“If we are to remain a free people, if the States are to retain their autonomy, if we are to take a common pride in the name of American, if we are to avoid the catastrophe of former years Americans must commingle, be brought in contact, and acquire that mutual sympathy that is essential in a harmonious family. Isolated, independent travel may do this, but not to any such extent as will be accomplished by gatherings like this, where millions will concentrate to consult and compare the achievements of each other, and of those from across the sea. All must have observed the effect of the Centennial Exhibition in educating even what are called educated people, and in the impetus derived therefrom. It gave to all a larger outlook, it repressed egotism, quickened sympathies, and set us to thinking.
“It has been well said that the ‘Industrial Expositions are the mile-stones of progress, the measure of the dimensions of the productive activity of the human race. They cultivate taste, they bring nations closer to one another, and thus promote civilization, they awaken new wants and lead to an increased demand, they contribute to a taste for art, and thus encourage the genius of artists.’
“And this is civilization—a process by which
the citizens of each State, foreign as well as domestic, will learn their inter-dependence upon each other. Many will come from selfish motives, possibly, but the social atmosphere they will here breathe; that undefinable influence which pervades and affects people who come together in masses with a common purpose, will broaden them and teach them that discussion and not violence is the proper way to adjust differences or promote objects—and thus prepare humanity for that good time so long coming.
“The world will come to us, by its representatives, if not en masse, and our own people should be drawn to this great school of the citizen by every device which can be imagined and afforded, while it remains for all connected with this management to see that no just expectation shall be disappointed.
“In other times there were convocations where the spirit of rivalry and comparison appeared, but in them few were invited to participate, and only a limited number of spectators could afford to attend. In those tournaments muscle was of more importance than mind. Those exhibitions taught how to destroy, and not how to create. The rivalry now is in methods to create and not to destroy, and the knights who participate are those of the active brain and cunning hand, whose spectators and judges are the better behaved and better educated citizens of to-day.