The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-27
SEE AMERICA FIRST IS
 WESTERN FORUMS SLOGAN

See America First is slogan that will be sounded today at the opening Eof the twenty-third annual Trans Mississippi Commercial Congress in Salt Lake City. Many subjects of vital interest to the twenty-two States west of the Father of Waters will be discussed during the meeting of the Free Forum of the Vest in the Nor mon capital, but none of greater in- portance than that of diverting tour- ist traffic to the West instead of Europe. Salt Lake City was the home of the late Fisher Harris, the origin ator of the phrase, 'sSee Europe If You will, but See America First" It is estimated that the people of the United States and Canada spend about S45e. GOO. 900 in European travel every year This vast sum which goes in 1 to the coffers of European transporta- ton corporations. hotel keepers, post card dealers and merchants, is well worth striving for, and the "clearing house of western ideas, as the Trans Mississippi Congress is sometimes call- ed, proposes to do it's part.
 In the matter of magnificent scen- cry, 1t Is certain that America can of fer more than Europe. Compared with ! the Rockies, the Alps are the merest foothills. Thousands of Americans go to Norway each summer, when Alaska and Newfoundland offer greater at- fractions of the same kind. If one wishes to study foreign peoples and customs, the New York cosmopolis offers the zoppor tunity. Parts of Mon treal. Quebec and New Orleans are as typicaliy French as any city in France. A thousand such comparisons might be made, covering the continent from the rocky coasts of Maine,' the Mari time Provinces and Labrador to the Pacific Coast and Mexico.i and all to 9fha a adVa 0taRe of AmeriCa.N
 See America First should not be confined to North America. The south- ern continent is a terra. incognita to the vast majority of North Americans ] who are familiar, with all the countries of Europe. How many North Amer jeans know that Buenos Ayres is the fourth largest city of the New World that 1t stands thirteenth in the nlun- Ficipalities of the globe? In arch1tec- turaI magnificence, the Argentine cap i:al and ARio de Janerio surpass any North American rcity.T and even put Paris to blush The mountains of South America are even grander, In some respects. than the Rockies. The hardy explorer, seeking adventure Tn the frackless wilds, will find far more opportunities to lose his life in the interior of Brazil and Bolivia than a liking for ruins, the remains of the ancient civilizations of Peru, Mexico and the Southwestern United States should gratify that taste
 With the opening of the Panama Canal. it is likely that the See Amer ica Ffrsts movement will be greatly accelerated Some day in the not dis tant future it may become possible to travel should be a grerat deal hap 70 Patagonia Tn the meantime. Amer ica is .so full of a number Of things that the man. with money and time to travel should oe great deaI nap pier than most modern kings
 CENTENNIAL AT COLUMBUS.
 Columbus will begin today a celebra- tion commemorating it's cenreiI1ial as Ohio's permanent capital. Before the American Revolution, the Ohio country was a part of Canada. In 1878 the Northwest Territorial govern ment was formed, an1 the following year the Ohio company established a settlement at Marietta, which became the temporary capital In 1900 Chilli cothe became the seat of government. Tn 1910 Zanesville was made Ghe egL Ll- raI. Columbus was laid out and made the capital in 1872.