Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-10-31
Worlds Fair Gossip.
fC->-V

CHICAGO, Oct. 21.-So far those RESPONSE
BILE for the success or ~non-success of the
Worlds Columbian exposition. have been
making haste slowly" With the meeting
of the executive committee of the national
commission today, however, the enterprise
advances an additional stage. Two days
hence the committee on foreign affairs as
sembles in New York, while the committee
on fine arts has been summoned to gather
in the same city on the following day.
EARLY in November the voters of Chicago
will ratify the proposition to advance
$4,000 600 of the municipal funds toward
the project, and a few days later the full
body of the national commission will meet
to ratify what has been done by those to
whom it has delegated its departmental
authority. From that time on the enter
prise may be expected to progress credit
ably.
1t is now within a week of six months
since President Harrison signed the bill
which made the exposition a national en-
terprise. The net result of all that time is
simply the adoption of a site. That is all.
1t is true that the national committee on
classification, which has been in travail
for several weeks, has delivered itself
of a voluminous report, but as action
Ahoo y Y ~ OlNSh L Ill V DC Stlu
that a step forward in this direction has
been made. The ground is here. What is
to be put on it and where it is to be put
are questions for the future. And yet the
disposition that has been manifested in
some quarters to censure the local di-
rectors for inactivity cannot be regarded
as altogether just. The Prince Consort
would have died many years before he did
had his pet project, the Crystal Palace ex-
position of 1851, encountered a fraction of
the troubles and tribulations that have be-
set the latest American enterprise. The
projectors of the three French expositions
had, fguratively speaking, their pathway
strewn with roses.
So, in a measure, did the patriotic Phil
adelphians, out of whose efforts grew the
magnificent Centennial of 1876. But here
in Chicago the ground has had to be fought
for inch by inch. It was only after a bit
ter fight that the Garden City secured the
prize. Then the city council manifested an
inclination to become ~obstreperous, and
the action required of it was only secured
after a goodly proportion of the directors
were well nigh sick and weary at heart.
Next there was a long and bitter fight in
the state legislature, many members of
which appeared to be imbued with an in
tense desire to wreck the project. There
was more trouble to obtain the national
legislation without which the Lake Front
could not be used. The Illinois Central
had to be pacitied aver after the govern
ment's permission had been secured, and,
finally, it was only after repeated ~refusals
that the South Park board consented to
grant the additional ground that was alb
~solutely necessary for the purposes of the
exposition. All this will make interesting
history for the next city that may be op-
pressed with a desire for a Worlds fair.
Interesting as is this record, however, it
is not stretching facts to say that the trou-
bles of the directory have but barely be-
gun. Nearly every day brings its sacks of
mail matter containing opinions and sug-
gestions of every conceivable kind. and to
most of which it is notified to give due
heed. If only a small proportion of the
projects for special displays are favorably
considered, the site committee will soon be
looking around for three times as much az
the already ample space that is at its com,
mand. HENRY M. HUNT.