Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

by Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

The Exposition Company made a generous appropriation, the sum of $35,000 being allowed for the building and furnishing, and very beautiful designs were made and accepted. Here infants were to be cared for by trained nurses, receiving attention and consideration possible only to babies of the twentieth century, and altogether in advance of the simple and natural conditions of baby life prior to the closing years of the nineteenth century. Special foods specially treated, specially constructed bottles—in fact everything special and disinfected, from the nurse and crib down to the smallest minutiae.

The charge was to be 50 cents a day, and estimates formed on experience went to show that on this basis the crèche would be self-sustaining when once established and started in running order.

Shortly before the opening of the fair, however, and at a moment when the Exposition Company was passing through most trying experiences and needed all possible funds, it was found that unfavorable aspects had arisen. At the March meeting of the board, 1904, and only a few weeks prior to the opening of the exposition, it was learned that two concessions of a nature similar to the crèche had been made, where the charge for children would be but 25 cents a day. Already the board had heard some buzz of criticism that 50 cents was too high a price for benefit to poor people. Thus there seemed to be established a rate of income which, for the requirements of the crèche conducted under great expense, would be entirely inadequate. There were apparently no sponsors for the undertaking but the board of lady managers, and a steady loss of 25 cents on each child for a period of seven months would pile up the losses to unknown and quite incalculable proportions.

It is true the board had received a sum of $100,000. This was to cover all expenses of the board, whose members were the official hostesses of the fair. Everything was to be conducted at this great exposition in the most munificent manner possible. Ceremonies and entertainments which had been given at the dedicatory exercises in 1903 indicated a scale of elegance and boundless hospitality; in fact, hospitality was to be a distinguishing feature of this great exposition at St. Louis. The board of lady managers formed a part of the hospitable equipment, welcoming the world to the official home of the exposition, and were to fulfill one of woman's missions and entertain in a manner and on a scale harmonious with the greatest and most beautiful exposition the world had ever looked upon. For these purposes the money must be made to last throughout the seven months of the coming fair. No more fatal thing could occur for the fair name of the board than to spend early and inconsiderately, and to be met later with pecuniary embarrassments and complications.

The estimate for the opening expenses of the crèche exceeded by some $16,000 the sum appropriated by the Exposition Company. The members of the board might have felt justified in furnishing this sum, but there loomed before them the vast bulk of losses which must follow as the result of cutting the price from 50 cents to 25 cents on each of the many children to be accommodated at the crèche. It was an enormous responsibility.

Consultation with President Francis and some of the directors seemed to indicate that the saving to them of the promised $35,000 would be very desirable. The building was about to be commenced, and only a few hours were granted the board for their decision. It was obviously impossible to enter upon a work involving great and unknown expense pregnant with such possibilities of loss and failure, and so, with the deepest regret, the members of the board saw their cherished castle in the air—the beautiful, useful crèche—fade and disappear. Words can hardly express the discouragements and heart sinking of the members over this failure of their fond aspirations.

Mrs. Ruth Ashley Hirschfield opened her Model Play Ground on May 23, 1904. From the beginning it seemed to meet the requirements in a simple but direct and effective manner. So successful was it that soon the demands outgrew the accommodations, and the possibilities of extending the work were such that Mrs. Hirschfield welcomed the aid of the board of lady managers. Very soon after the opening of the Model Play Ground the president and members of the board became interested, realizing its needs and possibilities, many of which had been carefully—even affectionately—considered for a long period.

At the July meeting a committee was appointed to confer with Mrs. Hirschfield, and the sum of $5,000 was appropriated for use in the development and care of the Model Play Ground and Day Nursery, and a special stipulation made regarding the care of lost children. Arrangements were entered into as to times of payment. Mrs. Hirschfield was to have the entire responsibility; the board gave her their confidence and hearty support and five monthly payments of $1,000 each.

Results proved the soundness of the theories, as well as the administration of Mrs. Hirschfield, and no appropriation could have been more advantageously applied.

It gives me the greatest satisfaction to report that the money appropriated filled a distinct need and enabled Mrs. Hirschfield to enlarge the scope and power of her work up to the very day that the fair closed its doors on December 2, 1904. It seemed, indeed, to meet every want, and no child was ever turned from its hospitable doors. To this bright and happy spot parents could bring their children, even wee babies, and be themselves free to go unencumbered and enjoy the beauties and wonders spread so lavishly before them and happy in the consciousness that their little ones were receiving the tenderest care and were undoubtedly enjoying the many comforts and attractions provided for their welfare and entertainment. Here the wage-earner at the fair could bring her little child, leaving it with the same cheerful confidence. This also was the haven for lost children who were brought there by the police or by members of the Jefferson Guard, and here were they found by their distracted parents, or from here they were sent to their own abodes under safe escort.