Hepoet of Boaed of General Managees. 9 



present. The design and motto of the menu card were typical of tlie 

 occasion : " East and West joined with heart and hand." No more rep- 

 resentative gathering could well be imagined, and every great interest 

 in New York was there in the person of one or more of its leading 

 men. From Chicago were T. "W" Palmer, President of the "World's 

 Columbian Commission ; W. T. Baker, President World's Columbian 

 Exposition ; George E. Davis, Director-General, and Moses P. Handy, 

 Chief Department of Publicity and Promotion. 



Mr. Depew led the after-dinner speaking by setting forth the reasons 

 which liad called them together, the unfortunate political claims which 

 had entered into the councils of the State, the glorious desl^iny of the 

 exhibition, the necessity for unanimous action, and closed with an elo- 

 quent peroration on the growth of the West and the benelits consequent 

 upon the exposition. 



Mr. Depew said : 



GKNTLKMEiir. — The New York Commissioners are glad to welcome you 

 here to-night. The National Commission for the creation and promotion 

 of the World's Fair, or Columbian Exposition, consists of two members 

 from each State and eight commissioners at large, with their alternates. 

 The New York members, Mr. Thacher, Mr. Allen and myself, have 

 invited you to meet us, not on account of the general interests of the expo- 

 sition, for its success as a whole is assured, but we wish to consult with 

 you as to the proper provision which should be made for such a represent- 

 ation of our State at the exposition as would be worthy of its position 

 among our sister Commonwealths. Unfortunately, with us the question 

 has been obscured by political claims and considerations which have not 

 entered into the councils of other States, and which have no place, legiti- 

 mately or illegitimately, in the consideration of the duties which devolve 

 upon us. This exposition is destined to be not only the most phenomenal 

 presentation of the industries, the arts, the sciences, the education, and the 

 civilization of this and other countries, but its character is in all respects 

 purely national. 



The success of the Columbian Exposition must not be impaired or 

 retarded by local ambitions or jealousies anywhere. So far as New York 

 is concerned it has none; it has not acted in this matter before because the 

 time had not yet arrived. It is now prepared to do its part in its own 

 imperial way. Whenever a new State is organized there is always fierce 

 competition among rival cities for the position of capital of the Common- 

 wealth. When the selection is made controversy is forgotten and the for- 

 tunate place becomes thereafter the center of the official and legislative 

 2 



