St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-08-15
THE WORLDS FAIR AND HE
PARIS EXPOSITION.

ed about the Paris Exposition are,
as it success ?" and How do you
think it compares with the Worlds
Fair at Chicago?" A whole volume
even an encyclopedia might be writ
ten in reply to either of these ques-
tions. For Paris, the Exposition is
a success. 1t has brought thousands
of visitors and millions OF francs to
the city and has convinced the world
for the hundredth time that there IS
no capital (let US be thankful for the
fact) like Paris. 1t is tremendous
advertisement for the articles OF
luxury and taste for which Paris is
famous. 1t has aVerted or perhaps
only postponed a political crisis
which, in France, is always preten-
tious of a revolution. History may
be able to record that this EXPOSE
ton by its restraining influence, i'm
posing good behavior on host at a
national entertainment enabled the
nation to tide over and ameliorate
the conditions which threatened to
involve the civil government in a
death struggle with the allied forces
OF mllitarism and Catholicism. II
the Exposition shall have done all
this it is at least local success. 1t,
OF course, has done more. hope it
has opened the eyes of some Ameri-
cans to the very formidable rivalry
of Germany, Hungary, of Italy and
Russia, in arts and manufactures.
We are proud of our wonderful pros
perity and of the fact that the last
year has eclipsed all others by about
$3OO,000,000 in foreign trade, en-
abling us for the first time to write
$2,0O0,000,O0O. But this need not
blind us to the fact that the percent
age or rate of progress from year to
year in some other countries has
been greater than in our own. Our
competitors are not sleeping, and
our greatest danger today is that
we will spend too much energy in self
graduation.
In one essential particular our COM
petitors in many European countries
have great advantage over US. They
know three or four languages and
their travelling statesmen are at home
in Mexico, South America, Central
Asia, and Africa talking with the
native merchant in his own language,
having ten times as much fun and
doing twice as much business as our
poor American drummers who know
only English and who must use pad,
pencil and pantomime, in introducing
their goods. The old idea that ma
tive American wit is equal to any
emergency and can cope successfully
with the polite and polyglot German
or Russian is very silly. A little
dialect will go infinitely further than
wit, as any American from Cuba,
Porto Rico, or the Philippines will
tell us; moreover the compression that
Americans have monopoly of wit
or business shrewdness survives only
with those who have not travelled.
French, German and Spanish ought
to be taught our youth in the public
schools. The governments of Eu.
rope have special schools for the
training of their consular and COM
mercial agents. They make a special
study of the wants, tastes, preju-
dices, manners and habits of peoples
beyond the seas. They 60 among
them with an equipment that is
never acquired by Americans except
in the enormously expensive school
of experience.
How does this Exposition compare
with Chicago? 1t is about the same
size, has more restaurants and fake
shows, is much more European or
cosmopolitan and immensely more
French than Chicago. 1t cost fifty
cents to pass the gates at Chicago,
here 1t costs onl y ten ortwelve cents,
the price of tickets varying slightly
from day to day. The people who
attend this Exposition, the mass of
them, are evidently not as we'll to do,
as well dressed or as intelligent as
those who were at Chicago. The
great majority of them are from the
city of Paris. The cheap entrance
fee makes the Exposition accessible
to thousands, who, if the fare were a
franc or twenty cents, would stay
away. AS result, the poorer class
es-I had almost said the pauper