Springfield Weekly Republican

THE PARIS EXPOSITION NEXT SPRING.

Notwithstanding the threatening aspect of French politics, which seems to us only too likely to destroy the hopes of a great success for the world's fair at Paris next spring, we read of preparations going forward there with an unsurpassed diligence and confidence. There has been a great desire to make this excel the imperial show of 1867 for the glory of the republic, but we do not know how this may be affected by the MacMahon coup, which must certainly have had some unfavorable influence on the purposes of other nations, notwithstanding the general cordiality of their promise and the demands of their exhibitors.

France herself has been making ambitious efforts to outdo any previous representation made of her products and resources, and if the peace is kept and the necessary revolution passes quietly, she probably will. The applications show that she could easily fill the whole room of the vast buildings if the commission were not stern in their duty of denial. To illustrate, the exhibition will contain 240,000 square meters of space, and 12,000 of these were allotted to the machinery of France, but the applications sent in were for 112,000 meters, or nearly half the whole space! Do their best, the commission could not get the machinery reduced below 34,000 meters. Besides taking care to show off well in the nine ordinary sections, France has organized supplementary exhibits of agriculture, horticulture, painting, ethnography and archaeology, which she proposes to make "the envy and despair of the world," says a correspondent.

Of all the great states of the world, but two have failed to accept the invitation of the French and appoint commissions. These are Germany and the United States; the former, no doubt, in the sulks, the latter, because in the political stress of the last session, Congress forgot all about it. England will take even more pains than at Philadelphia, and in fact the demands for space have so far exceeded the allotment that a grant of land in the park has been made. The prince of Wales sends the great collection of his India tour. Russia, for all her war, also asks for more space, and so has the Austro-Hungarian empire, whose participation was somewhat tardily given; Italy really means to do herself some credit in Paris, though she didn't in Philadelphia; the king of Greece will lend some of the treasures of Dr. Schliemann, dug up at Mycenae; in short, all Europe will be there except Germany. Asia, beside China and Japan, will be sampled by Persia, Burmah and Siam.

But, with all these, Paris, and especially Americans in Paris, lament that the United States is derelict. The appeal comes across the water to President Hayes to strain a point, take the responsibility, and appoint a commission "regardless," for without a commission the French can't take any of the offered exhibits, which the correspondents assure us are very numerous. A letter in the New York World says hundreds are ready to enter, and, for instance, that an American firm sent orders to their Paris agent to spend 200,000 francs in preliminary expenses for a show of their manufacture. He says, also, that the officials are so anxious to get the United States in that they will waive a commission, and, if President Hayes will only empower any person simply to make demands for space in the name of the United States, they will be content. The same writer adds that the reactionary party use this state of things as an argument against republicanism, saying: "This shows that your republican government possesses the essential vice of a want of initiative. You all wish to do something—no very great matter in a financial point of view—and not one of you, nor all of you collectively, can get it done. A monarchy would have found its way out of such a muddle with the greatest ease." Still, considering the squally aspect of the French skies, we cannot advise the president to venture on obliging the exposition managers. Perhaps the storm will have blown over by October, when Congress meets.