The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-28
Vagabond
from
Indiana
ERNIE PYLE

EDITORS NOTE-This rcvinE reporter
for The Times goes where he pIeases,
when he piesses. in search Of odd stories
about this and that.
DALLAS. March 28.-Dallas is at
II white heat over the Texas
Centennial
The Centennial celebration CEN
tiers in Dallas. It will last for six
months. 1t is to commemorate
Texas 100 years of freedom from
Mexico, and the funny part is that
Dallas didn't even exist 100 years
ago.
Neither did Fort Worth, 80 miles
away. where the excitement is get
ting almost as intense as at Dallas.
Houston, Austin, San Antonio and
FL Paso, which are 100 years old, are
having briefer celebrations.
THE Texas Centennial has been
l. in the wind for 10 years. The
state has been actively planning for
it three or four years.
The celebration, of course, is
statewide. But it was inevitable.
if it were to attract national at
tention. that there must be CEN
trail point somewhere. You just
can't spread an exposition all over
Texas.
So the jockeying started to see
who would get the big central ex-
position. Houston was the logical
point, because it was at San
Jacinto, few miles from Houston,
that Texas won its independence.
San Antonio would have been just
as good, for San Antonio teens with
Texas history and it was there that
the Alamo massacre occurred.
Ell PaSo had plenty of background
too. For it was founded 300 years
before Texas won its independence.
y
DUT the people of Houston voted
II down bond issue to bring in
the exposition. They had an idea
that a worlds fair" should be I'M
derwritten by the hotels, restau-
rants, stores, and so on. So Houston
lost out.
San Antonio, still half-Mexican,
is too pleasant a place to be both
cred with lot of worlds fair"
hubbub. So San Antonio was out.
don't know what happened to
FL Paso. They probably figured
they're SO far west they didn't have
chance anyhow.
So it lay between Dallas and
Fort Worth. 1t happens that Dallas
is bigger, buster ard even less west
ern than Fort Worth, so Dallas
beat the civic drums. slapped the
dough on the line, and there was
the Centennial, in Dallas.
The other cities aren't exactly
sore about it. They're boosting the
Centennial all they can But they
know the crowds and the big money
will pour into Dallas.
MOST OF the stirring dates in
AVA Texas history fall in the early
spring. Texas has been observing
these dates this year in their proper
order.
Ell Paso had Sun Carnival on
New Years. Huntsville, where Gen.
Sam Houston died, had a big cele-
bration March 2, to commemorate
the declaration of independence
from Mexico. San Antonio had its
blowout on March 6, the one hun
dredth anniversary of the fall of
the Alamo. Goliad had its celebra-
ton March 81, paying honor to the
memory of a large Texas force
wiped out there by the Mexicans.
And Houston, where the Mexicans
finally met their Waterloo, cele-
brates on April 81. They will dedi-
cate the San Jacinto battlefield
where shaft taller than the WASH
ington Monument is to be built.
THAT gets all the history out of
l. the way, and leaves Dallas free
to shoot the works on the first
worlds fair ever held in the South.
And a worlds fair it will be, too.
History, of course, is the theme
and the excuse, but Dallas will see
that you don't go stale with Texas
history. They'll have everything
any worlds fair ever had, from a
midway to million-dollar display
by Henry Ford
The Dallas extravaganza opens on
June 6, and will run to Nov. %.
More than 20 million dollars Is
being spent, they're building 100
new buildings, they expect at least
10 million visitors. It's going to be
colossal.
~ d. C1z1