Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Part 64

There is a large amount of money available for this exposition.

It has been handled with the utmost care, skill, and excessive prudence by the company, but that shows merely a good, sound economical management; however, there is ample means, means that will unquestionably apply to meet every want.

At the session on November 20 the committee named to prepare resolutions to be presented through the National Commission to the Exposition Company offered the following, which were adopted, and copies forwarded to the Commission and company:

First. The board of lady managers respectfully call the attention of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company to the act approved March 3, 1901, under which act this board has the power to appoint one member of all committees authorized to award prizes for such exhibits as may have been produced in whole or in part by women. The board of lady managers decline to accept the amendment of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company to this act of Congress expressed in a resolution of the executive committee of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, as follows: "To nominate one member of all committees authorized to award prizes for such exhibits as shall have been produced in whole or in part by female labor."

Second. The board protests against the appointment, without its authority, of any representative at home or abroad connected with work for which this board is responsible.

Third. That the board of lady managers select, with the approval of the local company, two of its members to awaken interest in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company among women in other countries.

Fourth. That the president of this board be authorized, at her discretion, to appoint committees to visit each State to enlist the cooperation of the women in securing the proper representation of woman's work at the exposition in St. Louis; and in furtherance that the governor of each State be formally requested to name two women on the State commission.

Fifth. That the local company be requested to appropriate $50,000 for the erection of a woman's building on the fair grounds to be used after the close of the exposition as a hall of philanthropy.

Sixth. The board of lady managers request the directors of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company to provide money to meet the current expenses of this board. They are further requested to notify this board in writing of the amount appropriated for this purpose. It is the sense of this board that an allowance of 5 cents per mile and $10 per diem be allowed; the per diem to cover the time from the day of departure until the day of return.

Seventh. That the board of lady managers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, acting in harmony with the local committees appointed by the president of this board, shall have supervisory control of the entertainments of all women's organizations desiring to hold meetings in the building that will be appropriated to the use of this board.

Respectfully submitted.

Mrs. JAMES L. BLAIR, _President_.

Mrs. RICHARD W. KNOTT, _Chairman_.

To the copy of the above resolutions which was sent to the National Commission, President Carter replied as follows:

St. Louis, U.S.A., _November 29, 1902._

Dear Madam: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of a set of resolutions adopted by the board of lady managers at their meeting in New York City on November 20, 1902.

You are informed that the resolutions have been transmitted with proper recommendations to the local company for consideration You are also informed that correction of objectionable rule in the "rules and regulations governing the system of awards," to which reference is made in the first subdivision of the resolutions, has been made. The rule referred to, as corrected, will embrace the word "appoint" instead of "nominate."

You are also informed that the Commission deems it inexpedient to apply to Congress for an appropriation to aid in the construction of the proposed hall of philanthropy. The Commission does not wish to be understood as being opposed to this commendable enterprise, but instead favors the proposition.

The disinclination to appeal to Congress for aid arises from an understanding with the company and leading members of committees of Congress, that no further appropriation would be sought from the General Government in connection with the fair.

After a conference with the president and the secretary of the Exposition Company, the Commission is gratified to be able to inform you of the disposition of those officers to consult the board of lady managers with reference to the appointment of all persons intended to in any manner represent the board or its work in the exploitation of the exposition at home or abroad. We are also able to convey to you the a.s.surance which has been conveyed to the Commission by President Francis, that it is the disposition of the Exposition Company to furnish the board of lady managers adequate and comfortable accommodations upon the grounds controlled by the company. The president of the company will communicate with your honorable board with reference to this and other subjects referred to in the resolutions.

You are informed that, agreeable to an arrangement made nearly twelve months ago, the accounts of the board of lady managers will be paid direct by the Exposition Company. It is desirable that your board should transmit all accounts direct to Mr. W.B.

Stevens, secretary of the Exposition Company, by whom all settlements will be made.

Yours, very truly,

Thos. H. Carter, _President._

Mrs. Apolline M. Blair, _President Board of Lady Managers, St. Louis, Mo._

This meeting adjourned subject to the call of the president.

The next meeting of the board of lady managers was called by the president, Mrs. Blair, at the Murray Hill Hotel, New York City, N.Y., February 16, 1903, at which time a letter was read that had been received by the president of the board from the Exposition Company, in which an offer was made to the board, for its exclusive use, of one of the permanent buildings to be erected for the Was.h.i.+ngton University (and subsequently to be used by it as a Hall of Physics), to be known during the exposition period as the "Building of the Board of Lady Managers."

This structure appealed specially to the members of the board, from the fact that it had been endowed by a woman, Mrs. Eliza Eads How, of St.

Louis, and the offer was accepted. The building was finished about the middle of April, 1904, and thereafter remained the headquarters of the board during the term of the exposition. While it was not perfectly adapted for a woman's building, they made it as attractive as possible, and it served for their entertaining and occupancy far better than had been antic.i.p.ated. Upon motion, it was decided that the furnis.h.i.+ng of the building for the board of lady managers be under the supervision of the president of the board.

On February 16, 1903, a communication was received from Mr. Corwin H.

Spencer, first vice-president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, stating that $3,000 had been appropriated by the executive committee of the Exposition Company for the use of the board of lady managers.

Although the members of the board were not only willing, but anxious, to settle upon some definite line of action, the vagueness of their powers outlined by the members of the Commission, together with the obstacle presented by the lack of funds, had caused them to be most conservative in action; without the positive a.s.surance of financial aid they were not in a position to decide definitely upon a plan of future work. This condition led to the appointment by the president, Mrs. Blair, of two committees, one known as the "committee to confer with the National Commission on matters pertaining to the board of lady managers," and which consisted of Miss Lavinia H. Egan, chairman, Mrs. Finis P. Ernest, Mrs. Helen Boice-Hunsicker, and Mrs. William E. Andrews; and the second, known as a "committee on woman's work," consisting of Mrs. Mary Phelps Montgomery, chairman, Mrs. John M. Holcombe, Mrs. Daniel Manning, and Mrs. Edward L. Buchwalter. Both of these committees were to confer with the National Commission and the latter committee with the local company.

Upon motion, duly seconded and carried, the meeting adjourned, to meet in St. Louis April 29, 1903.

A reception was given by the board of lady managers to the president-general, officers, and members of the Daughters of the American Revolution of the Twelfth Continental Congress, at the New Willard Hotel, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., on February 26, 1903. The committee consisted of Mrs. Horton, chairman, Mrs. Holcombe, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs.

Andrews, Mrs. Moores, Mrs. Coleman, Mrs. Hunsicker, Mrs. Porter, and Mrs. Hanger. Invitations were extended to the President of the United States and his Cabinet, Diplomatic Corps, officers of the Army and Navy, members of the Senate and House of Representatives, the Government Board, the National Commission of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and officials connected with the exposition resident in Was.h.i.+ngton. The Exposition Company was most generous in allowing $600 for the cost of this reception. The two committees appointed to confer with the National Commission and local company on matters pertaining to the board of lady managers, met at the Southern Hotel, St. Louis, March 11, 1903, and were admitted to a conference with the National Commission on that day. The subject in regard to the work and duties of the board was reopened by the following questions:

First. What special work does the Commission desire the board to perform before the opening of the exposition?

Second. What service will the Commission require from the board between the opening and closing of the exposition?

to which Senator Carter replied as follows:

The plan and scope of your work must first be determined, and, in an advisory or suggestive sense only, I venture to submit for your consideration a plan and scope which would require your board--

First. To make due preparation for the intelligent selection of one member of all committees authorized to award prizes for such exhibits as may have been produced in whole or in part by female labor.

Second. To advise the Commission from time to time as to the desired extent and the appropriate manner of woman's partic.i.p.ation in the ceremonies incident to the dedication, opening, and conduct of the exposition.

Third. To confer and advise with the officers and chiefs of the exposition on the progress being made from time to time in exciting the interest and enlisting the cooperation of women in the several departments, and to appoint all committees necessary to carry out the purpose, and to procure information on the extent of woman's partic.i.p.ation in the exposition.

Fourth. To encourage the presentation of exhibits by women by correspondence, advertising, or such other means as the company may approve.

Fifth. To collect statistics of women's work in connection with the exposition for publication.

Sixth. To encourage, by correspondence or otherwise, attendance at the exposition of societies and a.s.sociations of women and the holding of conventions, congresses, and other meetings of women.

Seventh. To maintain within the grounds during the period of the exposition an organization for the relief of women and children who may be found in need of aid, comfort, or special protection.

Eighth. To receive and officially entertain women when requested so to do by the Exposition Company and the Commission.

Ninth. To commission members of the board or others, with the approval of the Commission and the company, to travel in the interest of the exposition, either at home or abroad.

Tenth. To provide for the constant attendance, in rotation, of at least three members of the board at the exposition grounds from April 30 to December 1, 1904.

Eleventh. To issue bulletins from time to time as the company and the Commission may approve, for the special information of women and the exploitation of their contributions to the success of the exposition.

These suggestions may be supplemented by others, and some of them may be disregarded by you entirely. They will, however, serve to convey to you the views of the Commission on the general range of work you can, if you wish, undertake to perform, subject only to the limitation that you submit your plan when agreed upon to the Commission and the company for consideration and approval, to the end that harmony may prevail.

Let us not at any time lose track of this one important fact, that the exposition will be enormously expensive at best, and that it does not befit us to look up ways and means of expending money exclusively but to have some regard for the income of the Exposition Company. Widespread and indiscriminate entertainment of societies will be quite impossible. Within the scope of your work there should be some committee or subdivision of the board to begin at once to ascertain what different societies, organizations, and women's congresses could be a.s.sembled here, and then bring them in within the scope of your work for submission to the company. We will gladly submit to the company a plan for the disposal of matters that will involve a reasonable limit of entertainment, and have means placed at your disposal for correspondence, exploitation, and entertainment.

Your committees ought to be at work now and continue diligently at work until the exposition gates open. After that you will have ample work to do in connection with carrying out the projects you will have previously originated.

The meeting set for April 29 was called by the president of the board one day earlier, and the members met in the Administration Building, exposition grounds, April 28, 1903.