124 



TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



that it started from — to explore this northwest territory lying beyond 

 the Rocky Mountains, and to secure it, if possible, for this country by 

 reason of exploration and settlement. Without the purchase of the 

 Louisiana territory, that exploration would not have been made. 

 Without that exploration we could not have extended our domain to 

 the Pacific Ocean, and without those results we would have still been 

 hemmed in by the territory lying over toward the Pacific. But all 

 these things seemed to work together for the glory of this country, and 

 established then and forever the prestige of the United States as the 

 dominant power in the western empire. 



Now, is it any wonder that those realizing the importance of this 

 event, the fact that this gave us fourteen states and territories, 

 100,000,000 square miles of land, and for only $15,000,000— much of 

 which was sold again by this Government for $800 a square mile — an 

 event which gave us all this, and which opened up to commerce all the 

 great richness of the Mississippi Valley, which gave to us the inestima- 

 ble mineral wealth of the Rocky Mountains, which led the way to 

 extending our territory to the Pacific Ocean and spread our empire from 

 sea to sea — is it any wonder that those realizing these facts should have 

 felt it was an event in the historj^ of this country demanding some kind 

 of fitting celebration? It was suggested in the assembly of the Trans- 

 Mississippi Congress that this event ought to be celebrated. It only 

 needed to be stated to be approved, and after being approved by resolu- 

 tion of that congress the Governors of the Louisiana States appointed 

 delegates to meet in convention in the city of St. Louis. They met there 

 on January 10th, in 1899 — ninety -three delegates in all. They first dis- 

 cussed the idea of commemorating the event by the erection of some 

 great monument somewhere within the territory; but it was said that no 

 monument ever built by man would be large enough to commemorate 

 so important an event. It was said by another: Let us celebrate it by 

 a World's Congress, a World's Fair, and let us make it the greatest that 

 has ever been held in the world. That idea predominated, and they 

 appointed an executive committee to carry it out. They decided on 

 St. Louis as the place where that fair should be held, because St. Louis, 

 with its 600,000 souls, was and is to-day the great distributing point 

 of the West and the greatest city in the territory purchased. This 

 executive committee made and decided on a plan to finance this great 

 event. They said: We will start in by raising $15,000,000 for the cele- 

 bration — the same amount which was paid for the territory. And as 

 to how they should raise it, it was decided that they would ask the 

 people of St. Louis and Missouri to give them $5,000,000, by personal, 

 private subscription; they would ask the city of St. Louis itself to give 

 them $5,000,000 more, and they would ask the government of the 

 Unite'd States for $5,000,000. Early in 1901 it was announced proudly 



