Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

by Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

The board was in session until May 9, during which time many matters of importance were considered. Letters were read from organizations, reports received from chairmen of committees, and jurors appointed. On May 6 a resolution, presented by Mrs. Holcombe and amended by Miss Egan, was adopted, by which the president of the board was made active chairman of the executive, entertainment, and ceremonies committees, and full plans were made for the conduct of the affairs of the board during the coming months of the exposition period.

Twenty-one of the twenty-two members were present, and on the morning of April 30 the board met and proceeded in a body to the Administration Building, where they joined the president and directors of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, the members of the National Commission, and representatives from foreign countries, and, entering carriages, were driven to the Peace Monument, where seats were reserved for them. After the close of the interesting exercises officially opening the exposition, 5,000 invited guests adjourned to the Varied Industries Building, where luncheon was served. After a brilliant display of fireworks in the evening at the Stadium, the board of lady managers entertained a distinguished company at dinner, which closed the festivities of opening day.

The following is the final report of the committee on entertainment and ceremonies:

The board of lady managers took possession of their new building which had been completed and furnished and was ready for occupancy at the time they arrived in St. Louis for the meeting, April 28, which was the first to be held in their own house, and afforded them the earliest opportunity to see the structure and the result of the work that had been done in preparing and furnishing it for their use.

The first entertainment given by them was in honor of the president and members of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission, on the evening of April 30, the official opening day of the exposition. Invited to meet them was the representative of the President of the United States, Secretary Taft, the president of the Exposition Company and Mrs. Francis, the directors of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company and their wives, the governors of the States represented at the opening exercises and their wives, the Senators, and Members of the House, representing the two bodies of Congress, and other distinguished visitors and citizens. It was a most brilliant and interesting gathering, and not only rounded out the opening day with satisfaction to all, but inaugurated the series of entertainments that were to be afterwards given in the building of the board of lady managers.

In the argument of President Francis before the appropriation committee, in January, 1903, when asking Congress to make the additional loan, he said:

"We are the nation's hosts, as we understand it. We propose to entertain distinguished people from every section of the globe. * * * Bear in mind we are entertaining the guests of the Government, we think we are benefiting the commerce of the country; we think we are doing a patriotic service in commemorating a great event and bringing all classes into closer relations, cementing the ties that bind the different sections of the nation, affording our people opportunity to see something of the people and customs and the resources of our possessions, and, on the other hand, affording opportunity to those people to become acquainted with this great country."

At the meeting of the board on March 2, 1904, after the board of lady managers had obtained the appropriation from Congress that placed it within its power to meet the requirements of its position, President Francis was asked what he thought would be the pleasure of the executive committee that the board do with the funds so obtained, as no expression had been received from the company as to what special duty it was anxious, or would like, to have the board perform, to which President Francis replied, that he "had not given the matter thought, but that the board would want to do some entertaining; that the ladies were well adapted to that; they were experienced in that sort of thing and knew how to go about it. That he did not see much they could do with the money aside from entertaining."

And thus the board of lady managers authoritatively took its place in the great exposition, in the complex mechanism of which it was but a single factor, and assumed the responsibility of doing its share of the entertaining on behalf of women at the exposition.

What form of government is there at the present time that is not dependent upon the household of the executive and the homes of the officials for the social success of an administration? An exposition on the enormous scale of that which existed in St. Louis partook in its management for the time being of the nature of a government; an executive and official household was an essential and important factor because the representatives of all nations were to be entertained. As in this World's Fair, the highest recognition was given to women, it was but reasonable that women should be appointed to take the place set apart for them, and to perform such duties as would be assigned to them in any well-regulated government, and upon the broadest scale, their province being that of national hostesses, their privilege to extend a generous and far-reaching hospitality to all official dignitaries from home and abroad who visited the exposition.