The Portland daily press., 1892-12-26
WORLDS CONGRESS AUXILIARY.
How 1t Is Preparing for Twenty-one
Worlds Congresses at Chicago.
ISpecial Correspondence.l

lures that adorn the business portion OF
La Sale street, under the shadow on
the north of the temple that stands as
monument to the efforts Of the Christian
temperance women of this land, and on
the south of the massive pile Of marble
md granite in which the bulls and bears
Of the board of trade hold daily high
carnival, is suite of offices from which
the work of one of the most important
adiuncts of the Worlds fair is being rap
idly pushed forward. Chicago's stock
yard prince has his business habitation
on the floor below, while above are lux
uriously appointed bureaus of insurance
companies, legal corporations and pro-
motors, the ramiications of whose ma
chinery extend over many continents,
All of them together, however, are
not called upon to receive as many Wis
itors or to handle as large an amount OF
mail matter as falls to the share OF the
second floor suite in question. In the
matter of mail its daily receipts run
into the hundreds of separate pieces
and will very soon be reckoned by the
thousand-while the autographs already
laid away in It's files would be worth
fortune to the professional numislnatist
or private collector. AS for the visitors
we'll, they come and go in a continuous
stream--bishops and priests, doctors OF
divinity, lawyers of renown, statesmen
and publicists, journalists and authors,
financiers and social reformers. physl-
clans and surgeons, scientists, philoso-
pliers, architects, educators, labor re-
formers and SO on through an apparently
endless classification of pursuits and
professions and movements.
No fuss or ostentation attends the
work of the Worlds Congress Auxil-
larry" fer that is the title that may be
seen upon the glass doors as they con-
stantly open and close. And yet it is
performing great task, one second in
importance only to that of the exposition
itself. Under its auspices the most emf
nent women and men of the universe
are to be brought together few months
hence to commune one with another
upon subjects almost without limit, but
one and all directed to the welfare Of
mankind.
Nowadays an International convention
is an event of note. A socialist gather
ing in Switzerland, monetary confer
ence at Brussels, trades congress at
Liverpool, a Federation Of Labor at Phil
adelphia, all attract attention on both
sides of the ocean, and their proceedings
are reported with more or less Of detail by
the press of all languages. What, then,
shall be said or what can be thought OF
twenty -one worlds congresses-for that
is the number whose organization has
been effected to this writing twenty
one international assemblies, and some
of them called upon to consider
SO many themes that it will be
necessary for them to reassemble into
twenty-one divisions. Two hundred
and fifty, possibly 800. congresses in
all! The idea = in these days when,
as was said just now, even single
congress is an event of worldwide
importance and interest-seems to be
chimerical, to be beyond belief or ac-
complishment. And yet each and every
congress will be held just as surely as
on the list day Of May the touch of an
electric button will start the machinery
Of the fair in motion and proclaim to
the world that the Columbian exposition
is an actual, living fact.
Itwould require columns, if not pages,
TO tell of what has been done and what
remains to be done by the congress aux
iliary. Soon after the old year has given
place to the new, and before we have
done with speeding the parting and
welcoming the coming guest" a half
million of envelopes will go out from
the Chicago postofice. They will be di-
rected to as many people of eminence in
their respective fields at home and
abroad, and the contents will ask their
personal participation in the particular
congress with which their interests are
identified.
The first month of the fair will wit
ness the inauguration of the opening
congressional relating to women's prog
ress. This will be on May 16. On the
22d the representatives of the public
press will come together, and 10000 ed
itors Of as many publications. are to be
included in the list of invitations. One
week later the departments of medicine.
comprising four divisions, will be in ses-
sion. June will witness the rallying of
the friends of temperance, Of moral and
social reform and the representatives OF
commerce and finance. In July men
and women identified with music in all
its branches, with literature as authors
librarians, philologists and advocates OF
equitable copyright, and with education
in all its various phases, will gather to-
gether.
August will be busy month, with it's
worlds conventions of engineers, of art
lists and architects, of men who have
made Jurisprudence and law reform. po-
litical and economic reform, social sci
ence, international arbitration and city
government life study. The conven-
tons of dentists, pharmacists and those
interested in medical Jurisprudence will
be held during the second week of the
month and an will the assemblaoe of