The age-herald., 1900-03-04
FRANCE RECEIVES
 LAFAYETTE DOLLAR
Enclosed in a Handsome Case
 Costing $1,000.
PRESIDENT DEEPLY TOUCHED
During Lunch Following the Presenta- ton M. Loubet Alluded to France=~
 American Reciprocity Treaty Predicted Great Advantages

Paris March 3.-Mr. Robert J. Thomp- son, secretary of the LaFayette monument commission, as special commissioner of the United States. representing President Me ISinley, and in his name presented to President LouTbet this morning the first of the LaFayette dollars, which was enclosed in casket costing $1,OOO. The presentation took place at the Elysee palace.
 MT. Thompson, accompanied by the United States ambassador, General Horace Porter, drove from the embassy to the palace in the ambassadors carriage. On arriving at the Elysee at 11:45 a. m. they were received by M Mellard sub-director of the protocol, and Captain Haguet, of the French army, who was the officer on duty.
 The Americans were conducted to the presidents cabinet (study), where M. Lou bet was awaiting them. By his side were n. del Casse, the minister of foreign af- fairs Several members of the presidents military household were also present.
 General Porter introduced MT Thompson to M Loubet, and the presentation of the dollar was then made by MT. Thompson in a few appropriate words. Te said:
 MT. President: In behalf of his excel SNhCSy LuS PrcSiuSlHC OI IA64 UnlteQ States, I. have the distinguished honor of extend ing ito you and the high representatives of France salutations and greetings Of friendship.
 Movement Began by School Boys
 "On the 18th of October, 1898, the anniver- sary of the victory of Yorktown of the French and American arms in the cause of liberty, the American school youths were invited by the president and governors of the several states of the United States to contribute their pennies toward the erection of monument in Paris to a son of France our great and yenerated ally, General La Fayette. The response of the children was universal, the movement a splendid success. In further aid and in honor of the work. an Issue of fifty thousand souvenir silver dol lars was appropriated and ordered struck by congress.
 -'Of these 50,000 lafayette dollars the first to issue from the mint was especially pre- served for your excellency by the president of the United States and I have now the distinguished honor, MT. President, of pre- senting to you this coin, a simple and sym pathetic token in his name and for the peo- pie of the United States.
 q voice the sentiments of my country men when express the hope that this im- memorial dollar, stamped with the likeness of Washington and LaFayette, may remain always, as it Is today, an emblem of the
 
 great republics of the world.'
 =ss President Deeply Touched
 In reply, the president said he was deeply touched by, the kind thoughts of America s president and people, and, particularly, by the gracious manner fn which the coin had been presented to him by MT. Thompson. He begged the latter ito be the interpreter to lthe president of his warmest thanks and sentiments towards President sMcKin- ley and the American nation which anil mated the presentation to tlle government of the French republic. M. Loubet con- cauded with saying that it was especially agreeable to Chim that the mission was en- trusted to Mir. Thompson in view of the iTlhtialtory part which he took in the sub- Scrptions of the school children of the United States to erect a monument to Gen. sraa Lafayette i'm Paris.
 1.-The French president then invited Gen. eraa Porter and MT. Thompson to stay to luncheon, at which Madame Loulbet and M. Delcasse were present.
 During the lunch which followed M. Lou bet engaged in an animated converse tion with MT. Porter and MT. Thompson, in which he accentuated and amplifed what he had previously said dn his formal re- Spense on the subject of the historical and sentimental ties between the two republics and his sincere desire for a good under standing. He alluded to tine French American reciprocity treaty now pending before the two par>liamentss and dwelt on the mutual advantages he hoped would accrue thereifrom, expressing tle opinion daaat not merely those articles directly af- fected by the treaty would benefit but that the whole trade bet ween the two lcoun- tries would undergo sympathetic expan- sion and that the channels of commercial anteroourse would widen inevitably in the course of time.