Evening star., 1898-12-05
The Paris Exposition.

There is now every prospect that the par
TIC patton of the United States in the Unit
ve'sal Exposition to be held in Paris iE
300 Will be on scale commensurate with
the advanced position held by our products
and Industries in the worlds chief marts.
The preliminary report of Mr.. Moses P
Handy who, under the act approved July
10, 1891, was appointed Special Commis-
soner, with a view to securing all attain
able information necessary to a full and
complete understanding by Congress in re-
gard to the participation of this Govern
ment in the Paris Exposition, was laid be-
fore you by my message of December 6,
1897 and show ed the large opportunities
opened to make known our national pro
gress in arts, science, and manufactures as
well as the urgent need of immediate and
adequate provision to enable due advan-
tage thereof to be taken. Mr.. Handy s
dealt soon afterwards rendered it necessary
for another to take up and complete his un-
finished work, and on January II last Mr..
Thomas w. Cridler, Third Assistant Secre-
tary of State, was designated to fulfill tha t
task. His report was laid before you by my
message of June IA, 1898, with the gratify-
ing result Of awakening renewed interest III
the projected display. By provision in the
sundry civil appropriation act of July j.,
1898, a sum not TO exceed $3.50, 600 was al
lotted for the organization of q commission
u care for the proper preparation and IT.
stallation of Ar. erican exhibits, and for tue
display of suitable exhibits by the sever IL
Executive Departments, particularly by the
Department of Agriculture, the Fish Com
mission and the Smithsonian Institution, in
representation OF the Government of the
United States
Pursuant to that enactment L appointed
Mr.. Ferdinand W. Peck, of Chicago, Com
missioner-Generalw with an Assistant Com
missionerGenerai and Secretary. Mr..
Peck at once proceeded to Paris, where his
success in enlarging the scope and variety
of the United States exhibit has been most
gratifying. Notwithstanding the compare
lively limited area of the Exposition site
less than one-half that of the Worlds Fair
at Chlcago-the space assigned TO lhe
United States has been increased from the
absolute allotment of 157,4O3 square feet
reported by Mr.. Handy to some 202 $50
square feet, with corresponding augmenta-
ton of the field for truly characteristic
representation of the various important
branches of our country's development.
Mr.. Pecks report will be laid before you.
In my judgment lis recommendations Will
call for your early consideration, especially
as regards increase of the appropria-
ton to at least one million dollars in ALL
SO that not only may the assigned space
be fully taken up by the best possible ex
hibits in every class, but the preparation
and installation be on so perfect a scale
as to rank among the first in that unpar-
alleled competition of artistic and inventive
production, ard thus counterbalance the
disadvantage with which we start as COM
pared with other countries whose appro-
priations are on a more generous scale ard
whose preparations are in state of much
greater forwardness than our own.
Where our artisans have the admitted
capacity to excel, where our inventive
genius has initiated many of the grandest
discoveries of these later days of the
century. and where the native resources of
our land are as limitless as they are valu-
able to supply the worlds needs, 1t is our
province, as 1t should be our earnest care,
to lead in the march of human progress
and not rest content with any secondary
place Moreover. If this be due to our
selves, it is no1ess due to the great French
nation whose guests we become, and which
has in SO many ways testified its wish and
hope that our participation shall bef1t the