Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-10-19
so PEOPLE MAY KNOW.


tons are given place of first import
ance and when every opportunity for
increasing the value of American
sales abroad is grasped with eager
ress, the scheme for exploiting Amer
lean manufactures and products by
means of floating exhibition cannot
but attain popularity. Some time next
spring an 5000 ton steamship will
leave the port of New York on trip
that will take year or more and in
the course of which it will visit sew
enty.five important seaports in forty
six foreign countries. About million
dollars will be invested in the enter
Prise and manufacturers all over
America will have exhibits of their
goods well displayed for the view of
foreign merchants and prospective pa
irons. The vessel will be veritable
floating fair, an exhibition of all the
chief manufactures of the nation, and
the merchants of every important for
eign land will be given an opportunity
to see what Yankee manufacturers
have to offer them. Rightly conduct
! ed the enterprise should mean much
in the way of an increase to American
commerce.
The scheme is due directly to an ar
t:cle written four years ago by o. P.
Austin, chief of the bureau of statis-
tics of the department of commerce
and labor for the Geographic Maya
zine.
Mr.. Austin then wrote:
"a floating exhibition, carrying sam
pies of our merchandise around the
world, and putting our merchants in
! touch with. those of all nations seems
to me fitting American enterprise for
the beginning of the new century.
'The nineteenth century has made
/ the United States, the greatest export
ing nation of. the world; why not be-
| gin the twentieth by showing to all
the world what we have to sell and
how to sell it,"
AS the plans stand, the exhibition is
to be housed on big steamship now
| in the transatlantic SERVICE. that is
to be chartered for fifteen months.
This ship has three decks available
for exhibition purposes besides the
one for the living accommodations of
the statesmen, demonstrators and ex-
ecutive officers
/ L uSlS VIII US dUOuI SU,UUU square
feet of deck room available for "show-
room purposes, which is to be divid-
ed as follows:
| On the upper or shelter deck will
be shown samples of industrial art,
Yankee notions, cotton goods and nov
! elites of all kinds, such as hardware,
! and tools. The second deck will be
set apart for. vehicles, agricultural i'm.
| plements, musical instruments and
other articles of a bulky but not
weighty nature, while the lowest deck
will be devoted to machinery and 9TH
er heavy manufactures
| The minimum space allotted to each
exhibitor will be forty square feet,with
a cabin allotment of one man to such
a unit The exhibits will be arranged
before the ship sails from here and
lists printed in four languages
lish, French, German and Spanish.
/ To facilitate easy passage from one
part of the exhibition to the other. two
passenger elevators are to be installed
in the vessel and power to run the ma
chinery exhibits will also be supplied
from the ships boilers.
Before the floating exhibition sails
from New York, arrangements will
have been made to advertise the ap.
preaching visit-of the ship through the
/ United States consulates and the
agents of American commercial
houses abroad
Tickets of admission will be sent to
them to distribute to the best advan-
tage, and the foreign agents of the
floating exhibition already have made
arrangements with the railways in the
countries to the ports Where the ship
is to he at anchor