Omaha daily bee., 1908-12-13

pAJ hibitors frantically drove the
last nan, the electric current pulsated over
a wire running straight from the White
House and a message of good will from
President Roosevelt formally opened the
National Corn exposition.
The exposition has been In progress
three days since then, and has been well
under way from the start, but this open
ing day was the biggest DAY OF all the
days which a passed and is as
suredly as important as any which are TO
come. For the formal opening of the
National Corn exposition this year really
marks an epoch in the history of Ameri-
can agriculture and the history of Ameri-
can agriculture is the history of not alone
the material wellbeing of the people Of the
United States. but to a very great extent
Of their social progress and even Of their
ethical and esthetic advance 1t is true
that this is not the first National Corn ex-
position. but it might well be when the
scope and purpose of this years exposi-
ton are compared to that of 1907, although
the latter was literally the first.
In days to come the 9th of December,
1908, may likely be reckoned one of the
most important dates in American history.
This statement seems preposterous at first
bAaANNI " We y dISuSNOIutu ~
considering as important dates. the day
on which some CORY battle was fought or
the day when some treaty or other was
formally concluded, But if one stops and
thinks a minute, he must admit that few
days are more important IN the history
Of the world than that day when James
Watts sat In his mothers kitchen and
saw the lid of the kettle pressed up by the
steam within. And that day when Sir
Isaac Newton saw the memorable apple
fall, the day when Gutenberg took his
first impression from movable type, the
day when Mccormick first tried a har-
vester on a Virginia farm, these and a
hundred other days have been OF more
consequence to after-time than the day
when the battle of Lundy's Lane was
fought. or the day when the peace OF
Utrecht was signed.
It was significant In a way that the open
ing day Of the second National Corn exposi
ton should have been noteworthy for tn,
large number of children who were pres
ent. For It is they who will reap in larges
measure the harvest from the seeds which
p. G. Holde and j. Wilkes Jones-to name
only two men-have sown. These swarm:
OF school children did not take the exposi
ton with any too much seriousness and
the direct and immediate educational valu,
which they received must nave been small
for the day was to them something of
lark. a holiday from the drudgery and con
finement of school. Yet II was not to b
expected that they should view the Corr
exposition with serious mien or pull ioni
faces. This is particularly true OF tn
children from the city OF Omaha, VIII
could not In the nature OF things be locke,
to to take as lively and acute an lnteres
In corn. wheat, rye, oats and barley as tn
children who grow up in the immediat
vicinity of a blooming field OF grain. Fo
many OF the latter the Corn exposition ha
an immediate personal interest, becaus
corn Of their own growing or articles mad
from corn by their own hands are on ez
htbition there.
Bringing the Omaha children to the Cor
exposition on the opening days had in trut
4 double motiye--that the children shoul
see the exposition and be as impressed q
much as possible. learn as much as the
might, In fact; second. that they shoul
return home and tell their elders the gloriC
of the big show thus stimulating a d.
sire to attend in mother and father, brothC
and sister Of the child describing wha b
M. eba had seen.