St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-07
TOO MANY EXPOSITIONS.

ICES the American people more than
another-One weakness that seems to
pervade all classes of the community
it is the disposition to run things into
the ground" If man achieves phe-
nomenal success in any given field of
labor, and makes sudden fortune by
lucky stroke of enterprise. half of his
acquaintances rush pell-mell into the
same field in the confident expectation
of winning like reward. AS a conse-
quence the majority fail, for an excess
of production is bound to bring about
reduction of prices.
The history of the country abounds
in instances of disaster following close
upon the heels of the boomers in al
most every field of enterprise. A few
years ago the hop-growers in Wiscon-
sin. few in number. gathered a phe-
nomenally large crop. and sold their
product at high prices. The next year
almost every farmer throughout large
area engaged in hop-raising. to the
neglect of other crops. The yield
was bountiful, but the market was
overstocked and prices fell. Many
suffered severe loss, but persisted
for several years in the effort
to make fortune in hops. The result
was inevitable. The market "went to
pieces" and with it went the accumula-
tions of years of toll. There was subse-
quently, in the same state, rage for
tobacco raising. Hundreds Of farmers,
lured by the prospects of large profits,
went into the culture of the tobacco
plant. A few made money, but the ma
jority lost all they invested, for it re-
quires peculiar soil and peculiar care
to raise and cure tobacco. In Minnesota
there has been a mania for raising
wheat. Every farmer was anxious to
own bonanza wheat farm" and
neglected all else. For years the price
Of wheat has been declining, while the
yield per acre has been diminishing. 1t
is now gradually dawning upon the
minds of our farmers that there is no
profit in wheat, and after wasting years
of toll they are returning to diversified
crops as the only way out of the difficult
ties in which they find themselves on
account of their mad precipitation.
In other fields of industry the same
want of judgment is constantly making
itself manifest. The great success of
the Columbian exposition at Chicago
has whetted the ambitions of other
cities to emulate the example of the
Windy City. Augusta. Ca, has already
inangurated a fair, to which the world
is invited. 1t will no doubt be credit
able exposition. for the planters and
manufacturers of the section have en-
gagged in the enterprise with will. 1t
will be successful in all respects but one
the attendance. Being local in char
acter, it can expect merely a local pat
ronage. The crowds that flocked to Chi
cago Will be ignorant of the merits of
the Georgia fair, but even if they were
we'll Informed they would ignore it, for
they are stated with the sight of won
derS.
San Francisco, too, has undertaken a
winter exhibition. More fortunate than
their Georgia brethren.the Pacific coast
promoters have secured many of the
choicest attractions of the Chicago show
for their enterprise. They are herald
ing it far and wide. but with all their
efforts they can hope for only mod
crate success at best, and will probably
lose money. For California is a long
way off; it is an expensive trip to the
coast, and San Francisco is an expen-
sive city for the stranger to tarry i'll. 1t
will not draw the crowds that thronged
Chicago. nor even respectable proper
ton of them, for the exhibition will be
a second class affair-a sort of warmed
over dinner, neither appetizing nor sat
isfactory.
Both the Georgia and the California
eXpositions come too closely upon the
heels of the Chicago fair. People who
have visited the latter have seen enough
to last them for lifetime-or at least for
a decade. Both will necessarily be in
ferior to the Chicago fair, and will prove
disappointments, for the man who has
but recently dined on terrapin soup
will likely be disguised at having bar
| ley broth set before him. The exhilera-
ton produced by the rare champagne
served at Chicago cannot be reproduced
| by the stale beer that is promised at
Augusta and San Francisco.
The fair mania seems to have seized
firm hold upon the American people.
and the consequences promise to be ex-
ceedingly disastrous. The people have
had enough of such advertisements; they
now want a rest. Perhaps, at the end
of the century, sufficient interest may
| be awakened to make another fair sue
cessful. but for the present there is no
popular demand for them. fhey will
fail ANONYMOUSLY, and their promoters
will be out of pocket all they invest in
the enterprises.
1.-THE ballots deposited in Ohio,s bal