Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-09-26
The Secretary of Agriculture Offers
q Few Suggestions to the Fair
Commissioners.
It Should Not Be a Mere Show, but
Practical Illustration of the
Country's Development.
It Should Be a National Educational
Institution So Far as an Ex-
position Can Be Made.
Suggestions for the Fair.

CHICAGO, Sept. 24.-Secretary OF Agri-
culture RuSk has sent to President Palmer
of the Worlds Fair commission some sug-
gestions as to what the Fair may and
ought to be. The success of the Fair de-
pends, he says, on the plan and skill with
which it is carried out. People are hungry
for things new, useful and conducive to
their intellectual as we'll as their material
elevation. The exposition must not only
come up to their ideas as to greatness, but
its character must be such as to inspire
and teach and help them. He believes the
exposition must show the history of the
continent since its discovery, and to be an
illustrated encyclopedia of civilization.
Everything in it, he thinks, should teach
some valuable lesson. He says: "The eX-
position should not be merely a show, fair
or colossal shop, but also and pre-eminent-
ly an exposition of the principles which
underlie our national welfare; of our ma
terial, intellectual and moral status; OF ~
ments of our weakness and our strength;
of the progress we have made, the plan on
which we live and the ways in which we
shall rise higher. 1t should be an EXPOSE
tion OF knowledge illustrated by the ma
teral objects shown. 1t should teach not
only to our people but to the world what
young republic awIth all the crudeaess IN OF
has done in its brief past, is do
ing in the present and hopes to
do in the greater future for
its people and for mankind' He then
takes UP the matter Of food exhibit, and
after quoting arguments to show its i'm
md fn hot ro-
search is showing clearly how the pro-
ducts of our farms may be better adapted
to the demands Of home and foreign mar
kets. 1t is bringing information which
people need to help them to fit their diet to
the demands OF health and purse. 1t is
in the interest of their poorly fed masses,
remove the barriers they now oppose to-
our meats and other food products. 1t is
eminently fitting that these things be illus
trated at the exposition. which is to be for
the education of both our own people and
those of other countries. Food exhibits
should, in his judgment, include all sub
stance used for food, and with some illus
trations of the methods of preparing them
for market and for eating. This means, of
course, displays of products, home and for
eign, of farm, garden, orchard, mill, estab-
lishment for canning and that for meat
packing, factory, bakery, and domestic
kitchen. They should be grouped by
themselves in one great buldlng-a food
hall. They should be so arranged that
each intelligent visitor may carry away
lesson, useful for his purse and health. To
this end the best teaching of
chemistry, physiology and hygiene
regarding foods and beverages as
well, should be presented to the
public by labels, models, diagrams, speci-
mems and books. The hall might be sur
rounded by fringe of separate apartments
in which should be schools of practical
cookery, model kitchens, bakeries and
markets, With other things there could
| be restaurants, not only to provide good
| food at fair prices. but to teach the proper
use of special kinds of food, such as corn
| and its PRODUCES, meals, poultry. fish, fruits
| and materials for beverages such as tea
and coffee. These could be made highly
interesting and useful and to every house
| keeper the central feature of the whole
exposition. These ideas are not new.
They are only an ampliication of what
| has been done in some of the later exhibit
tions. The occasion should be improved
to collect information regarding the sub
jects exhibited and put in permanent
printed form as one Of the reports to make
| a lasting monument of the exposition.