New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1910-10-29
ARE We INTERESTED IN
LOUISIANA?

As the time approaches whcr
the people Of Louisiana are to de
eide by their votes whether they
would have congress to locate
the proposed Panama Exposition
at New Orleans or San Francisco
it behooves our citizens to reflect
while there is time to do 80, up
on their duty in this important
crisis. A vote against the two
exposition amendments is equiv
ilent to a vote in favor of locating
the exposition at San Francisco
and She location of the ExpOsi-
ton in the California City means
the building up of San Francis
co and the development of Cali
fornia.
The San Francisco newspa
pers understand this thoroughly
hence they are devoting entire
columns to argument picturlng
forth what the Exposition would
mean to the Pacific coast, should
it be located in that city. They
realize the incaculabIe benefits
that would come to California in
the way of developing her az
ricultural, timber and mineral
resources by five years of con
slant advertisement, in which
the section adjacent to the Elk
position City would be kept con
stantly in the eyes of the world;
huge sums of money are being
spent by San Francisco in the
effort to influence sentiment in
the East and Middle West in her
favor
Do the people of Louisiana re
alize what disaster it would be
to the State and to the entire
Mississippi Valley to defeat the
exposition amendments at the
polls on election day? The OPP
portunity to secure this exposi !
ton is the greatest one that has
come our way since the privi |
leges and the dignity of state
hood were conferred upon Louis
lana nearly one hundred years
ago. To the country voters the
cost of getting the exposition
will be ridiculously small; to the
majority the tax being less than
the price of a dozen eggs annu
ally for ten years
For that pitiful sum they can
get the exposition, and with it a
development such as has never
before been witnessed in the
South. Even the discussion of
New Orleans as the seat of the
has already turned a
large share of the puplic attent-
ion this way and capitalists are
studying our resources aad in
vesting their money in them as
never before. The rapid des-
truction of our great pine forests
emphasizes the necessity of i'm
migration to put the denuded
lands under cultivation, and
thereby prevent q fearful depre-
:iatiOn of values when the lum
Der mills, having exhausted their
sources OF supply shall close
Down, and the population Deepen
lent upon them shall move away.
We need more Western far.
ners like those who followed
Gary in the wake of the exposi-
ion of 1884, to help us build
'choOls, and construct good
'oads; we need capitalists to es- Z
;ablish industries in our town, c
o provide markets for our raw =
PRODUCTS, to maintain weekly
ash payrOlls, to build inter-ur-
IAN railroads, to put money into 7
circulation and TO open oppor- 7
unities for the sons and daugh- a
ers of the farmers of the State.
We need drainage and transport
ton canals to make productive
he finest lands on earth, and to 6
nablo their products to reach s
be markets Of the world cheap. a
and with quick dispatch. b
Shall we vote next month to
Irry all these to California, or u
hall we get them for Louisiana? Il
very voter has q responsibility il
this matter nor can he shirk a.
or fail to meet it without bring !
lg disaster upon himself. o
" II