The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-04
UNCLE SAM IS RAPIDLY BECOMING
MOST POPULAR SHOW
MAN 10
FINDS BUSINESS PROFITABLE
Visitors at the Buffalo Exposition,
Thronged Government Building
and Saw Things That
Were New.
GLOBE wAsH1seTos BfREAr,
Post Building. Room ~.

r.
lean exposition, which closed Saturday.
! quite as much an anything{ is the large
| part which Uncle Sam plays as A popu-
| iaf snowman, and the paternalistic char
/ acter OF his undertakings which such an
exhibition of them affords. 1t is safe TO
| say that no building at Buffalo has been
more sought for than the one provided
by the government. Every visitor from
| Washington, who supposed that they
We're in daily contact with the sans
/ things on larger scale found that it
/ contained many revelations for them.
The one characteristic of the govern
-ment's exhibit differentiating itself from
| all others is the absence of the adver-
| Using motive. The government does not
| nope to sell more postage stamps by
/ showing the picturesque. garbs of Alas
kan and Arizonian mail carriers. 1t GER
tainly does not hope to. encourage more
! carelessness along the ocean beaches by
| showing in it's lake park exhibit how
skillful the life-saving service has he
| come in rescuing the perishing on the
/ deep In short it's exhibit is desianed IN
be interesting and informing. Practical
| ~ everything else at Buffalo as at al,
fairs, IS an extension of the shop win
COW ldea differing from what one might
i see by walking through the retail dis
| trlcts of any large city only in degree
IN TACT, the government participation
| IN the great exhibition is what pricinalI1,
dliterentiates them from the local fairs
| all over the country. When the GOVERN
| ment takes hold of an exposition. makes
j good-slzed appropriation for if and
sends an exhibit. this is a sort of e1ar-
| antee of good faith to other nations that
| IL they VIII contributes Uncle Sam will
reclprocate when their turn comes 70
have a show. -
10 the cost which the government nm
oergoes for these great exposittons shonId
| OF course, be added what 1T has to nov,
| IN reciprocal contributions, and our
eminent Expenditures at tfa ra,is 80
ton STOW Enat this may be a verv con
siderable item. With every exposition
tne government is expected to do some
lhihs, ana hence the question comes
squarely before our lawmakers as TO the
extent to which Uncle Sam can and stonld
AFFORD to become an exhibitor He is
ABOUT to put in $1,000 GOO at ST / oujs
ana II fa1rs are to continue with the FREE
quency of the past it will be necessary
10 establish regular board on govern
nlent EXHIBITS. AS a matter of fact. +be
departments here have practically estab
nshed shoWman's board already. of Tho
twelve men appointed to arrange the gov
eminent exhibits at the Buffalo fair
seven had served in a like capacity be-
lore. Nhle 1t is true that they receive
no extra salary for this work. the fact
that 1t lnvades the time and energy of
TIER ordinary duties cannot be denied
Each department picks out one man.
often its chief clerk for the committee
while four independent bureaus-the
Smithsonian, the fish commission. the
Bureau of American Republics and the
Department of Labor-each have a repre-
sentative. For the exhibit at Buffalo
$eGe0O0 was appropriated, of which $500,
O1 was set aside for the,rereetion of a
government building -
Money Is We'll Spent.
1t is by no means certain, however,
that Uncle Sans money and energy is
nos quite as well expended in this way
as in any other. Such an exhibition as
that at Buffalo affords a, magnificent
demonstration of what the United States
government is doing, what the taxes go
for, and what the people get from their
government. 1t increases respect for the
enginery of administration, and IS thus
really a great silent argument for civil
service reform. The visitor from Ne
braska who supposes that anybody could
hold a government job, in a lighthouse
who is able to sign the official pay roll
and the New Yorker who thinks the same
thing about candidates for the irrigation
service, which will soon be the govern
ment's greatest undertaking in the West
learns from an exposition their mistake
They see going at Buffalo, for example,
work of a. grade that wins. their admira-
ton and with it comes the realization
that trained and intelligent people are
needed to do it.
II such an exhibit as that at Buffalo
of government work in its technical as
pect, map making wood, testing, patent
examining, meat inspecting, could be
6 in off in
the United States it would develop Won
derfully sentiment in favor of the merit
system In actual practice the govern
ment gets enough competent people to
do the really high grade work, and it
fills in places for the rest as best it can.
But the unthinking public away from
the government machinery is often inn
patient of any conditions. except loyalty
to party and entire sympathy with the
administration. !!
OF course the thing that impresses Wis
itors to the government exhibit most is
the parternalistic character Of many of
Uncle Sans present undertakings. This
is revealed all the time by government
reports and of course, stands out con-
spicuously in any study of the govern
ment doings. That this may be carried
too far is an ever present danger. Our
agricultural department is today rldic-
ulouslv paternalistic; STILL most stu
dents of the question feef that if it hap
pens to succeed in 1 per cent of its
ventures, the whole thing pays.
One of the recent exhibits of paternai-
ism came In connection with the investi-
CATION of opportunities for agriculture in
Alaska. About as soon as the first in
trepid gold hunter penetrated the north
ern wilds an agricultural department
| expert secured a billet to go there to in
vestigate. From, that time to this we
have had reports, highly Illustrated, and
Issued by the thousands, en- the agrl-
cultural opportunities of Alaska. 10 be
sure they did not promise much. The ag-
ricultural cansus of the United States
comes along and shows that as a result
of this agitation the gross yield of the
Alaska farms IN the census year was
about $4,000 This would more than pay
for the thread used in the covers of the
pamphlets. And still nobody finds much
fault If Alaska should, twenty-five years
from how, be producing al Arctic GU
cumber, a great delicacy now unknown,
as a result of these inquiries, and by ii
adding to the trade of the country by
several million dollars "a year, every
body would point to the ,shortsighted-
ness of those who criticised the pater-
| nalism of the present day.
It is entirely possible that the weather
bureau, which is essentially paterlalis-
tic, has lessened popular knowledge of
| the signs of the heavens. The older gen
GRAFTON watched the way the wind blew;
the present one hunts for the weather
| report and then blanles it because its
predictions are not unerring. But the
| younger people have lost the art of maxi
| ing predictions for themselves. Between
| what is paternalistic and what Is not,
no hard and fast line. can be drawn, nor
| is there need that one should be. The
LOT GOV