Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1904 — WAGE EARNERS AT THE FAIR [ARTICLE]

WAGE EARNERS AT THE FAIR

Prominent Men Planning to Help Workers See the Great Exposition. Wage earners of America are to see the World’s Fair by tens of thousands under the auspices of the National Civic Federation. A new bureau of the Federation has just been established at St. Louis upon the World’s Fair grounds. Back of the movement are Grover Cleveland, David R. Francis Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius N. Bliss and others. Plans are making to have a vast number of the wage earners of the United States see the World’s Fair, the most glorious spectacle of the age and the most influential factor in the education of the American citizen. The bureau is in charge «f Miss Gertrude Beeks, secretary of the Federation’s welfare department, of which Mr. H. H. Vreeland, head of the street railway system of New York city, is chairman. The bureau headquarters is in the east end of the Palace of Transportation, on the ground floor. The ExIKjsition management is in hearty accord with this movement on the part of tbo Federation to induce the large manufacturers and other employers of labor to provide ways and means for the wage earners of America to visit the Exposition. President Francis is displaying personal interest in the undertaking by affording the Federation every facility for the consummation of its efforts, and in this connection he has directed Theodore Hardee, assistant to the secretary, to co-operate with Miss Beeks and Ralph M. Easley, chairman of the Federation’s executive council, in every possible way. The Exposition management has also equipped this bureau with clerical assistance and a full supply of World’s Fair literature. The bureau will be used as headqunrters for all wage earners coming to the Exposition under its auspices. The aim of the Federation is to make it feasible for the largest possible proportion of wage earners to visit St. Louis and see the World’s Fair. It will see that they are met at the depot by responsible persons and conducted to suitable lodgings, where they will be treated fairly. There will also be furnished, free of charge, appropriate itineraries indicating the points of interest to be seer* within a limit of one week, which is about the average time each party will spend here. It will also indicate the objects of special interest to various craftsmen in their particular lines, so that they may devote as much time as possible to the objects of peculiar Interest to them. These and many other efforts will be made to help all wage earners to enjoy the benefits of this great Exposition comfortably and at an expense within their means.