LIVE STOCK BREEDERS. 91 



To amend for past neglect, our people of the purchase will in one 

 celebration cover the delinquencies of a century. And it is here that Mis- 

 souri claims the garland of credit. Missourians proposed the celebration, 

 Missouri made the celebration possible. 



A few words of history on the inception and promotion of this cel- 

 ebration may not be amiss here : 



The first public mention of the duty of our peojile to celebrate tlie 

 Louisiana Purchase Centennial, was an editorial written by Mr. W. V. 

 Byers in the Sunday Republic of May 12, 1889. 



The question was agitated more or less in the newspapers of St. 

 Louis until, on January 23, 1898, the Central Trades & Labor Union of 

 St. Louis adopted a resolution calling for the celebration of the One Hun- 

 dredth Anniversary of the Purchase ; and on February 5, '98, Congress- 

 man Bartholdt introduced in Congress a bill providing for the celebra- 

 tion to be held at St. Louis in 1903. 



The Missouri Historical Society, at its meetings in September and 

 November of 1898, appointed a Committee of Fifty to suggest ways and 

 means for a fitting celebration. 



At the suggestion of this Committee of Fifty, Governor Stephens 

 issued a call for a Convention to be held in St. Louis January 10, 1899, 

 to consider the question of commemorating the One Hundredth Anni- 

 versary of the Louisiana Purchase. 



The Committee of Fifty arranged for the convention and the enter- 

 tainment of delegates. The Governors of all the states in the Purchase 

 appointed delegations, which were represented. 



The convention adopted resolutions of sympathy with the project, 

 and appointed an Executive Committee of Fifty, with Governor Francis 

 at the head, to carry the project into execution. This Committee was 

 composed of Missourians and was later increased to two hundred. And 

 the Committee did its work so effectively that on January i, 1901, the 

 Constitution of the State of Missouri had been amended by an overwhelm- 

 ing vote of the people, allowing the City of St. Louis to subscribe, and it 

 had subscribed : 



Five millions of dollars of city bonds. 



Five million of dollars had been raised by popular subscription in St. 

 Louis and the State, and 



Five millions of dollars had been appropriated by the Federal Gov- 

 ernment. 



Giving the vast sum of fifteen million dollars in hand for the basic 

 work of the celebration. 



This sum, fifteen million dollars, is the exact amount paid by Jef- 

 ferson to the French for the entire twelve States and two Territories, 



