The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1913-07-22


after hard trip for two days.
Friday we spent the morning in Wis.
iting the art museum Of Amsterdam.
We were very sorry that our time was
SO limited as we could see only see a
part of the beautiful pictures there.
The pictures in the gallery are worth
hundreds of millions of dollars. The
pictures of one room are worth $780,
100000 all given by one man.
We left Amsterdam at o'clock for
The Hague. There we spent several
hours then we went on to Antwerp to
spend the night. We arose early the
next morning and got birds eye view
of the city before leaving for Client to
visit the International Exposition. The
battle ship Illinois was anchored in
the harbor. It created quite lot of
comment because 1t is the only one of
its type. We did not have time to
visit the great art museum here. We
necessarily missed many things that
| the average tourist has time to see,
but as we are here for business we do
not deviate much from 1t.
| AT Client we spent much of the day
studying small portion Of the expo.
sition, what we saw was very good.
The most attractive exhibit was that
of our sister country, Canada. She
portrayed the agricultural side of her
resources. This was done in very at
tractive manner. 1t showed the pro.
cess from the first breaking of the
prairie to the prosperous homes and
villages, the ripening grain, the great
chain of elevators, and the railroads
discharging a stream of golden grain
into the ships of commerce All this
was so realistic that you could imagine
yourself standing on the edge of the
fields.
Another fine section was the fruits,
the smell Of the fruits and the farm
ers In the trees drew the admiration
of the thousands that visit this exhi.
bition. Then there were the minerals;
the gold nuggets, the platinum and
various others, still further on were
beavers and their native haunts, the
buffalo and the deer transplanted by
| the fine cattle in fenced fields. It Is
said that ninety per cent Of the people
visiting the fair see Canada's exhibit.
Then there was the model village
designed by a Belgium agriculture Of.
fetal. 1t was to provide a working
scheme to advance the economic side
Of better agriculture. Many other sec.
tions devoted to the manufactured ar
ticles were seen but were not SO inter.
esting.
We arrived In Brussels late In the
evening. Next day we visited the in.
teresting places and the battle-ground
OF Waterloo. Here we had an Irish
guide tell us how Napolean might have
won had 1t not rained so much the day
before the battle or II he had pressed
on instead OF waiting for the mud to
dry up. or IL one OF his generals had
better protected his flank.
Perhaps there was a reason why
such things did not happen, had 1t been
otherwise the map of Europe would
have been much different today.
We arrived In Paris Sunday night
right In the midst of a crowded city.
We had difficulty In getting hotels but
the next day we all got together In
one hotel
Our work In France commenced on
Monday morning and continued at
rapid pace all week. On Tuesday we
divided into six groups and went to
that many sections of France for sec.
ond and third day trips to study the
conditions as they are In the country
districts.
We find It true here as 1t has been
everywhere We have visited that coop
erative organizations both credit, pro.
duction and distribution have been the
cornerstOnes on which agriculture has
made rapid developments.
The credit systems of France con.
tain many features which could be
made applicable to the states.
We all assembled again In Paris on
Thursday night and Friday morning.
Friday beingthe 4th there were many
functions on In our honor. First was
exercises at the tomb OF Lafayette. a
reception In the afternoon by Ambas.
sador and Mrs. Herrlck and dinner In
the evening by the American Society
OF Paris
In the afternoon We had the session
Of the commission to which have
previously referred. We spent about
three hours moulding the policy OF the
commission with reference to making
the report and recommendations. ! am
glad to say that the conservative part
Of which the farmer contingent he