Workmen's advocate., 1889-12-14
THE WORLDS FAIR.
REPRESENTATIVE TOlLERS SAY WHY IT SHOULD
 BE HELD HERE.
An International Labor Congress to Proclaim in New York the Universal Solidarity of Wage Workers.

The mass-meeting called by the Cen. tral Labor Union, with the cooperation of the Central Labor Federation and the American Federation of Labor, for the purpose of urging Congress to have the Worlds Fair in New York, was held last Thursday evening at the Cooper Insti, ute. Among those on tue platform were George Warner, of the Building Trades, Matthew Barr, of the Tin and Sheet Iron Workers Union, Thomas Ford, of the Brass Workers. August De- labar, of the Central Labor Federation, Samuel Gompers, President of the Ame- rican Federation of Labor; Henry Col lns, Charles F. Miller, of the Clothing Cutters, Henry Cole, and George K. Lloyd,
 James P. Archibald, Master Workman of the Paper Hangers and Decorators National District Assembly, K. of L., was elected Chairman, and opened the meeting with a short speech. He had been to the Paris Exposition and knew it to be fact that it was the great en- thusiasm and energetic efforts of the Paris workingmen that made the expo- sition there so very successful. It was not easy to arouse the workingmen of New York on any great occasion. Some feared that reaction might take place after the fair. But they were mistaken, for it the fair were held here it would stimulate work in the building and other trades. wages would be advanced, and millions of dollars now hoarded up for want of investments would be put into circulation.
 Samuel Gompers was the next speaker. He agreed with the argument that Mir. Archibald had made. and added that if a Worlds Fair is to be held in the United States it can he successfully con- ducted only in New York. The benefits that New York would derive from the fair would be enormous. There would be improvements in the sewerage, in the water supply, in the tenement-house system, and in the building line in general, and in a few years New York would undergo such transformation as to be hardly recognizable. The speaker insisted that if the fair was held here the buildings and other improvements for the fair must be the work of union wOrkmen
 Thomas Ford, the next speaker, argued that the great improvements that have been made in the building line in Phila- delphia were due to the Centennial Ex- position. John Barends of the Brooklyn Central Labor Union remarked that the leading men of Chicago had said that that city was not safe from the Anarch- ists that swarmed there. How could they, then, invite strangers to such a dangerous place.
 THE RESOLUTIONS
 were then unanimously adopted. First, they declare that the success of the fair will largely depend on the display that will be made of the handicraft and inventive genius of American workmen, that the city of New York is the only commercial centre of the New World, the metropolis of this great continent, and the great centre of all kinds and classes of manufacturing and mechan- ical industries. Therefore, the meeting urges not only the hosts of organized labor in this city, but throughout the entire country, to use their utmost en- deavors, not only to secure the holding of the fair here, but to aid in making it a triumphant success, of which all Amer jeans will be proud.
 
 But the chief object of Organized La bor in demanding that the Worlds Fair be held in this city is stated as follows
 Whereas, It is all important in the interest of organized labor of this and other countries that the International Exposition to be held in New York City in 1899, should not only mark the pro- gress of industry and commerce, but also give to labor, whose interests and aspirations are identical in all civilized nations, and which is the actual pro- ducer of all the wealth displayed at h. ternational Fairs, the opportunity of cementing the bonds of union between the wage. earners and the world and
 Whereas, During the Worlds Fair held in the city of Paris last summer an International Workingmen's Convention assembled whose deliberations and resO- lutions have considerably advanced the cause of labor organizations in all coun- tries represented;
 ResOlued, That we, workingmen and citizens of New York. submit to the earnest consideration of the Federation of Labor, the K ot L.. the Central La Dor Union and Central Labor Federation, of this city, and other labor organiza- tions, the advisability of calling an h. ternatioDal Labor Convention to be held in New York during the Exposition of 1899, and that such convention should be organized in manner worthy of the American people and the great cause of