Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission. Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission
DAY, MAY 1, 1902.
At 10.30 a. m. the members of the Diplomatic Corps, the representatives of the foreign governments to the exposition, and other official guests assembled at the St. Louis Club, and they were then conducted by military escort to the Liberal Arts Building.
At 12 o'clock m. the assembly was called to order by Mr. Corwin H.
Spencer, chairman of the committee on ceremonies of the Exposition
Company, and the following programme was carried out:
First. Invocation by Rev. Carl Swenson:
Great God, the God of our fathers and of their children, accept our heartfelt worship and gratitude. We bless Thy holy name for that wonderful providence of bountiful love and inspiring benevolence by which Thou hast made us a great and mighty nation out of an insignificant, struggling, and sorrow-laden beginning.
We render willing and adoring worship to Thee for that divine guidance and wisdom so admirably exhibited in the wide-visioned policy in the nation's most inspired leaders a hundred years ago, and to-day the policy which in one brief century has created an empire of a dozen magnificent Commonwealths of an unknown expanse of uninhabited wilderness and desert.
Vouchsafe ever to us as a people leaders of prophetic understanding, who in an uncertain present fathom the true inwardness of conditions pregnated with the greatest possibilities for a future of ever increasing proportions and realizations.
We thank Thee for the wealth of hope and promise implied in the dedication and completion of this unparalleled congress of peace, good will, and universal fraternity, made possible not only by the enterprise, patriotism, and gratitude of this splendid Commonwealth and our own entire people, but also by the responsive, generous, and helpful cooperation of the nations of the whole world.
We pray for Thy blessing, guidance, and love upon every national life here represented. May, in Thy beneficent providence, the inspiring competitions and tournaments so necessary between one people and another become an ennobling race for a higher culture of the human heart and mind; a more universal usage of the forces of nature for the best interests of man and for the full fruition for each and every one of the unexampled industrial and commercial activities which has taken possession of the civilized world.
We pray Thee that the forces ever jointly employed in producing the advance of a free people may learn better to understand their mutual relationship.
Liberate and save capital from every alleged and real form of a grasping, destructive, and disloyal selfishness, which may turn even the present midday of national prosperity and contentment into the threatening deepening gloom of an advancing cyclone of unavoidable loss and destruction.
Give to the possessors of our fabulous wealth an ever-increasing philanthropy, devoting a surplus of possessions unheard of by our fathers to education, literature, arts, and mercy, thereby making themselves the beloved and blessed favorites of a happy and grateful people.
We pray Thee that labor and toil may ever be held in due honor and respect in our broad land. Help us to realize that labor, be it of hand or brains, is the sinews and backbone alike of our past, present, and future as a free people.
Grant, O God, to the leaders in the world of labor the highest and most patriotic ideals of citizenship—ideals and purposes commending themselves to the intelligence and justice of the entire people.
And as neither capital alone, nor labor alone, could have built this wonderful exposition, grant, O God, that capital and labor all over our glorious land may learn to join hands in fair-minded cooperation for the upbuilding of such conditions of society which will prove an inspiration to ourselves and a worthy example to others, ending all forms of illegal coercion by one party or the other, and calling into permanent existence that truest and greatest America which is ever the dream of loyal and patriotic hearts.
We pray Thee help us to realize and profess, amidst the justifiable joy of a happy people, that Thou art God alone, and that there is salvation only in the name of the Blessed Redeemer. Grant that we may continually see in the cross on Calvary the tested emblem of a new life for time and eternity, a life of insight, energy, and the power of universally recognized leadership ever characterizing the nation whose boon is the Bible and whose master is Christ. Bless and protect the President of our nation, the governor of the State, the mayor of this city, and the president of this exposition, with all their associations. God of our fathers, give unto us all that sincerity of purpose, that rectitude of action so necessary for the preservation of our rights and privileges. Make us the toiling means for promulgating for Thee, and ever more successfully, the divine message of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and to Thee, the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, shall be glory now and forevermore. Amen.
Second. The following is a brief outline of the sentiments expressed by
Mr. Thurston, president of the day:
We are here to welcome the ambassadors, ministers, and
representatives of friendly foreign nations.
Here we gather to commemorate an event which changed the whole history of America, for the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase extended the boundaries of the young Republic, which up to that time had no seacoast, except that of the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and gave us a continental domain extending from ocean to ocean.
We come here to celebrate, through this magnificent exposition, the centennial anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. This is not an exposition of a city or of a State, or even of the United States; it is an exposition of and for the world.
Gentlemen, our visitors and our friends, in this temple of peace, dedicated to the progress of man, your presence is significant of the friendliness to us and toward each other of the nations of the world. May we not hope that in the electric splendor of the twentieth century there will come to all peoples a living exemplification of the words of the Master, "Peace on earth, good will toward men."
Third. Greeting to the representatives of foreign governments, from the
Universal Exposition of 1904, by Hon. David R. Francis, president of the
Exposition Company:
The Universal Exposition of 1904 extends a cordial greeting to
the distinguished representatives of foreign countries who favor
us with their presence on this memorable occasion.
An assembling of envoys of organized governments, however limited in their number and whatever its object may be, is characteristic of a high civilization; but when that convening is as general in its character as this, it indicates marked progress in the establishment of a better understanding between interests and policies long antagonistic and at variance.
And when the object of such a meeting is, as in this case, to establish and cement friendly relations between people who differ in form of government, in religion, and in race, it means a distinct step toward the organization of a parliament, an accomplishment worthy of highest endeavor, because its consummation would result in universal peace.
When the civilized nations of the earth meet in friendly rivalry, their better acquaintance engenders increased respect. The closer commercial relations that follow are conducive to mutual benefit. They efface prejudice, they broaden sympathies, they deepen and widen the foundations of human progress.
The civilization of past ages would have experienced no overthrows if they had been based on intelligence of the masses and had been imbued with broader humanity which distinguishes and ennobles the fraternal spirit of the twentieth century.
The cycle of one hundred years, whose close we have just passed, incomparable as it was in the discovery and the invention and the application of forces and methods in the physical world, and remarkable as it was for an advancement in every line of thought and research, will be surpassed and distanced by the new century upon which we have entered if the material potentialities and the intellectual faculties of mankind can be utilized and trained toward a common end, and that