Repoet of Boaed of General Managers. 7 



as a guaranty of her earnestness and ability. Even tlie stauncliest 

 supporter of Chicago admitted that, should the New York delegation 

 make this pledge before the congressional committee, nothing could 

 prevent the selection of New York as the site. 



On Tuesday, the twenty-eighth, the New York Assembly passed the 

 organization committee's bill ; on the twenty-ninth the Senate also 

 passed the bill, amending it, however, by adding twenty-two names to 

 the list ot 104 incorporators contained in the original bill. This was 

 done to insure a more equal division of the committee politically, and 

 was the first appearance of politics in the project from its very begin- 

 ning. The Assembly refused to concur in the amendment, and a dead- 

 lock was precipitated. It would be quite fruitless to record the pro- 

 ceedings of the next three weeks. Conferences, committee meetings, 

 hearings and appeals followed one another in rapid succession, but no 

 sentiment could seem to rise paramount to partisan politics. 



In the meantime, New York's congressional delegation, under the 

 leadership of Governor Eoswell P. Flower, then rejjresenting the 

 twelfth district, James J. Belden, of Syracuse, and Charles Tracey, of 

 Albany, were doing yeomen's work. By their united efforts they had 

 succeeded in confining the debate to the subject-matter of the bill 

 alone, leaving the place to be filled in afterward. The balloting on the 

 latter question was fixed for February 24, 1890. 



On February seventeenth a meeting of the New York organization 

 committee, supplemented by hundreds of promoters of the fair, was 

 held at Cooper Union. On motion of Chauncey M. Depew, a com- 

 promise measure was unanimously recommended to the State Legisla- 

 ture. It provided that the names of the 104 incorporators should 

 remain as in the first draft of the bill, but that the consent of two-thirds 

 of the members should' be necessary to pass any measure of importance. 

 The compromise was acceptable to the Legislature, and on February 

 twentieth the bill, with this proviso, was passed. But, as the sequel 

 proved, the action came too late. Its moral effect was entirely dissi- 

 pated by the thirty days' struggle, which was seized upon by the oppo- 

 nents of New York as proof positive that a lack of unanimity and 

 harmony on the subject existed in New York. It is not within the 

 scope of this report to attempt to fix the responsibility for the failure. 



During the three days before the balloting Congress was besieged by 

 a host of New York workers, but notliing could prevail against the 

 skillful, well-planned and energetic canvass which had been carried on 



