The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-11-30
Chicago or New York-Where Shall
the Fair Be Held?

Chicago or New York-Where Shall
the Fair BE HEIDI
The Committee on Legislation of
the New York Worlds Fair propa-
ganda has SEN out a pamphlet OF
sone forty pages embodying several
arguments made by various persons
on different occasions to show why
New York and not Chicago should be
the theatre OF the great celebration OF
1892. Assuming that the guarantee
fund of So, 600, 900 will be COM
plete by the time Congress gets
to work, we can see no reasonable
doubt that New York will be selected.
The opposition will most likely melt
away into thin air. Cash talks, and
it is now ludicrously evident that
Chicago has not put up the cash, but
has only INDUCED in a great deal of
blowing and in a bit of shabby trick
cry, the latter being the issue Of
a lot of absurd scrip to irresponsible,
even unknown persons, on payment
of a ridiculous percentage amounting
to some twenty cents a piece for each
ten dollar certificate. 1t can hardly
be said that 80, ZOO, 900 cannot be
raised in Chicago; but Thai is prob
ably the limit which the very unstable
and greatly exaggerated wealth of
that city could afford, while it is not
pretended that such a sum would
more than begin the great work.
Probably twenty millions will be ex-
pended on the Exposition. 1t is quite
certain that New York alone, it neces-
sary, could afford that sum or twice
as much. 1t is equally certain that
Chicago, all blowing to the contrary
notwithstanding, could not afford it.
To a reasonable man, the most pre-
posterous feature of the whole bust
ness is the claim made by Chicago on
the ground of her prosperity, az if
that were a thing she had realized for
herself, and could retain by herself.
Now nothing can be 0 certain than
that Chicago is in a broad sense the
creation of the great Eastern cities,
and remains, and must to the end of
time remain dependent upon them
for her business and all that her bust
ness means. New York, Boston,
Philadelphia and Baltimore built
the railways about which she boasts
SO loud, and still provide them with
the business which makes Chicago
the greatest centre in the world of
inland trade"
ANY unprejudiced person must see
that the great cities named are essen
TALLY independent of Chicago. Con
trolling as they do the gateways of
the ocean, the riches of the West and
East, OF the old world and the new,
must pay tribute to them in their
ceaseless ebb and flow. If Chicago
the city of accident-were blotted
from the map, other western centres,
st. Louis, for instance, would serve in
her stead, and the grain of the
prairies would still roll to the sea-
board on millions of busy wheels,
while the products of Eastern looms
and FORCES would travel back to aid in
the civilizing conquest of the new and
wild Western territories.
But if one for a moment contem-
plates the other aspect of the case, it
becomes at once apparent that Chicago
has no standing, no position, no rea-
son for her very existence ave as a
feeder to the Eastern seaports-a point
of concentration and transhipment
for the more convenient forwarding
OF Western produce, and conversely as
a centre of distribution for consign7
ments from the industrious East. The
m of Boston and New York
is far more vital to Chicago than to
these cities themselves. While it cam
not be said to be probable it is yet
conceivable that diversion Of the lines
OF traffic might in years to come