The St. Louis Republic., 1903-03-25
LONDON WRITER ON
THE WORLDS FAIR.
REPUBLIC SPECIAL.

REPUBLIC SPECIAL.
Washington, March 24-A special CORE
spondent In London. writing to the Evening
Star SAYS:
THE King Is undoubtedly in favor Of a
large representative exhibit. but for some
Interior reason the Government Is slow 10
grasp the idea and may make no better show
than at Paris.
The part which Great Britain has played
In the history of the largest exhibitions held
ABROAD is a most honorable one. If We go
DacR 10 the year 1850. when the first Paris
exhibition was held. we find the Government
OF that time fully alive to their response
bilities. They took the initiative in FORM
ing commission and a greater floor space
was secured than that given to any other
foreign nation. British exhibits were the
most numerous and the display in the art
section was particularly praisworthy, And
the, Board of Trade even arranged excur-
sions for workingmen to visit Paris to get
ideas.
Twelve years later also the Government
did what manufacturers expected OF them,
for they made grant of f11600O to be spent
on the British section. Consequently British
exhibits were again the most numerous and,
on the whole. were representative. but 1t
cannot be said that 50 far as quality went
they compared very favorably with those
of Germany. France and Belgium. The ex-
hibitton was a remarkably fine one, and 1t
oSAfCb liie SoOu OI showing Clearly
the urgent need of an Improvement in tech
nical education in this country
AT the Centennial Exposition at PhiIa-
dephia in 1876. Great Britain once moro
took the leading place among the foreign
nations. This was quite in keeping with
American wishes. for the Commissioners al
lotted 100000 square feet of floor space to
Great Britain and her colonies, against 1OO-
Oop square feet TO France and her de-
tendencies. and 60.0O0 square feet to Ger
many. British machinery, In particular.
made a splendid showing and. indeed. all
things considered, Great Britain never
made such a fine display. relatively speak
ing. as in Philadelphia.
THE Government refused to officially rec
ognize the Amsterdam exhibition of 1888
and the Paris show Of 1859. though many
British exhibited at both.
III the British Government had an excuse
for not recognizing the Paris exhibition of
1889. they had not for not making a larger
grant than Eso.oo toward the cost OF max
ing a satisfactory national display al the
Chicago Worlds Fair of 1879
THE sum Of Goo was inadequate and
compared badly with fli5,Oo5 voted by
France f13S.coG by Gssza.nY .ie55.tv; by "
IN zi7t SO 3 Drsz'i =;,- fire ESQ 900 which
the Government OF New South Wales con-
tributed. Still the show made by the Brit
ish exhibitors turned out TO be better than
at one time seemed probable. or the total
floor space OF 10000 square feet. the Brit
ish exhibits covered 3l5c00. the number of
British firms that We're represented being
1896
NJ ..uei. - said ahert Great
Britain's participation in the Paris ex-
hibition of 1900. for the circ, instances are
still within the public re- ol ,ection. The
British commission was presided over by
King Edward 0hen Prince o; Wales), but
manufacturers were somewhat apathetic,
the war in South Africa engrossed public
attention and the venomously hostile atti-
tude of the French press against this
country kept visitors and exhibitors from
Paris The British display was. conse-
quently. comparatively small. but It was
good. Still. however. 1t was put cutie in
the shade by those made by the United
States and Germany. The whole British
Empire contributed only about 15O0 ex
hibitors
There does not seem to be much doubt
that our Indifferent display in Paris had
the effect of prejudicing the foreign mind
into the idea that the days of British in
dustrial enterprise had gone by which is
an additional reason why England should
make n good show at ST. Louis"