The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-14
An EXHIBIT AT THE ST. LOUIS
EXPOSITION.


Before the Committee on Agriculture
yesterday Col. ]. H. Avirell, special rep
resentative of the ST. Louis Exposition,
made an address showing why North Car
olina should be represented at that great
exposition. His speech made a favorable
impression. This State has received much
benefit from the magnificent exhibits it
has made at other great expositions. It
should be represented at the St. Louis
Exposition. Col. Avirell said:
Mr.. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the
Joint COMMITTEES:
II am here today to bring you a mes
sage from the banks of the Mississippi
river. An hundred years ago that sec
tion of our now great country was prac-
ticaly an unknown and unbroken will
derness. The foresight of one American
statesman, a man of the South Thomas
Jefferson, secured the territory west of
the river, and American pluck and en-
ergy have built up, from the Gulf to the
lakes and to the Pacific ocean. coun-
try rich in many ways and very fair to
look on. And the people of that section
of our country, and more especially of
that great all American city of ST. Louis,
have decided that on the one hundredth
anniversary of the purchase of that ter
ritory a Grand International Exposition,
on a scope never before undertaken,
should be held in the city of st. Louis,
10 commemorate the purchase, and to
there show to the country, the world at
large, what Americans could do. The
United States government have endorsed
the project, and contributed millions in
its aid, and extends invitations to all
foreign countries to participate therein.
And the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Company, mindful of the fact that their
exposition owes it's existence to the
States east of the river, and being espe-
cially desirious that every commonwealth
in the Union should be represented at this
greatest of Worlds Fairs ever held in
this or any other country, have COM
missoned me to come to you, as the rep
resentatives of North Carolina, one of the
original Thirteen States from which our
great country has grown, to say to you,
we want you with us, there is place
reserved in that great picture, a promi-
nent place for North Carolina, that the
picture will not be complete without you,
and we sincerely trust that no obstacles,
however great, will deter your acceptance
of TIE invitation.
Now, Mr.. Chairman and Gentlemen of
the Committee. few words as to the
scope of this Great Exposition. 1t is on
a far larger and grander scale than any
previous one held in this country. or in
the old world In the last half of the
nineteenth century there were six of
these Great Expositions held-London
1852. Paris 1860, Philadelphia 1876. Paris
1879, Chicago 1893, and Paris 1900. The
first cost 81 100000 the last s27 900, 600,
each showing a proportionate increase,
and the attendance of each larger in
crease In proportion 1t is estimated that
$40 600, 900 will be expended at st. Louis,
and that the attendance, from the open
ing to the close, will be over $4,000, 600 peo-
pie Chicago had an attendance of 4S,0O0,-
00O All the countries of the old world
will he there, the South American Repub-
lies, the West Indies will all show by
their exhibits the products of their fields,
forests. mines and manufactures; many
OF their people will be there to see what
this country has done, and what are it's
possibilities, as we'll as the advantages
offered for settling with US, and the pos
sibilities for investments. The States of
the West and Southwest will be fully in
attendance with their resources and in
dustries. to not only show what their
section has done in the century, but to
attract the investor and home seeker And
in this friendly rivalry among the sister
hood of States. for the invitation is to
each and every one, the Southern States
should hold no mean part.
"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the
Committee. pardon me for consuming so
much of your time, and for now speak
ing, not as the representative of this
Great Exposition. but as one of the
South, and as a resident of North Caro-
lima.
'When we look back to the close of
that great struggle in 1865, and those OF
us who can so wildly remember the
scenes of desolation throughout the
Southland on every side. those of US who
40 we'll remember the days of reconstruc-
ton government in the Carolinas. as
we'll as in other sections of the South,
the final overthrow of the Carpet Bag
ger and negro rule, and when that was
a thing of the past how the New South
sprung into existence, and how by dint
Of that same spirit of discrimination
shown in those dark days of the Cos we
have pressed onward and upward. and
todav no section of this or, any other