New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-04-05
MORE CELEBRATIONS

More celebrations yet People have been say.
ing that worlds fairs and all such functions are
played out" The last Paris fair convinced the
people Of France that it would be undesirable
to hold another at the end of the next tradI-
tional eleven years. and the St. Louis fair last
year was all Of that sort Of thing the Ameri.
can people want for a generation, at least, TO
come So they say. It may be so. These great
universal exhibitions may have been over
worked in recent years. Yet we can regard
with degree not only of equanimity, but act
ually of confidence and optimistic anticipation,
the holding Of at least two more important er-
hibitions within the next two years.
For the occasions of these two fairs certain
ly justify and, indeed, urgently call for some
form Of cOmmemOratiOn, and II the exposition
be the approved fOrm-and in its favor as such
much is to be said-then we should surely have
it. The Lewis and Clark expedition was an
epoch making incident in our national history
and in the history OF the world. In the view
OF some it has been OvershadOwed by the other
great incident with which it was so closely con-
nected, the Louisiana Purchase Perhaps it
would not have been made had it not been for
the latter. Jefferson wanted to play every
strong card in his hand in his splendid game
Of blufing the French dictator. He NAV not
have realized the full import Of that expedition
which he ordered as a mere adjunct to the d.
plomacy of Livingston and Monroe But II he
builded better than he knew we NAV we'll give
him credit for the full result of his building
That expedition led to the acquisition of Ore
gon, the "54:40' dispute, our frontage on the
Pacific Ocean, the breaking Of the monopoly of
those waters which Russia sought to establish.
the warning Of Russia to evacuate California.
and, indeed to quit this continent altogether,
the foreshadOwing of the Monroe Doctrine in
that strenuous declaration TO Baron TuyI and
in time the acquisition Of Alaska and all that
expansion as a Pacific power which has been
OF so vast Importance in our national history
That is what we shall presently celebrate. It
is well worth celebrating in the most imposing
fashion Of which we are capable.
jamestown, too. That celebration will not
come for two years yet but it is worth prepar-
ing for upon a generous scale. Some of us are
apt to think more Of Plymouth and Boston than
Of jamestown. But we must remember that
before they were, jamestown was, and It NAV
have been chiefly because of jamestown that
they ever came into being Puritan and Cava.
ler, prelate and Puritan, were far apart in
those days, and their descendants have heen
far apart much Of the time since Yet thew
were. after all, much alike. They were much
alike in blue laws" and they were one in the
uprising for independence. Virginia cannot for
get "hOw the Bay State, in answer to the call
from her old House Of Burgesses, spoke ont
from Faneuil Hail." A small, obscure, neg
ected place the jamestown Of to-day may he
but il is, after ALL one OF the priceless inberI-
tances of the whole American nation, the mama
Of which can never be spoken with indifference
and the precautionary Of which amply deserves
TO be commemOrated with the interest and SYM
pathetic attention of the whole people.
We shall be in little danger of OVERRIDING Tho
work of patriotic commemoration. 1t is good
thing that IN these later years so many organ
izations have been formed for the purpose NJ
stimulating patriotic and historic sentiments
But even with them we are too little regardfnI
Of dates and places that form miIestones In our
national pilgrimage Every effort to keen mem.
DRY vital and vivid. every work that makes for
more Just appreciation of the dolngs of the
past and Of their effects upon the subsequent