in the exhibits, this army of visitors will be an army of commercial travellers who will go forth into every land and, in the language of that land, praise American goods. The advantages to accrue will be, not to the individual exhibitors only; other Americans engaged in the same industry will be benefited. It is not one particular make of shoes, or one particular manufacturer's furniture, that is demanded, but American-made shoes, and Americanmade furniture. It is the purpose of the Commissioner-General so to install this country's display that the benefits will accrue to the whole country.

While the prime motive of America's display will be the extension and expansion of her trade with foreign countries-and to accomplish that a creditable exhibit is necessary-it must be borne in mind that other nations are working to the same end, and will likewise use every effort to increase their individual trade, even at the expense of other countries, including the United States. They, too, will make magnificent displays, and to counteract their influence it is necessary that the United States should get together an exhibit that will truly represent the progress of this country, and the excellence of its products, as compared with the exhibits of other countries which will be placed side by side with them.

In the manufacture of agricultural implements alone, there is invested in the United States over $500,000,000, and this industry gives employment to over 500,000 of America's best mechanics and brightest laboring men. Other branches of industry have proportionate capital invested, and employ a proportionate number of the men who form the sinew of this country as a nation. A loss of any of the foreign trade would mean a loss to this invested capital; it would throw many of these mechanics and workmen out of employment, and inflict a corresponding injury upon the prosperity of the country.

The President, in his recent annual message to Congress, with reference to the importance of the participation of the United States in the Paris Exposition of 1900, says:

"Where our artisans have the admitted capacity to excel, where our inventive genius has initiated many of the grandest discoveries of these later days of the century, and where the native resources of our land are as limitless as they are valuable to supply the world's needs, it is our province, as it should be our earnest care, to lead in the march of human progress and not rest content with any secondary place. Moreover, if this be due to our

selves, it is no less due to the great French nation, whose guests we become, and which has in so many ways testified its wishes and hope that our participation shall befit the place the two peoples have won in the field of universal development."

The Paris Exposition of 1900 will occupy only about half as much ground as the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. France will occupy 55 per cent. of the covered area, and the United States will have no more than its proportion of the remaining 45 per cent. At Chicago the United States had 45 per cent. of the covered space in grounds extending over 720 acres.

Space equal to that obtained by any other country has been allotted to the United States in each of the twenty pavilions which will form the exposition proper; a site for a national building and areas for other buildings have also been granted. An opportunity will therefore be offered to show the diversity of the products of this country, and from the anxiety shown by manufacturers and producers to exhibit, it must be inferred that the character of the exhibits in every department will be inferior to none. The difficult problem will be to install them so as to produce the best effect, and obtain the best results.

Estimating his needs by what he had at the World's Columbian Exposition, nearly every manufacturer has asked for a reservation of space, which, if granted, would prevent his competitors from exhibiting. It is desired, however, that the greatest possible number of producers and manufacturers show their goods, so that the benefit from exhibiting may be most generally distributed, and that the United States may carry away the largest number of awards; by which European countries judge largely of the qualities of a nation's products.

That this may be done, it may be necessary for exhibitors to unite in collective exhibits which will bear a national character, preserving, at the same time, the individuality of the exhibitors. The collective national exhibits made by foreign countries at Chicago in 1893 were the most effective, as is well known, and as their Commissioners declare in their reports on the exposition.

The various national manufacturing associations realize the advantages to the whole trade and the country, which would follow such a policy, and have expressed their approval and desire to have it carried out as regards their respective industries.

The expense to the government of such exhibits will, however, be much greater than if everything were left to the judgment of individuals; the cost of the plans and installations must be more extensively borne, and additional experts must be employed. It is on account of this, the expense necessary to erect the national building, that the present appropriation of $650,000 is inadequate, and that the expenditure of at least a million dollars. will be necessary to enable the United States to make a display that will be in keeping with its rank as a commercial nation. A million dollars will not be an extravagant sum; it is the amount which Special Commissioner Handy deemed necessary, and is much less than the amount which other nations have arranged to expend in exploiting their industries at the exposition.

The classification of the exposition contains eighteen groups, which the French officials have united into eleven departments, so-called, a director being placed in charge of each to superintend personally the installation of exhibits. The CommissionerGeneral for the United States has selected a like number of chiefs who will act in similar capacity for this country. The men chosen are experts of national reputation in their respective lines; men whose names assure success in whatever they undertake.

Unlike past expositions, the coming one will have the raw material, the process of manufacture, and the finished products exhibited side by side, thereby giving to the different sections an added attractiveness by showing machinery in motion.

In every building and group it is expected that the United States will have some new invention or device so especially attractive that the American sections will prove the "clou" of the exposition, to provide which the officials are taxing themselves; and also be a revelation even to Americans.

The National Building will be an oasis where Americans may find Americans, and rest from the weariness of the sight of strangers.

The unveiling of the Lafayette monument, on July 4, wil make United States Day the most conspicuously resplendent o national days.

The outlook for the United States at the exposition is ex cellent. The co-operation of manufacturers and producers, whic is already assured, and the assistance of Congress through an addi

tional appropriation, will enable us to make an exhibit in all lines that will be not only creditable, but conducive to still further prosperity.

The eyes of the world are now upon America, marvelling at its recent prowess upon the sea, and wondering what this Child. of the West will do next. While this is so, every effort should be made to prove that, in the arts of peace, America is no less supreme than in the science of war. But this can no more be done without the expenditure of money than can victories of war be won. The increase of the present appropriation to onehalf the sum that would be necessary to build one second-rate battleship, would be sufficient to assure a victory that would prove of vastly more benefit to the people of the United States than did the recent success of their arms.

FERDINAND W. PECK.

VOL. CLXVIII.-NO. 506

3

STUDIES IN CHEERFULNESS-II.

BY MAX O'RELL.

THINGS are going to change. The time is soon coming, coming indeed at giant's strides, when babies will cease to be born with silver spoons in their mouths. No man need be afraid to be called a Utopian, a Socialist, or an Anarchist, who says that the time is coming when the legislatures of all the civilized nations in the world will be busy settling social questions; that the time is coming when every man will have to work, and when no one will be allowed to enjoy the privileges of wealth without returning some equivalent for it to the community.

That will not be the reign of Socialism, much less of Anarchism, for both systems are utterly and wretchedly wrong in that they suppress competition. Society will never be so organized that the lazy, the drunkard, the improvident, the dissolute, will have as much chance of success in life as the intelligent, the industrious, the frugal, the saving, and the generally well-behaved. No, no; the fittest will always survive, but everyone shall be offered a chance. All I say is this: A society in which the workers live in poverty, often in a state bordering on starvation, while the idlers live in unbridled luxury, I say that society is wrongly organized. All my sympathies are for those who do the work. The men who build our houses, often at the risk of their lives; the men who make the railways; the men who bury themselves in the earth, and, lying on their backs for hours in the mines, procure coal for our comfort; those men draw my sympathies much more than those who yawn in their clubs all day long, attend races, and remember their days by their utter uselessness only.

I believe that people will not be really cheerful, contented and happy so long as they know that thousands and thousands of their fellow-creatures are wringing their hands in despair.