Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1889 — CHICAGO VS. NEW YORK. [ARTICLE]

CHICAGO VS. NEW YORK.

THE TARE BOTH FIGHTING HARD FOR THE WORLD'S FAIR. But the Consensus of Opinion Is That the Young Giant of the West Has a Firm Grip on the I'rize—The Work Being Done in Her Behalf. [SPECIAL CHICAGO CORRESPONDENCE.] The spirit of enterprise which Chicago is showing in her efforts to secure the Columbi n Exposition is marvelous and not without effect. It is noticeable that in all parts of the country, and especially in New York City, there is a feeling cropping out in favor of Chicago as the one site for the exposition. To hold the exposition in Chicago would insure such a knowledge of our national life, resources and the beauty of our domain as could not be obtained were it held in a seaboard or threshold city. Chicago includes within her populace a larger representation of the nationalities of the globe endowed with the privileges and inspired with the opportunities of American citizenship than is elsewhere found; hence it is that city in which the people of the world are interested. Tne 1,160 hotels in Chicago (there are only 215 in New York City) guarantee accommodation for the thousands of visitors and their guests who are assured of the best treatment at the usual rates. That Chicago is fast gaining friends in the South is demonstrated by the action of the farmers’ convention at Montgomery, Ala. Both St. Louis and New York made vigorous efforts for indorsement, but the Illinois delegates had worked their forces so well that when the resolution was presented the vote for Chicago stood 261 for and 63 against. Following is the full text of the resolution adopted; Whereas, The importance to the people at largo of the United Suites that a groat World's Exposition be held in 1892 cannot Be overestimated ; r. n 1 Whereas, That as agriculture with its kindred pursuits is the greatest of our productive Industries and unless large space were devoted to it the Exproition would come far short of what it should iM; and Whereas, The magnitude of our denialu and the grandeur of its various productive resources of soil and mine are such as to demand that the Expositi n celebrating the fourth centennial of the Columbian era lie projected on u scale surpassing anything the world has over seen, and commensurate with the resources of our country, or the nation fails to perform i:» duty to itself; therefore lienolved, That some central point offering the best transportation faillities and other accommodations for its visitors lie selected for the location of the great enterprise representing the commerce of farm and mine. lienoleed, That this congress indorse Chicago as the most suitable place at which to hold the World’s Fair for 1892, and the Secretary bo instructed to send copies of this resolution to ail members of Congress and urge that they vote for its selection. In reply to Senator Farwell’s article published jn the New York Conmopolitan Magazine, the same magazine contains a paper contributed by William Waldorf Astor, a member of the plutocratic family of that name, who has some literary pretensions, and who has devoted his elegant leisure to the production of one or two so-called novels, whose fame has not yet far transcended the limits of Mr. Ward McAllister’s gilded four hundred. Mr. Astor begins by declaiing himself cordially of Senator Farwell's opinion, that the emulation between the two cities should be conducted without bitterness or partisanship, and thereupon falls to abusing and vilifying Chicagp, like a person destitute ot breeding or fairness, and to insulting her business men in a most gratuitous manner. A single quotation will show the arrogance and the impertinence of the dude writer: “The Senator further advances the architectural magnificence of Chicago’s private residences as a logical reason for placing the great Exposition within their aureole. Chicago is the London of America, possessing metropolitan imperialism and worthy of the designation of the young giant of the prairies. Its houses, he declares, are palaces. We know them well, those palaces, all of which were built with borrowed money, and most of which to-day ore mortgaged from corner-stone to skylight. We know them well, those palaces, where every sign of wealth abounds and where the front door is opened by a housemaid. We know them well, those palaces, whose occupants are ‘.ill out on their doorsteps,’ as they used to sit in New York seventy years ago, when our ‘palaces’ were built on twenty-five foot front lots, and when social life was primitive in the extreme.” Hr. Astor has a mind above stock, breeding and farm products. “We in New York,” he says, “conceive the significance of this exhibition to be something more than lumber, iron, and live stock. We have not in mind the agricultural show the Senator meditates.” He does not want any reminders of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, and the great business of the country, or the products of the horny-handed farmers, of the iron, steel, and metals, of the cotton of the South, or the products of the looms, anvils, turning-lathes, laboratories, or the inventions of the nation. Such things would only tend to remind him of family traditions and pedigree. They would be strikingly suggestive of bear skins, mink skins, beaver skins, cat skins, dog skins, and the skins of skunks and polar rats. The ladder by which he climbed into the fifth-story window must be taken down so that it may not be seen by the visitors. Wm. Waldorf Astor does not care to be refarded as the result of the peltry trade, ut as one of Mr. McAllister’s four hundred, who do not sit on their front door steps of summer eyeninjs, and whose housemaides do not answer the bells. In reply to Mr. Astor’s contention that New York is the only proper place in this country for the holding of the World’s Fair, and in answer to his vulgar and impertinent sniffing at Chicago, we have this to say: New York is not able to organize and conduct a fair of this kind to a success. She has never had but one fair, and that was a conspicuous failure. The only successful fair on a large scale near New York was held in Philadelphia. The New Orleans Exhibition, though not a complete success, was more successful than New York's. She has not the enterprise or public spirit to organize even such fairs as are held annually in Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Louisville,! Minneapolis, and San Francisco. She has not the requisite publie spirit. She is the principal entrepot, where toll is levied upon everything and every person that comes within her gates.