
railroads, and all her millionaires yet TO
hear from. The sum thus far raised has
been mainly contributed by trade guilds,
working people and school children.
Meantime New York Is not asleep. Old
Diedrich Knickerbocker has knocked the
ashes out of his pipe, retilled and lighted
It, and walked up to the fact III at something
has got to be done. Instead OF Chicago's
paltry five millions, old Diedrich says ten
millions must be raised, but the most ap-
proved plsn of doing 1t, thus far, is some
what unique 1t ls not to ask the million
aires of New York to shell out, which they
are phenomenally slow race at doing, but
to issue stock In $40 shares, and to give
each shareholder twenty tickets Of admis.
sion to the fair, and having sold these at 50
cents apiece, he without further ado, gets
back his money, with further chance OF
a small dizzy 1t the show proves a great
financial success. Well, anyhow, whether
this is the plan ultimately adopted or not,
the Gothamites assume, as a matter OF
course, that the money will be raised, and
laying that question aside as settled, are
quarreling over the spot of ground upon
which the fair Is to be located.
Meanwhile the question whether Chica-
go or New York shall have the fair re-
mains fer Congress to decide next winter,
when a charter for the purpose must be
granted to one or the other city. No doubt,
outside of their five and ten million guar
antee funds both cities will also be called
upon to bleed pretty freely to keep strong
and we'll lined lobby at Washington while
the fight lasts, which has every promise of
being sufficiently hot and stormy.