The Monticellonian., 1895-04-19
Atlanta Exposition Bill.

Senator Smitf's bill No. 2S6. tc appropriate Sle,o0O for exhibiting Arkansas resources at the Atlanta Exposition, being special order for this hour was taken np and read third time,
 Senator Smith said:
 MR. PREsIDENT-This bill is one of the most important that has been advanced to a third reading during the present session of the General Assembly,. The hill un der consideration proposes to ap- propriate S10,000 to be used by the Commissioner of Mines, Man lecturers and Agriculture in nak+ ing display of the resources of Arkansas, the grandest and most promising member of this Union, at the Cotton States Exposition, which will open on the 18th of September and close on the 3lst of December ot this year.
 Two years ago the Representa- tives, all honor to them, of the people of the State, In their WIS dom, saw proper to make an ap. propriation of S15, ,0e0 for the pnr- pose of advertising the States re- sources at the Columbian fxposi- ton al Chicago. From this ex- pendituro of money we were able to show the people of the North and West that Arkansas possessed wonderful resources. 0f our re- cord at the Worlds Fair, we may justly feel proud. With the 6l5, 900, we made such splendid eX- hibit of our resources and skill ia the arts, that we carried away q large number of first awards. eight of which was on our fruits; we received first awards on lohg and short staple cotton; first award on zine and forty one awards OH public school work, and many others we dc not recall now.
 The Commissioner of Mines, Manufacture and Agriculture. i'll his third biennial report says: "The exhibit of our resources has awakened such an interest i'll our State that for the year ending De cembor l, 1891, ut least &5.000,000 have been invested by homeseek CTS and capitalists III our lands alone"
 Ii we are 10 judge by the num- Der of real estate transfers in one county, that of Arkansas, the Commissioners report does not do the State justice, for thousands upon thousands of acres of land changed hands in that county dur ing the past year. And what is said of thls county, can be truth. fully said of others in the State.
 If we were to present this cause properly before the people and ask them to say whether the State should be represented at the com. ing exposition at Atlanta, they would m our candid opinion say, take Sl0,000 of the direct fund and gather up the best of our tim Der, and we have the greatest va riety of any other State in this Union, take our cotton, a product that carries on the first prizes wherever shown, lake our corn, grain and fruits, our applss, like our cotton captures first premiums everywhere. And this is not all they would have lis place before the world. The State Is rich in zine, marble coal, marl and gypsum, chalk, bauxite. kaoline, manganese, slate, mica, iron, ores, granite, shaIe, and, last, but by no means least, our educational in terests. All this an1 many other of the States boun Hess resources they have spread before the eyes of the gathered millions, who will, as they did al Chicago, gaze upon in wonder and amazement.
 An exhibit at Atlanta would reach people that IS very much desired in the timber and cotton belt regions of the State. The people of the SoutheaNtern States are better adapted b the section just mentioned than is cur pro- gressive Northerner or Western CT, the former preferring to go to a country which is heavily timber nA n,h ,r rhnrn nnttnn ic c.rn,rn