The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1909-04-27
WORLDS FAIR
in A FOREST
Ideal Location and Meritorjous
Features Of the Alaska
Yukon Pacific Exposition.
WILL Be HELD AT SEATTLE
BY JAMES A. EDcHRToN.

~
them at Chicago, st. Louis, At
lanta, Omaha, Nashville, Buffalo, Port
land and jamestown. We Americans
have the exposition habit 1t is a good
habit to have, since it indicates that
we are alive These worlds fairs may
be described as the flowers ON the
plant of progress. After a period of
growth we blossom out, so to speak,
and invite mankind to come and see
us in our glory. Moreover, these fes-
rivals of industry bring us together
and get us acquainted. They unity
our life, impart to us a common spirit
and stimulate us to a healthy emula7
ton. The pessimist who grumbles
that the era of expositions is over is
calamity waller and not a prophet.
He needs an injection of the serum of
construction. He has failed to catch
the American spirit The exposition
has legitimate place in our life and
has come to stay. We are becoming
more and more nation of travellers
determined to see the world. These
fairs congregate the world for us in
one point and show 1t to us in minia-
ture Instead of requiring us to visit
distant lands, they bring the distant
lands to us. The mountain comes to
Mohammed. Expositions furnish
cosmopolitan viewpoint, a universal
education They are panoramas Of adj
yancement, the progress of the world
done into tabloid.
1t is fitting that the latest of indus
trial festivals is to be held on the
shores of the Pacific and that 1t is to
be not memorial of the past but
prophecy of the future; not hung upon
yesterday, but on tomorrow, For it is
around the Pacific that the worlds
greatest civilization is to form. That
has been apparent for fifty years. Dur
ing the last half century an awakening
of new life has touched all the lands
bordering the great ocean. Around the
gigantic horseshoe from South Amer
ica to Australasia it has progressed, as
though some world spirit had planned
1t from behind the scenes. 1t freed the
Latin American republics threw
restless population into California, Ore
gon, Washington and British Column
bia, found a golden key for Alaska
stirred even ice locked Siberia and
dead alive Korea, transformed Japan,
broke the slumber of ages in China
carried American enterprise into the
Philippines and applied the most adj
vanced theories of government to Aus
traIia and New Zealand. The same
magical breath of life blew upon the
island gardens of Hawaii. Now comes
the climax of all this Advancement in
the construction of the Panama canal.
To this new Pacific civilization the
United States is the key. Through the
Monroe doctrine and the canal she
dominates South and Central Amer
lea Her spirit is more in western
Canada than that of Britain. She
owns Alaska. 1t was she that awak-
ened Japan and maintained the integ-
rity of China. She controls Hawaii
and the Philippines. She has furnished
the model and the democratic spirit
for the governments in Australasia.
" The New Pacific Empire.
The Alaska Yukon-Pacific exposition
at Seattle is meant to symbolic all
this. 1t is more than mere fair; it
is the visible sign Of a great idea, an
open door to a new world. 1t says to
mankind: Here are the future high
ways of commerce, the coming theater
of history Here the east and the
west join hands to form the worlds
greatest civilization. Tbe circle of
progress is complete. 1t has passed
from east to west about the earth to
reach its highest statement where the
ends meet" 1t is perhaps happy
omen that this new and greater civili-
cation is to be called the Pacific. 1t
may well be pacific in a double sense,
and the thousand years of peace may
reign upon these shores.
The forthcoming exposition has in
spired the "Chinook poet'' to sing. He
has one verse to each of the words in
the hyphenated title, one to Alaska,
one to the Yukon, one to the Pacific
and one to the exposition. They are
perfectly good verses. that to the Pa
cific being worthy of quoting. The
''Chinook poet' is not the first bard to
sing of the seas. Byron in magnifi-
cent apostrophe commanded the ocean
to roll on" and it has been rolling on
ever since. The late Algernon Charles
Swinburne wrote of "The North Sea"
in numbers sufficiently grewsome to
send shivers doSvnsthe- spine of an ice
berg. In it he had death and the sea
''holdlng converse of desolate speech"
That would not apply- to the Pacific,
however, for here life and the sea hold
converse of jubilant speech.
/ did not mean to compare the "Chi-
nook poet" with Byron and Swinburne.
/ merely meant to show that he had
precedents for lifting his voice in song
to the ocean. But perhaps he is one Of
the poets who need no precedents, one
of those who sing because they have to
or because nobody stops them. Here is
what the Chinook poet" does to the
Pacific:
( Earths grandest ocean, rolling unseen of
men
For centuries-a nameless mystery!
Balboa from the heights of Darien
Saw far away wrinkled sailless sea.
Ocean Of peace, the worlds highway to
be,
What tongues the glory of thy reign shall
singi
What prophet shall foretell thy destiny!
What honors may not future ages bring
To thee, o everlasting oceanic king
''The Show That Is on Time"
The popular name for the Alaska-Yu-
kon-Pacific exposition is the "A.-Y.-Pr
In view Of this fact, it is fortunate
they did not get the Yukon first. For