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TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. 



By J. A. FILCHER, of San Francisco. 



Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Convention: The 

 Merchants' Association of San Francisco is a very strong and repre- 

 sentative body. It is moving energetically in the effort to have the 

 metropolis of this State properly represented at St. Louis. It has been 

 working zealously in that regard, and Mr. Wiggins of Los Angeles and 

 myself have been working as energetically as we know how to try and 

 interest the people of the metropolis to do what you in Fresno County 

 are doing. You are trying to do something distinctively for the benefit 

 of this county, in co-operation with the commissioners, and inasmuch 

 as the counties generally of the interior are doing that, we can not con- 

 sistently take State money to do special things for the several localities 

 that are neglecting this work. We will take Fresno County, for illus- 

 tration, because the people here propose to put up Fresno money for 

 the purpose of specially emphasizing some of the strong features of 

 Fresno — it is not fair to take State money to advertise the strong fea- 

 tures of San Francisco. Los Angeles wants to get in with the stereop- 

 ticon, and San Francisco should be there also. We will have in our State 

 building a splendid hall, where we propose to hold free lectures illus- 

 trated with stereopticon and kinetoscope views, and we propose to 

 advertise them in the World's Fair Bulletin. From past experience, 

 we know that there are thousands and tens of thousands of people at 

 all expositions looking for something for nothing; they are looking for 

 the free things and they are looking for a rest. The exposition grounds 

 at St. Louis are very large, and by the time the visitors have wandered 

 about until noon or two or three o'clock in the afternoon they will 

 want to come to the California building and sit down in a comfortable 

 chair and listen to a lecture illustrated with slides and moving pictures, 

 explained as they will be by the lecturer. The scope of these pictures 

 is calculated to take the visitor from the time he enters the State, by 

 one route or another, through all the leading sections of the State, 

 showing by illustration not only her industrial features, but her scenic 

 beauties and her hostelries and resorts and all that in this State is 

 interesting. Now, it is probable that this locality would like to have a 

 few slides and probably a moving picture in that lecture, and no doubt 

 will have them, and if it does it will pay for them, because we have given 

 the concession to certain gentlemen who are going to conduct this thing, 

 and they expect to get their money out of the resorts and the institu- 

 tions that make money out of tourists and home-seekers. If Fresno 

 wants a picture of the vineyards of Fresno, or of the packing-houses of 

 Fresno, it will not have to be paid for, because those are industries 

 material to the State and will be represented as a State feature; but if 



