The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-03-06

L iSo HApoSltlou Va ASDo up ~ SNAS
1894. the year after the closing of the
Exposition, aggregated S~2II,245,566. III
addition to this the United States Gov
eminent had expended. apart from the
contribution of $780, 600 in Columbian
| coins which it made TO aid the EXposi'
| ton Company. $2,SS1, 900. The various
| States and Territories of the Union eX-
| pended about So. .0OO. Foreign M,
| tons and colonies disbursed apprOpria-
tons a~ggregating So, $4,000.
These expenditures alone covered an
aggregate disbursement Of $37, 400, $50.
To that must be added the expenditures
by private individuals who held privi-
leges and concessions of various kinds
and the expenditures by railway cor
porations and by others associated with
enterprises Immediately connected with
the Exposition. 1t has been estimated
by those who We're closely connected
| with the administration Of the Column
bian Exposition that the expenditures
directly associated with that enterprise
reached a total Of about $47, 100000.
This total expenditure, of course. rep
resents less than half the disbursement
Of money that was Immediately and
directly due to the Columbian EXPOSE
ton. 1t does not include the money ex-
pended by the hundreds of thousands Of
visitors who thronged Chicago not only
during the months when the gates Of
the Exposition were open, but during
the two years Of preparatory work. Add
these expenditures to the aggregate Of
S47,OO0,0OO already indicated, and the
total will be very little short OF $780,
600. 1000.
But in the case of st. Louis there Is
still another form of expenditure to con-
slider. The people of this city have def
nitely resolved to put the municipal
house in order to receive their guests.
They mean to transform the whole
physical aspect of st. Louis. They will
finish the new City Hall; they will
build a new Hospital; they will erect a
great building fop the Public Library;
they will expand and develop their
street and sewer work on extensive and
comprehensive plans: they will build
hotels, Office buildings, theaters and
residences to make the accommodations
of st. Louis adequate to meet the reces-
stiles Of the Exposition year.
No one can compute how many mil
lions Of dollars will be required to do
the great work the municipality and
private citizens project, but it will GER
tainly call for an expenditure Of more
han $50. 100000. 1t may mean twice as
much. Can any one doubt, therefore,
that the whole expenditure of money
Immediately connected with the work
Of preparing the Exposition, or Indirect
ly due to the stimulus it will infuse in
every line of enterprise, will run we'll
over 500, 100000? There would be no
exaggeration. Of statement in forecast
ing a disbursement OF $4,000 900.
All of this money will be spent inside
Of three years, or, at least, within four
after the work of prepara-
ton was begun, from 1892 to 1893, and
it may turn out that st. Louis will have
to do the same thing. Even if it does,
March. 1901, to November, 1904,
the utmost limit of time that can inter- |
yene until the gates of the Exposition
are finally closed, there will be only
three years and a half. Within that
short space Of time between 100000
900 and $50, 10000 will be poured out
in extraordinary and unusual expendi-
lures.
1t is time for the people of st. Louis
and particularly the business men of st. |
Louis-to awake to an appreciation of
what this extraordinary and unusual
disbursement of money will mean in its |
bearing on the life and development of
st. Louis. Its energizing influence can
not well be exaggerated. 1t should be
generally realized in order that the peO-
pie of this city may understand that the
Of a new era for ST. Louis has
most certainly and assuredly come.
1t is easy to talk of reaction after the
closes. The Republic shares,
however. in none of b ap~prehensions
Of those who are disposed to predict in
jury to the city in the years that follow
The Exposition period. With all the idle
that has been INDUCED in re-
the reaction in Chicago after
The Columbian Exposition, the simple
absolute fact Is that property values
dropped below the figures preva-
ent in the years before the Exposition
began or below the figures
hat would have been continuously
prevalent if there had been no EXPOSE
ion at all. Chicago's business and
.rade, on, the other hand, were stimu-
ated and developed to a degree that
would have been impossible in the same
period of time without the impulse of
he Exposition.
The experience of st. Louis will be the
same as that of Chicago. There will be
It least three years Of activity, in each
# which the city will grow as fast as
t would In ten years of ordinary expert
nee. If it advances three decades in
hree years, it will suffer little IL In the :