The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-07-06
HOW ExPosrTIoNs TURN our

We were surprised to learn that the
expeditions nave not been UGH great
things IN results as most people may
have supposed. We had sozne how
concluded. without investigation, that
the many worlds fairs had been not
only successes in attracting great
crowds of visitors, and even in inan-
cial results. but had proved Of practi-
cal and permanent advantage TO the
cities in which they were held. But it
appears that such an opinion is base
less, that results have been greatly dis
appointing, that they have actually
worked an injuary in some, If not in all
instances. The Chicago Chronicle has
beer hunting the records and its chron-
icling Of events that followed is not
reassuring or comforting. It shows
how the great exposition in its own
city-the Columbian big show seen by
all the world-was not a marked sue
cess, not happy in results. It goes 50
far as to declare that it actually
proved more disastrous than the flood
of 1849, or the fire of 1871, or the panic
of 1897 or the hard times Of 1873" This
is a strange, a startling statement, but
as we learn from an exchange, for we
Chicago daily reasons in this way
that the railroads and citizens and
corporations Of various kinds were
stimulated into Investments and ex-
penditures and ventures on a gigantic
scale, in anticipation of a ten years
boom, in consequence of the fair, which
have not materialized. The result has
been to cripple the of large
concerns and capitalists and produce
a s~tagnation which is terrible"
1t insists that uch an experience,
however unfortunate, disagreeable,
disastrous, is not one peculiar to the
great city of the west, but that all have
had an experience at least something
similar. It holds that the suffering in
Chicago has attended all other expert
nents of the kind-that it has been
"the history Of all such undertakings as
these international and national expo
sitions that they have raised false
hopes in the breasts of the citizenship
of the communities in which they were
held. Millions have been anticipated
that never came and the only large &C
cesSiOns has generally been an in
crease Of population in the salary and
wage earning classes that could not be
provided for permanently by a tenn
porarily accelerated or inflated bust
ness"
New Orleans, Atlanta, all were disap-
pointed, and III the shows were fol-
lowed by years of depression. One ex-
change, the Houston Post, that puts US
in possession of the statements of the
Chicago paper, says it has been shown
that Communities seem to be no more
capable of using stimuIants to excess
without disastrous, or, at least, painful
consequences than individuals. r.
the fun is fast and furious While it
lasts. The exposition towns get a ire
mendous lot of advertising and posssi-
bly, in the long run the advertisement
pays, but for 2 time at least the reac-
ton sets in and large numbers suffer.
Nashville will probably prove no eX-
ceptiOn to the rule"
They do good doubtless as educators.
Tens of thousands see what they could
never otherwise see, have their Wis
ions widened, their knowledge increas-
ed, their conceptions of the world
greatly enlarged. They get lessons
may be costly, but they in the long
run serve al excellent purpose. They
stimulate industries and invention, and
tbp fine arts