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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE NEW DEPARTURE AT THE CEN- 

 TENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



w 



E print the report of Commis- 

 sioner Beckwith on the plan 

 that has been adopted for the distribu- 

 tion of awards to exhibitors at the Phil- 

 adelphia Exposition. In this matter 

 the Centennial Commissioners have 

 taken a new and very important step 

 in advance of previous practice. The 

 report is significant, as indicating a 

 departure from the precedents of all 

 former international exhibitions in a 

 fundamental and perhaps the most im- 

 portant feature of their management. 

 The system of gold medals and special 

 prizes heretofore adopted has been 

 abandoned, and articles of exhibition 

 are to go upon their merits, as deter- 

 mined by competent judges from this 

 country and abroad, and who will be 

 responsible to the public for the opin- 

 ions they give by signing their names 

 to the published reports. This is a vic- 

 tory of honest good sense over former 

 bad practices, which is most encour- 

 aging, and deserving of the heartiest 

 commendation. 



International expositions are new 

 things in the world's experience. That 

 is, they are new, as enormous exten- 

 sions of local fairs and exhibitions 

 which have been long in vogue. The 

 primary idea was to bring all kinds of 

 products together for public inspection 

 and purchase. Tlie show-element grad- 

 ually became predominant, and the fair 

 grew into an exhibition. The collection 

 of rival commodities naturally led to 

 competition, and this to committees of 

 judgment or juries, which gave premi- 

 ums for articles of the greatest ex- 

 cellence. Medals of gold, silver, and 

 bronze, were assigned as testimonials 

 of excellence in the articles approved. 

 When the exhibitions grew into their 



great international proportions, this old 

 method of awards was continued. But 

 it was a very imperfect method, and 

 its evils came out conspicuously in the 

 great shows of London, Paris, and Vi- 

 enna. The plan of granting graded 

 medals is necessarily crude and inade- 

 quate ; for, even if the awards are made 

 upon the best judgment of the juries, 

 they tell nothing, and are besides arbi- 

 trary and misleading. The differences 

 among competing articles, in most 

 cases, will not be as marked as the 

 gradation of medals implies; so that 

 their award will necessarily work in- 

 justice. There may be a score of prod- 

 ucts of the same kind, each, perhaps, 

 with special merits, and none conspicu- 

 ously preeminent ; so that a gold med- 

 al awarded to one will greatly exagger- 

 ate its claims, and grossly wrong its 

 rivals. 



But this is not all, nor the worst. 

 Medals become valuable and are eagerly 

 sought because of the very injustice 

 they work. To crown a single article, 

 casts virtual reproach upon all its com- 

 petitors ; and hence the gold medal 

 which exalts one thing and disparages 

 all in rivalry with it is striven for with 

 desperate eagerness by exhibitors on 

 account of the commercial advantages 

 that follow. The door is thus opened 

 to every form of illegitimate influence 

 that can be brought to bear upon the 

 judges. The prizes to be won, being 

 of enormous value, are fought for with 

 such a reckless disregard of the means 

 employed that men of integrity often 

 quit the juries in disgust rather than be 

 implicated in their corrupt proceedings. 

 How great the strain must be, in many 

 cases, is apparent when we reflect that, 

 if the old system were in operation at the 

 Philadelphia Exposition, there would 

 probably be many exhibitors who could 



