The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-09
THE WORLDS FAIR MATTER.

The blunder in the organization OF the
Worlds fair commission can hardly be
considered misfortune since 1t has been
the means of making public the facts
which have been subject of controversy
between the board of commissioners and
their executive officer. 1t has been made
evident that there was such misunder-
standing and contention as would have
baked the purposes for which the commits
has appropriated the liberal sum of
100000. If the commissioners and their
executive agent had gone on working
at cross purposes there would have been
no exhibit worthy of the state and the
whole appropriation would practically
have been thrown away. tits now evident
that at least good part of the $500 al
ready expended has been FILTERED away
and it is fortunate that the crash came be-
fore the waste had made larger hole in
the appropriation.
Mr.. Meeker presents his side of the
question in a very notable letter, which We
print this morning, and he certainly makes
u
his claim that the exhibit cannot be made
successful if divided into half dozen or
more neutrality-suspicious. department."
acknowledging no general executive head
and submitting only to the authority of a
board not in continuous session--which,
in fact, meets only once in a while and
never secures at any meeting more than
minority of its actual members. 1t would
be absurd to expect great and successful
exposition of the resources of the state
excepting under central and vigiant
executive administration. No business
can prosper under a half-dozen heads, and
the rules of business are as applicable in
this Worlds fair project as to the conduct
of any other large and comprehensive
enterprise. This is not intended as an
espousal of Mr.. Meeker's cause, but merely
as the statement of primary principle in
the control of business affairs.
Mr.. Meeker's financial statement is
something more than an insinuation; it is
in fact almost a charge that there has been
not only waste. but misapplication of funds
in the matter of expenditures already
made. His statement makes extremely
interesting reading. It would be very in
teresting to know how the clerk Of the ex-
ecutive committee and the press agent
managed to earn the sum of $500 during the
month of July, not to mention the other
sum of $500 'during the period ending
June 3d." 1t would be interesting to know
who made that trip to Chicago to "se-
lect SITE" and how the trip came
to cost the large sum of $500.
1t would be interesting to know how the
commissioners contrived to spend $500 in
travelling and other expenses" DUR
ing the month Of July. There are
other facts in connection with the
two s'incidental items" one of $500
and the other of 500, which ought to
be explained; and who ever made these
acquisitions ought in response to Mr..
Meeker's statement to give to the public
an iteinized account. There is In the
whole statement as furnished by Mr..
Meeker, a suspicious series of round num-
bers. The public waits for an explana-
ton.
An elaborate and expensive "organiza-
ton" is not essential to the collection of
an exhibit, or to its proper arrangement at
Chicago. The work can much better be
done under one head than under SIX or
more, and nobody will question that it can
be done great deal cheaper. The state
has made cheerfully libe-al appropria-
ton, and the Northern Pacific Railway
Company has very literally granted free
transportation equivalent TO gift Of s25.-
600 more. If this bounty, or any
part OF it, shall be thrown away or misap-
piled there will be, and there ought to be,
universal indignation.