.^^ « 1. .A\st [Prom The National View, January 25, 1890. J A PlaAN TO UNITES THE CONFLICTING INTERESTS IN THE LOCALITY OF THE PROPOSED EXPOSITION, AND TO CELEBRATE THE 400TH ANNIVER- SARY OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. BY CHAS. S. KEYSER, 524 Walnut Stbekt, PHILADELPHIA, PA. THE ENTIRE CONTINENT AS IT EXISTS, THE TRUE DISPImAY ON THE OCCASION OF BY HORACE J. SMITH, LOUAN BUlLDlNti, 1307 Arch Stekkt, PHILADELPHIA. K\5U tyN'O^ A PLAN TO UNITE. The following is a paper presented to the committee of congress to which was referred the consideration of the qaadri- centennial celebration. It is from the pen of the gentleman, Charles S. Keyser, Esq., attorney -at-law, who gave the plan which was carried out for the celebration of the centennial of American independ- ence in Philadelphia: Permit me, sir, to lay before your com- mittee a plan for the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. An exhibition, alone, as a means of celebrating an event, is, from its very nature, always incomplete, and hence it has been found necessary — as in the ex- hibition of 1876, here, and in the exhibi- tion in Paris, which has just closed — to set apart a day during the exhibition in which a celebration proper for the event was held. The celebration of the Fourth of July was held outside, and independent of, the exhibition at Philadelphia, and the celebration of the 14th of July, held in the same manner, outside of the exhibi- tion in Paris, and therefore, whatever the decision of your committee, in regard to the exhibition, may be, a celebration of some character will take place in this country on the 14th day of October, 1892. In developing any plan for such a cele- bration, the character of the event itself must be considered and adhered to. The event was a voyage. The result of the event was the opening of a new world to civilization. In consequence of this, large numbers of the population of Europe migrated to this country; this migration has continued, and is larger now than at any other time in its past history. The census of the United States, since it has been regularly taken, shows that from every nationality of Europe, every country, continent and island of the old world, representatives have come here for permanent settlement. The celebration, therefore, by these facts, is determined to be: First. A presentation of the voyage, ac- companied with vessels representative of the development of navigation, and the improvement in vessels since that time. Second. Our nationality being the re- sult of that voyage, its exhibit should be the leading idea of the celebration. That exhibit should consist, as has been alreadj' proposed, necessarily of the material re- sults of this work of four centuries. For the details of the celebration, I would propose that the government of Spain should send a duplicate of the three vessels which Columbus commanded. These to be accompanied by war and merchant vessels containing government representatives and scientific men from that country. That England should send, with repre- sentative men of that nation, vessels of the war and peace marine of that coun- try, and in the same way France, Ger- many, Italy, Russia, Turkey and other nations. As England furnished the earliest and the bulk of the population of the eastern states, the English fleet should arrive at Boston. As the Dutch were the founders of that city, and are still a leading portion of their city population, the Dutch fleet should arrive at New York. As the Ger- mans formed the bulk of the population of Pennsylvania, the German fleet should come to Philadelphia. As the French were the founders of Louisiana, the French fleet to New Orleans, where the representatives of the east South Ameri- can republics might also conveniently come. The vessels from Japan, China, Australia, with the west South American republics, to San Francisco. These would arrive at about the same time. The fleet from Spain should land at a port nearest to Washington, so as to form the initial feature of the celebration. Tnese representatives should be re- ceived at those ports with suitable de- monstrations, and after such demonstra- tion should proceed to the capital, where the celebration should be held on the anni- versary day of the discovery. The organization of this celebration should be: The president of the United States, his cabinet, members of congress, members of the Supreme Court, heads of depart- ments, the governors of the states, mayors of cities, heads of representative bodies and heads of the societies formed frooi their nationalities, which have been organized among us. The programme should embody as its leading features: An invocation to God for his blessing on the whole earth. An address of welcome, by the presi- dent of the United States, to the foreign representatives. Keplies from the representatives of the leading nationalities. A eulogium of the great navigator and discoverer of the new world. The national airs of the leading nations of the world, by an orchestra. The uniting of all the telegraph lines of the world with Washington, and the ex- change of messages of congratulation be- tween our government and other govern- ments of the world. A benediction. At the conclusion of the ceremonies, the representatives of foreign govern- ments, accompanied by a committee of congress, and citizens who have served on foreign embassies, should make a tour to exhibitions, which should be organized for the occasion, displaying the products of the four leading sections of ttie coun- try, the president and his cabinet and the most distingulBhed representatives of the government should make the same tour to these exhibitions, which might be four. At Atlanta, an exhibit of agricultural, horticultural, and mining products of the southeastern section of this country. At San Francisco, an exhibit of agricul- tural, horticultural and mining products of the southwestern section. At Chicago or St. Louis, an exhibit of the productions of the great northwest. At New York, an exhibit of the middle and eastern states' productions in manu- factures, mines and agriculture. These four exhibitions, illustrating oifr 400 years of progress, would be hightened in interest by including exhibits from other countries, as the southern nations of Europe have been instrumental in de- veloping the civilization of the southern section of our country, exhibits from Spain, Italy, France and Africa could be made at Atlanta. P^xhibits from England and other coun- tries of middle Europe, at the New York exhibition. From Germany, Norway, Sweden and other countries of northern P^urope, at the Chicago exhibition. A display of Russian, Australian and Japanese exhibits at San Francisco. In this way the various countries of the world could be represented in these exhi- bitions in the center of their own result- ing populations. By tlius dividing the ex- hibitions into Jour sections the bulk of the whole country would be enabled, on ac- count of comparative nearness, to see at least one of these. The committee of congress with the rep- resentatives of foreign nations, leaving Washington imm diately after the 14th of October, would first proceed to Atlanta, then to San Francisco, then to St. Louis and Chicago, where there would be a dis- play of the merchant marine of that section, on the lake, as a feature; then proceed, by way of the great lakes, down the Hudson, where they would be accom- panied Dy the steamers of that river and the sound, to New York, where the sev- eral fleets should in the meanwhile ren- dezvous, and where the final display should take place — an international naval review, celebrating the victories of peace, in which, for the first time in human his- tory, vessels of all nations would meet on common ground — honor to the discoverer of this new world, in the interests of peace. A month should be devoted to this tour, which would be in the nature of a tri- umphal march from sea to sea, across the continent which he gave to the world. The whole event should be in charge of a committee of congress. The natural jealousy which would exist in the granting of an exclusive appropri- ation to any one section of the country would be avoided by this manner of cele- bration. An opportunity would be given at these various points for the great bulk of the American people to meet for the first time together, and for the head of the nation, with his cabinet, to make, for the first time in the history of the government, a tour of the four sections of the whole country. Charles S. Keyser, 524 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. THE ENTIRE CONTINENT. t, y Logan Buildings, 1307 Arch street, Januay 20, 1890 Charles K. Keyser, Esq., Philadelphia, Pa. My Dear Friend — There is one point of your splendid scheme on which you have not laid sufficient stress. You well said that the idea of a quadri- centennial is: First, a voyage; and, second a continent given to civilization. Your suggestion for illustrating a voyage across the Atlantic by fleets from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Great Britain, Holland, France, Germany, Scandinavia and Russia quite fully develop that feature of your grand scheme. Your idea also, of concentrating in the four quarters of our empire exhibitions of the specimens of the products of those sections is also most admirablo. Each section, under this arrangement, will feel a pride and neces- sity to demonstrate the capacities of their own region, and the people of the respec- tive sections will each be animated by a spirit of civic pride to produce an ex- haustive display. The four displays also have the additional advantage of doing justice to the people of each section of I our country, for it thus enables those who cannot go far from home to visit a grand exposition which will stimulate every visitor intellectually and incite them to higher attainments in the future. It also solves that very diflicult problem, viz., the jealousy naturally arising from the gift of patronage to any one particular city, and it also justly brings Washington in as the legislative, the administrative and the judicial centre of the nation — city which, in itself, is the exposition of the national authority, dignity, centralization and government, for, my dear sir, it is A CONTINENT GIVEN TO CIVILIZATION, that is the real display we have to make to the world. Perhaps not one person in a thousand of our citizens has actually seen his coun- try. The eastern man who has not crossed the Rockies and Sierras is lament- ably ignorant; not to have crossed the Mississippi and seen the cities, sprung by magic, Minerva-like, full fledged, of St. Paul, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Den- ver, from the brain of the American city builder, is to remain as unconscious of the 6 greatness of one's own country as if one had never seen a map of it. Indeed there are dwellers on the little slope that lies between the AUeghanies and the Atlantic who have never crossed the first mountain range that forms the eastern boundary of the greatest plain on the globe. The man who has not crossed the Alleghany into the Mississippi Valley has yet to learn the a b c of his own country. Nor should we of the north forget the swelling greatness of the new south, which, just bursting away from the an- achronism of the times before the war, is only beginning to demonstrate its illim- itable resources in agriculture and min- erals and in manufacturing. Who can grasp an idea of the work done by the American people who has not ridden some thousands of miles over its railroads? Excelling the Roman, who demonstrated his greatness by building marvelous roads, still extant, through western Europe and the British Isles, the American has built railroads, (whose locomotive is, as Henry Carey has said, a ship with a port at every mile], steel- tracked roads which aggregate half of the entir^ railroad mileage of the world. It would need that one should see the river system of that valley which exceeds in fertility and variety of productions and capacity to support a dense population, and salubrity of climate, as well as in its vast extent, every valley in the civilized world. This river system affords naviga- tion for steamboats over 17,000 miles of internavigable water-courses at a low stage of water and 25,000 miles at a high stage of water. One needs to feel that they are in com- munication with the rest of mankind through a system of telegraphs which aggregates one-fourth of the telegraph system of the world. One must see the centers of business, where an aggregate annual production of over 17,000,000,000 is handled. One needs to see the business man, the farmer, the miner and the man- ufacturer, who, numbering less than one- fifteenth of the world, do one-third of the mining, one-fourth of the manufacturing, produce one-fifth of the agricultural pro- ducts, and own one-sixth of the wealth of the world. One should see the people and their schools in which 12,000,000 children are educated, educated, too, under systems more or less released from the bondage of antiquated scholastic ideas. One should see the 345 universities and colleges for men, the 200 for women, the 450 institutes for education in the different departments of learning, science, law, theology and medicine. One should see the development of artistic taste as expressed in our architecture and in the public and private collections of paintings and sculpture. One should learn the conservatism of a self governing people, who have preserved their form of constitution as well as its spirit. As Mr. Depew, in his summary of these great facts of our progress, has said: In the scant 100 years of its existence, six out of seven royal families in Italy have seen their thrones overturned^and their king, doms disappear. Most of the kings, dukes- princes and margraves of Germany, who were in power 100 years ago, have now neither prerogative nor domain. Spain has gone through violent changes in this period, and France has been turned and overturned, but has finally based her government on the expressed will of the people. The governments of the Haps- burgs and Hohenzollerns have had to concede constitutions to their people, and are in the course of giving larger and larger power to them, so that the "govern- ment of the people, by the people and for the people" shall dominate the earth, and is destined ultimately to replace monarchi ;al systems. Power in England has fully devolved upon ministers, who await the pleasure of voters: the Salisbury of to-day is far in advance of the Chartists of fifty years ago. One needs to see a country over wliich raged a civil war unparalleled in modern history for the fierceness with which it was contested. A war extending over a battle line of 2000 miles, where a blockade extended along a coast line of 3000 miles, a war which cost $8,000,000,000, in which were killed 600,000 men, and which dis- abled over 1,000,000. For our government to ask its citizens and foreigners to an exhibition to see what Columbus has done, they must in- vite them to see a continental emjnre which extends 3000 miles east and west, and 1500 miles north and south. To ask them to see anything less than this, is to ask them to see the play of Hamlet with the part of Hamlet left out. The western stories show how the western man appreciates what he has done. His cities are greater than those evolved by Alladin's rubbing his lamp, for they have come to stay, anci are not mere illusory visions, nor Chateaux en- Espagne. The humor of the American city builder is well expressed in the fol- lowing story: "Stranger, was you ever in Kansas City?" "Yes, I was there last week." "Oh, but you ought to see it now!" There is more of truth condensed in this piece of fun, than, perhaps, in an octavo volume. It is impossible to bring to New York the people's palaces and the summer re- sorts of the New Jersey shore, of the Wis- consin lakes, or of Monterey. No one can conceive the princeliness with which the magnates have built the railroad hotel at Del Monte. After laying out a garden of 100 acres, and lavishing on it the adornments of modern gardenesque taste, they found themselves hampered in carrying out their ideas to their full ex- tent by the want of water. They, there- fore, bought a river, sixteen miles distant, and piped it over to Monterey. At the eastern base of the Rocky moun- tains, perhaps a couple of hundred miles south of Denver, are completely fitted out bessemer steel works. The grand Denver post office, built only a few years since, is already too small for the business that must be transacted in it. This city, but a short time ago the residence of the goph- er, claims, like Los Angeles, of southern California, a population of 100,000. Chi- ■:;ago, with its magnificent municipal works, claims a population of 1,000,000, and already looks down on New York as a mere "side-show" and adjunct to her greatness. St. Louis is one of the great central cities of the continent, a great manufacturing and distributing point of unlimited possibilities. Cincinnati, by her art schools and museums, is advancing rapidly in the development of fine arts and music. The town of Birmingham, in the new south, is recovering from the hectic fever of her first boom, and is build- ing her greatness on the unequaled ad- vantages of her iron deposits. New Or- leans, Atlanta and Savannah are immense centers of internal and external commerce. Norfolk, on the Chesapeake, is the start- ing point of a transcontinental road and is perhaps destined to imperial greatness — a permanent greatness superior to that which Venice ever saw. Pittsburg, at the head of the Ohio river, is the centre of a petroleum trade which gives light to the Japanese and those in Europe who would otherwise sit? in dark- ness. The petroleum pipe lines of Penn- sylvania are the marvel of the world. Pittsburg, itself, is a metallurgic centre for all the great ores, and is now producing for the first time in the history of the world, unlimited quantities of aluminium , at a price that brings it into the range of infinite uses. But why enumerate facts and statistics which lie open to the observation of every tourist or even careful reader? T reiterate that in addition to the naval display made by the governments of the old world, the quadri-centennial should be the DISPLAY OF A CONTINENT. Its Mississippi valley, sloping to the south is watered by interlocked rivers carrying an enormous fleet of vessels adapted to its particular traffic. The con- tinent is gridironed with railroads, which, with the steamboats, do an internal trade of stupendous aggregate. It is a continent of cities, towns and villages, all built, you may say, within 100 years, and the largest proportion of them within twenty-five. It is a continent of farms, opened, fenced and with their necessary buildings; a con- tinent of mines and manufactures such as exists nowhere else on God's footstool; a continent of the freest people in the world, which is daily attracting the best as well as the most energetic emigrants from all the continents, islands and nations in the world; a continent to which capital is, and has been flowing steadily to find solid and successful investment; a continent settled by a people who have demonstrated their conservatism and deep respect for law, their splendid hu- manitarian feeling, and who, while build- ing innumerable school houses, have not neglected to erect temples to the one supreme God of the universe. Horace J. Smith. . . '*' '^* -v^ 'J^m^, o .'' '5'. ; "^0^ :ffm^^ ^v^ f :h£^ '^ - <^ ■ v", - ^'''