hospital service was created to protect public health. Our consuls are expected to serve our whole nation, not only commercially, but in every other way that pertains to our welfare; and, as in the case of the army and navy, the expense of the department should be assumed by the national treasury.

Congressmen do not hesitate to adopt measures that annually increase a pension account resulting from our Civil War, or to vote large sums for the support of the army, navy, and agricultural departments, etc.; but they seem to disregard the fact that a nation can meet such appropriations only when prosperous, and that prosperity largely depends on negotiating our surplus products. The agricultural department is a most desirable investment, and, while seemingly conducted for the profit of a single class of producers, is of great benefit to all our people. Our consular representatives are the acknowledged business agents of a Government known far and wide as unexcelled for its practical, energetic, and resourceful qualities. An improved consular service will aid in extending our markets for the products of our soil as well as for our manufactured goods, and our people will gladly indorse and pay for a first-class service as soon as it is divested of political influence and is placed on a rational business basis. Owing to incompetent organization and management our export interests suffer, and we are neglecting golden commercial opportunities. Competition in raw and manufactured goods is constantly increasing. Each nation recognizes in us to-day her most powerful business rival. The world is on the threshold of a great commercial era. Civilization is advancing with such a volume of accumulating strength as was never before anticipated. If we would be borne upward on the crest of this mighty wave, we must clear our craft of the political barnacles that have hitherto impeded its progress; we must cast overboard many of the ancient systems and customs with which we have been weighted down; and, setting our sails, we must seize the helm with the purpose of achieving the highest success by federated action.

Our consular service is each year becoming more closely identified with American foreign commerce, and we can increase the latter by improving the former. This advancement can be secured only by a policy so liberal as to attract to the work men of better calibre and special ability. By concerted action we can effect the necessary legislation. By the agency of our consuls throughout the world let us develop this country into the greatest of all producing nations, and make the word "America" a synonym for sagacity, commercial intelligence, and integrity. CHARLES TRUAX.

LESSONS FROM INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS.

THE difference between the civilized man and the barbarian consists largely in the fact that the latter lives upon natural products, while the former, through his own labor, has made raw materials and the forces of nature minister to his comfort. In raising himself to a better material condition man has elevated his mental and moral status also. The untutored savage of Africa or Australia finds his whole sustenance in the fruits of the earth and the wild animals, which he manages to kill with great difficulty. It is not true that his life is one of ease. All travellers unite in saying that he works constantly and diligently for an existence which is far from satisfactory even to himself. On the steppes of Asia the tribesmen live largely from the cultivation of flocks. Their civilization is crude compared with that of Western nations, though they have managed to establish a higher social condition than the African.

In our studies of history it is disappointing to read of the high state of civilization in the valleys of the Tigris and the Nile, or in the peninsulas that jut out into the Mediterranean, which existed thousands of years ago, and then vanished almost completely. This disappearance would seem to indicate that civilization is transitory and unsubstantial. The philosopher, however, sees in it the story of an imperfect civilization one which was confined within too small territorial limits and to an insignificant portion of the inhabitants of the nations involved. He finds the keynote in the fact that there were lacking in those times the means of preserving and disseminating what was achieved. We can all believe that if there had been railways and newspapers in the days of Augustus the mighty hordes of barbarians that later swept down on the nations could have been turned back. China with her 400,000,000 people has been recently defeated by little Japan, and more recently still has made but feeble resistance to a few thousand Western soldiers.

Perhaps in no other way has the accumulated force of civilization been so impressed upon the nations of the world as by the artistic and industrial expositions that have been held in the last fifty years. The impressions made by these have been indelibly stamped not only on the

individual, but upon the whole of civilized mankind. Their practical demonstrations could not have been accomplished by any academic methods. The senses have been affected and the whole intellectual range has been stimulated not only by the individual displays, but also by the exhibits en masse, which in so many ways have illustrated man's conquest of nature.

These exhibitions are new in a certain sense only. In the most ancient times fairs were held where merchants from far and near came to sell and to buy, and these were by no means unimportant in many ways. The travellers carried to their homes new ideas and spread learning to some extent; but the lack of facilities already mentioned hampered them greatly. To this day at Nijni-Novgorod, in Russia, is held an annual fair which in many respects is the most important institution of Northeastern Europe and Northwestern Asia; but it is neither conceived nor carried out on the plan of the modern exposition, which is not for immediate purposes of barter, but is intended to serve a higher and more lasting purpose.

The first international exhibition worthy the name was held in London just fifty years ago. Compared with those of recent years, it was a small affair, and yet it probably required more original planning than any that has taken place since. The first step costs the most. It was in furthering the Crystal Palace exhibition, which he originated and to which he gave his most intense energies, that the Prince Consort, the husband of Queen Victoria, broke down his health and is believed to have materially shortened his life. He was a man of unusual abilities and keen foresight. He believed that this exhibition would give an immense impetus to national trade, and in this he was entirely correct. Every other exhibition has had the same effect. As already stated, it was a small affair, but only relatively speaking. It must not be forgotten that these fairs are possible only as the result of modern mechanical methods, by which enormous buildings can be constructed cheaply. Great space is required to accommodate exhibits; but buildings fitted for this purpose are useful for nothing else, and, with a few exceptions, all have passed away as rapidly as they were constructed. The Crystal Palace, built almost entirely of iron and glass, was in its day a marvel of engineering skill, and was itself in many respects the most important exhibit of all. Although it taxed the ingenuity and skill of designers and constructors, it would now be considered a small contract. This was long before the days of structural steel buildings, and at a time when railway bridges were the highest form of engineering

achievement. Indeed, out of railway bridge problems have come most of our advances in the steel and iron industry. Many important questions were given up, because there seemed to be no immediate necessity for their solution; but in railway construction bridges were absolutely necessary hence the developments of the present day.

The Crystal Palace show opened the eyes of the world to the possibilities and importance of such an institution. Others followed quickly : at Dublin in 1853, at New York in 1853, at Paris in 1855, at South Kensington in 1862, at Constantinople in 1863, at Melbourne in 1866, and at Vienna in 1873, as well as a few others which were not really international. None of these, however, made an impression on the world equal to that of the first, though the exhibition at Vienna was superior in many respects. It was not until 1876, when in Philadelphia was held an exhibition to glorify the centennial of American Independence, that the institution reached its present state of development.

It would be impossible to overestimate the importance of this fair to the people of the United States, as concerns both our own interests and those of foreign nations. It opened our own eyes, as well as those of others. It was the first adequate expression in a material way of the dignity, wealth, and resources of the nation. In the last few years we have attained a place that has, perhaps, made us too boastful. We must not forget that twenty-five years ago our situation was far different. For one hundred years we had wrestled with ourselves, and, though we had survived storm and shock, we were not looked upon as having solved the problem of democracy. Through all that period our development had been watched by statesmen of Europe, and few seemed to have confidence in our future. When the Civil War came we were generally believed by Europe to be on the verge of dissolution. By means of the arts of diplomacy we managed to prevent interference on the part of foreign nations in behalf of the Confederacy; but there came from across the water sympathy and aid, without which the war would have ended sooner. We should not forget that at the most critical period of the war the dying hours of the Prince Consort were given to softening the British answer in the Trent case; and it is possible that but for his influence we might have been plunged into a war with Great Britain.

Even after the war was over there were those who believed that peace could not be lasting and that dissolution must come. One effect of this war was that it took more than a million of Northern men at a e from the field of normal activities, and suddenly left them in 1865

without employment. But for the sudden increase in the construction of railways, and the donation by the Government of free farms to all who asked, we might have faced a crisis more troublesome than the war itself. There was an immediate exodus of ex-soldiers and others to the farms and mining camps of the West, which relieved the congestion in the older centres. Within a few years the bald prairies were alive with farmers whose crops soon found a market in the East and in Europe.

In addition there were many manufacturing establishments which from 1861 to 1865 had been actively employed in making the matériel of war. When the war was over these had to turn to new channels, and our manufacturing received a new impetus greatly stimulated by the ingenuity of American inventors. In the height of what seemed great prosperity came the panic of 1873, which ruined thousands and almost prostrated industry. Here again the European pessimists found a theme from which to moralize upon the weakness of the nation and to predict the most unpleasant things for the future. They forgot that our wealth lay in the ingenuity, ambition, and perseverance of our people, and in the boundless material resources of the country as yet undeveloped. These were unconquerable, and in 1876 the nation was able to make an exhibit which was as astonishing to ourselves as to others.

This exhibition was really an enterprise of Philadelphians, who felt a natural pride in furthering it, because the Declaration of Independence was passed in that city. All the money was raised in the city and State, except a loan of $2,000,000, made by Congress, which was later repaid. The exhibition was held in Fairmount Park, and an immense amount of space was devoted to it. Here for the first time a really international fair was held. The idea of such institutions had been growing in importance in the minds of European nations, and, furthermore, all were interested in getting a share of the commerce of this country. At that time we bought abroad enormous amounts of manufactured goods of every kind; and, as our grain was in great demand, there existed a commerce that it was desirable to make more and more of a reciprocal character. In consequence, apart from large exhibits by individuals from all over the world, there grew up a small city of buildings, erected by the Governments themselves, wherein exhibits of a special character were held.

Most persons are familiar with the character of the exposition buildings at Philadelphia, since they have been constantly reproduced ever since. They were built of iron and wood; and, though not marvels of engineering skill or particularly attractive to the eye, they were notable