NEW YORK DAY.

October 8, 1898.

A special train conveyed the members of the New York State Commission, together
with representatives of the Produce Exchange and other organizations of New
York City and state, with prominent railway officials and their guests from New
York to Omaha, arriving on the evening of October 7th.  The guests were met on
their arrival by General Manager Clarkson and other Exposition officials, who
conveyed to them the invitation of the Board of Governors of the Knights of
Ak-Sar-Ben to attend the Grand Carnival Ball at the Coliseum on that evening. 
Although the guests were weary with their long journey, many of them accepted
this invitation.

Among the prominent guests who came were the Honorable Chauncey M. Depew, S.R.
Callaway, president of the New York Central Railroad, ex-senator Warner Miller,
H.B. Herbert, of the Produce Exchange, Dr. Steward Webb, Marvin Hewitt, and
others.  Carriages were provided, and many of these prominent guests were
escorted to the Carnival Ball by exposition officials.  The scene of beauty and
brilliancy which met their gaze as they entered the Coliseum, caused many
exclamations of pleasure and surprise.  Mr. Depew pronounced the ball equal in
all its appointments to any he had ever witnessed, and he derived much pleasure
from meeting many of the beautiful ladies and prominent men that were in
attendance.

Carriages conveyed the visitors from their hotels to the exposition grounds on
the morning of New York Day and the exercises were held in the Auditorium at 11
o'clock, A.M. and consisted of the following program:


Music     .    .    .    Innes Band
Secretary of New York Commission, Jacob Amos, Jr.,
introduced Ex-Senator Warner Miller, who made a brief
address.
Address   .    .    .    .    President Wattles
Music     .    .    .    Innes Band
Oration   .    .    .    .    Honorable Chauncey M. Depew
Music     .    .    .    Innes Band.

President Wattles spoke as follows:

With the distinguished orator, whose name and fame are known throughout the
civilized world, to follow, and whom you are impatient to hear, more than a few
formal words of welcome from me would be untimely.

The pleasure of welcoming to this Exposition the representative men of the
great state of new York here present is increased by the fact that it is the
state of my nativity, and by the additional fact that it is the only eastern
state represented by a building on these grounds.  The wealth, intelligence and
enterprise of its citizens is illustrated a western exposition, the progressive
business organizations, the state officials and members of the Assembly were
quick to improve the opportunity of advancing the interests of the state by
patronizing a worthy enterprise, promoted in a country from which New York
State and its great metropolis derive no small part of their commerce.  For the
management of this recognition and assistance.  Your building here has been a
convenient home for thousands of former residents of your state who now live in
the west.  Old acquaintances have been revived and new friendships formed, and
by the efficient services of the secretary of your commission the people of the
West will have many pleasant recollections of the hospitalities this home has
afforded.

One of the principal objects of the promoters of this Exposition was to bring
together in closer communion the diversified interests of the people of our
common country.  Forty years ago a sentiment grew and expanded that the
interests of the north and of the South were not identical.  This sectional
strife finally culminated in the greatest internal war of the age.  As we now
look back and calmly consider the causes of this war we are led to believe it
might have been avoided and its horrors averted by a more perfect understanding
between the people of the sections involved.  In later years the sentiment has
been expressed in heated political discussion that the interests of the eastern
states and especially of New York are antagonistic and at enmity with the
commercial and political interests of the West.  Happily the recent contest
with a foreign foe has united all parts of our common country and has taught
the lesson that its destiny must not be dimmed by internal strife.  When the
Rough Riders of the West, under the gallant leadership of that matchless
commander from the East, fought and fell in defense of humanity and our
country's flag, and won a brilliant victory over a foreign enemy, two most
important lessons were learned, first, that the intelligent and well directed
volunteer citizen soldiers of our nation are unconquerable, and, second, that
all our citizens are of the same blood and endowed with the same patriotic
instincts, whether they come from the plains of the West or the millionaire
homes of the East.

We celebrate today the history and progress of the greatest state in wealth,
commerce and population of our Union.  We, of her nativity, look with pride on
the galaxy of great names which adorn her history.  In statesmanship, was,
theology, literature, jurisprudence, invention, oratory and finance her sons
have won lasting fame.  Her great metropolis is the commercial center of the
western continent.  Through its business channels pulsates the commerce of an
empire.  Many of the great transportation lines, which have peopled the
Trans-Mississippi country with twenty million inhabitants in the past fifty
years, are the product of the brain and the money of its financiers, and to
their genius and daring we are indebted for much of the magnificence, progress
and prosperity illustrated in these palaces of art and science, which picture a
growth and development which has been unparalleled in history.

We, who early emigrated from eastern states and experienced for a time the
privations of pioneer life, can fully appreciate the changes wrought since the
first whistle of the locomotive on the western prairies was heard.  Fifty years
ago the ground on which this building stands was as yet public domain,
unsurveyed and unoccupied, save by Indian tribes.  Since then eighty thousand
miles of railway have been constructed west of the Mississippi River.  Great
cities have been built and a commerce double that of Spain and Portugal evolved
by a people gathered from all parts of the world.  These transportation lines
have given value to the products of the farms, to the labor of the workshop,
and have brought to our doors the conveniences and comforts of life, and we
must accord due credit and fair legislation to the great men, who have provided
the means and the genius of affairs to make habitable these rich prairies of
the West.

The country which this Exposition represents will forever be the granary of the
nation.  With an increase of production in the next quarter of a century equal
to that of the past, it would supply the necessities of life for the
inhabitants of the world.  With the increase of population and wealth and the
higher civilization which will come to this country within the lives of many
here present today, the great commerce of the metropolis of the nation must
grow and expand, and I picture and prophecy for the state, whose history and
progress we celebrate today, a future as grand as its past has been important
in moulding the destiny and controlling the affairs of what is to be the
wealthiest, most attractive and progressive nation in the world.

New territory has been added to our national domains by the brilliant victories
of our recent war.  The necessity of a ship canal, which shall connect the
Atlantic with the Pacific, has been fully demonstrated by recent events.  The
commerce of our country must expand, and a part of the trade of the Orient must
be secured.  No nation can grow rich and great by communicating only with its
own people, and we must look to the men of our metropolis for leadership in
extending our commerce and in creating our influences with foreign countries.

The greatness and power of our nation has within the past six months been
demonstrated as never before.  Within one hundred days, and with victories
unsurpassed in history, we defeated at arms one of the oldest kingdoms of the
world.  At the same time there has been maintained here in the center of our
territory an exposition for the education and elevation of our people.  We have
gathered here many distinguished men from all parts of the country, but with
none are the interests and destiny of the West more closely allied than with
the representatives of the great state of New York here today.  To you one and
all I present the best wishes of our people.  That our relations, both business
and social, may be increased by this friendly visit, is my earnest wish.
______________________

Mr. Depew spoke as follows:

Ladies and Gentlemen:  Some years ago, Chicago, the metropolis of the west,
itself the most marvelous of the creations of the latter half of this wonderful
century, reared upon the borders of Lake Michigan an industrial city.  The
spirits, whose deeds in classic and eastern tale charmed our childhood, became
commonplace mortals.  American genius and modern science surpassed in
suggestion and execution the works of demi-gods and genii.  The stately
palaces, broad avenues lakes and canals of this home of industry and the arts
drew all the world within its walls.  In its conception and administration the
World's fair at Chicago was a worthy celebration of the 400th anniversary of
the discovery of America by Columbus, and a fitting tribute to the great
explorer.

Our industrial progress has been during the four years since the Chicago
exposition greater than during any decade in our history.  Our resources have
been developed, our markets enlarged and new avenues of employment opened.  We
have, in greater measure than ever before, realized our dream of producing in
our own country everything required for our necessities or luxuries.  From
practical independence of other countries for the products of their fields or
factories, we have suddenly become their competitors with our surplus, both
within and without their borders.

The great benefits which the World's fair at Chicago conferred upon the United
States in acquisition from foreign countries and information to foreign
governments, this Transmississippi Exposition at Omaha is to vastly enhance in
bringing nearer together in better understanding of each other the different
sections of our own country.  I heard Li Hung Chang say when here that there
were many provinces in China and many Chinamen who had not heard of the war
with Japan.  The light of the nineteenth century had not penetrated China's
ironclad isolation.  The conflict could be varied on and ended in which her
territory was invaded, her fleet destroyed, her cities captured, tens of
thousands of her people killed, and lands and islands she had held for
centuries wrested from her, while a large part of the people of China were
peacefully pursuing their vocations, ignorant of these disasters to their
country.  This exhibition has increased in industrial interest during every
hour of our war with Spain, and yet every pulsation of its activities and every
throb of the hearts of its visitors have been moved with patriotic prayers for
the success of our arms and intelligence understanding of the justice of our
cause.  We have carried on a war with a foreign country, raised and equipped an
army of 250,000 men and a formidable navy, have won great victories by sea and
land, and yet though our interests and industries are so intimately connected
that a blow in any section of the country is felt everywhere, this exhibition
has as serenely continued its force as it has enthusiastically celebrated the
deeds of Dewey, Sampson, Schley and Hobson and Miles, Shafter and Merritt. 
There could be no happier illustration of the boundless resources of the United
States and its powers for peace and war.  It demonstrates the versatility of
the Yankee character and its adaptability to circumstances.  One thing at a
time has had its day, and no longer forms a headline of the copybook of the
American boy.  Spain is so thoroughly thrashed with one hand, while the other
attends with energy and efficiency to the business of the nation.

New York has been too content with being the Empire State, and with having its
chief city the metropolis of the Continent, the West too eager for empire
independent of the east, the south living too much upon its traditions and in
its past, the Pacific slope resting too serenely upon its boundless
possibilities and great expectations.  The war with Spain has superbly restored
the sentiment of nationality and eliminated sectional jealousies.  But this
Exposition is a healthy educator for commercial union.  The mission of peace is
to develop the practical side of patriotism.  It is to teach and demonstrate
what will promote the development of the whole country and the prosperity and
happiness of the whole people.

The concentrated capital of the east is the fruit of 300 years of settlement
and trade.  It is needed in the west for railroads, irrigation, mines, water
power, furnaces and mills.  It furnishes the transportation facilities which
transform the prairie from the grazing plains of the buffalo and the hunting
haunts of the wolf, to the farm, the homestead and productive power in herds of
cattle and vast fields of corn and wheat.  Its hopeful enterprise often finds
for it an untimely grave in booming towns, unnecessary railroads and worthless
mines.  But capital is both selfish and intelligent.  It never deserts a
territory because the investment has failed through bad judgment.  It seeks
other sources for profitable employment and finds its remuneration in other and
needed work for the development of the country.  Its freemasonry of fear is
confined by no boundaries of land or sea.  In times and in places of panic and
distrust it disappears and increases the distress.  With the return of
confidence it moves the machinery of society and makes possible varied
industries and prosperity.  The state which so legislates as to take away all
earning power from the money it has invited or borrowed, soon learns that it
has gained a temporary advantage and lost its credit, which is the most
fruitful source of profit and prosperity.  Differences between the east and the
west have been due to distance, misunderstanding and demagogues.  For a time
the sections were daily becoming more widely separated.  The west was
encouraged to believe that it was plundered by usurers and extortionists in the
east, and the east learned to distrust the integrity and intentions of the
west.  Far-sighted citizens of the prairie and mountain states knew that the
resources of this wide territory had scarcely been touched.  Drouth can be
defeated by the ditch.  Millions of acres from which the homesteader had fled
in despair, and millions more known as the Great American Desert, are to become
through storage reservoirs and irrigation, fruitful farms, thriving settlements
and happy homes.

Education is the remedy for our troubles.  The school is the preparatory
department of the college, and the college fits boys for the greater
universities of the world.  The school and the college teach, they cannot
educate.  The collegian can become as narrow as his village playmate who
graduated at the common school if both remain for their lifework in the
isolated environment of these local conditions, prejudices and misconceptions. 
Both of them come to this exposition.  The encircling horizon which made
coincident their physical and intellectual vision, expands with their minds and
embraces states and cities, arts and industries.  They see the vastness and
independence of our internal commerce.  They learn that the more intelligently
selfish any business may be, the more patriotically it encourages every other
industry and contributes to the general weel.  The solution of the
century-vexing problem of capital and labor grows simpler.  They see that even
a railroad president may be a public-spirited citizen without betraying the
interests or lessening the business of his company; and that the money power is
the concentration of the capital of the many at convenient centers of financial
operations and contact with the world, where it lies ideal and useless in times
of distrust, but is early drawn to the beneficent purposes and productive
energies of the community which can give it profitable employment.  Those from
large cities learn that New York and Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago are marts
of trade, not places of power.  The country feeds and recruits them.  They
reflect and do not originate the conditions and opinions of the republic.  The
untraveled city man is the most provincial of mortals.  His local pride
paralyzes his powers of observation, and the rest of the universe exists only
for his benefit and by his permission.  The west is an unknown land of grazing
plains, mining camps and big game.  But he finds here the broadest culture of
the schools and colleges, a vigorous and healthy public sentiment, the courage
to try and the ability to utilize every invention which will increase the
productive power and decrease the cost of operating the farm, the forest, the
manufactory and the mine.  Thus the broader education brings into contact and
activity all the elements of our strength and growth.  Self-centered
satisfaction is an insurmountable barrier to mental, moral or material growth.

Foreign critics say Americans boast of the bigness of their country.  There is
no use denying the fact; we are big.  We are not too large for a destiny never
so manifest as today.  Cuba is under our protection and certain to come under
our flag by the vote of her people; Porto Rico is ours; our foothold in the
Philippines will never be surrendered, and the markets in the far East are
inviting us to compete with the nations of Europe for their trade.  Big as we
are, the future is bigger with duties, responsibilities and opportunities for
our citizens.  The sentimentalist declares that such a review as has occupied
our hour today is the grossest materialism.  After years of experiment and
observation I have found that sentiment has less alloy, is purer and attains
loftier ideals under a well-thatched roof than on the sod, under storms as well
as sunshine, and with drenching clouds as well as stars above.  "What makes a
hero in battle," I inquired of a veteran, the victor on many a bloody field. 
His answer was, "Plenty of good beef or mutton and hot coffee".

When Nebraska has reached the age of New York there will be a population of
over 200,000,000 in the United States.  Our domain will be sufficient for their
support, and our institutions elastic enough for their orderly government and
their liberty.  Intelligence will be keen and high and the state will be very
close to the daily life and industrial activities of the people.  Cooperation
will be working to an extent now thought chimerical.  There will be always
differences of conditions as God has endowed his children with degrees of
gifts, but the much abused doctrine that the world owes every man a living will
be in general vogue and practice.  The lazy, the shiftless and the improvident
will grumble and suffer then as now, but there will be a place for all
according to the talents bestowed upon them, and wisely perfected plans for the
care and comfort of the aged and helpless.

The war with Spain has unified our country.  The sons of the south and the
north fighting side by side, and under the old flag, has effaced the last
vestige of the passions of the Civil War.  The young men of the farthest west
and its primitive conditions, lying with their comrades from the circles of the
Clubs and fashion in the east, in the trenches of El Caney and charging up the
hill and over the defenses of San Juan have made the men of the west and the
east one by the baptism of blood.  Whether from the plains of Arizona or the
palaces of New York and whether dressed in broadcloth or in buckskin the Rough
Rider is the same American.

Venerable New York sends hail and ordeal congratulations to young Nebraska. 
Our settlement is two hundred and forty and our sovereignty ninety years older
than yours.  Three centuries of development under original conditions, and free
institutions, greet this half century of the west from the painted savage to
the industrious citizen with a past and present full of cheer and hope.  First
among the states of the Republic in population, prosperity, educational
institutions, churches, productive power and wealth, and commanding the
resources of the continent through her metropolis, the second city of the
world, New York owes it all to American liberty and opportunity.  It is her
pride and pleasure to attract and welcome the citizens of all the sister
states.  The people of the south, the west and the Pacific, have found
hospitable homes in the Empire State in numbers greater than the population of
many cities, in those sections.  These fraternal ties intertwining with the
bonds of patriotism and common interest bind our states together in one
indissoluble Union, and make us all one people, of one country and under one
flag.
_________________________

Immediately after the exercises a luncheon was served at the Markel Cafe, and
at this luncheon was gathered around the banquet board the representatives of
greater wealth than had ever attended a banquet in Omaha before.  Among those
present were the following:  Chauncey M. Depew, chairman of the executive board
of the New York Central Railroad; S.R. Callaway, president New York Central
Railroad; Dr. Seward Webb, Marvin Hughitt, W.H.Newman and W.E. Eby;
Representing the New York Produce Exchange, the following gentlemen:  Frank
Brainard, F.H. Andrews, John Valient, Frank Commisky, J.W. Ahles, John
Gledhill, E.A. Allen, W.E. Truesdale, E.H. Dougherty, Daniel T. Wade, S.T.
Graff.  Representing the New York Chamber of Commerce:  Warner Miller, Charles
A. Schieren, Francis B. Thurber, Richard Young, Henry A. Spaulding, D.S.
Ramser.  From Buffalo:  Captain J.M. Brinker, F.C.M. Lantz, R.C. Hill, A.C.
Essenwein, Major G. Creighton Webb, F.D. Higbee, E.W. Curtis, Jr., and D. Van
Aken.

The afternoon was spent in viewing the exhibits and witnessing the Indian Sham
Battle.  In the evening a banquet was given at the Omaha Club to the
distinguished guests, by the former residents of New York state now living in
Omaha.  Hon. E. M. Bartlett of Omaha acted as toast-master, and many of Omaha's
prominent citizens were present.  Rev. S. Wright Butler responded to the toast,
"Our Guests" in a most happy manner, eliciting great applause for his wit and
humor.  Hon. John L. Webster responded to the toast "What are we here for?" 
Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, in his characteristic, happy vein, spoke to the
sentiment, "New Yorkers?"  General John C. Cowin responded to the toast
"Westward the Course of Empire takes its Way."  Senator Warner Miller, "The
Nicaraguan Canal."  Senator W. E. Corwine of the New York Merchants Exchange,
"Relations between the West and the East."  J. H. Metcalf, of Buffalo, "The
Pan-American Exposition."  President Wattles, "The Trans-Mississippi
Exposition."  Hon. E. Rosewater, "The Press."  Hon. F. B. Thurber, "Foreign
Commercial Relations."  Judge Wakely closed the speaking with the toast of "Rip
Van Winkle," applied to the guests from the Empire State, "Here's to your
health and that of your families; may you live long and prosper."

___________________________