Page:Final Report of the Northwest Territory Celebration Commission.pdf/56

 Because of the heated public interest in the coming campaign, the newsmen avidly seized upon the political phase of the address to such an extent that the great historic import was subordinated and largely submerged.

The attendance of the President on July 8th instead of July 15th made it necessary to revamp the program and Governor's days were set aside in the ensuing week for each of the states of Northwest Territory.

Also. Pioneer Descendants' Day. Historians' Day, etc. The inevitable effect however of the re-arranged program was anti-climatic.

Despite this fact, large crowds, including some thousands of visitors attended the various programs of that week.

This is one of the truly glorious phases of the entire celebration.

Rather than one centralized program, there were two hundred and two centers at which official and major Northwest Territory Celebrations were held. These include the itinerary stops of the caravan and the New York program. With the intervening stops this figure becomes at least four hundred different communities which held commemorative exercises of civic nature in connection with the celebration.

The program extended from New York and Ipswich, Massachusetts, through the most densely settled northeastern part of the United States to western Minnesota.

Each of the several hundred communities appointed local committees or commissions whose members worked for many weeks or months in preparation for their local Northwest Territory program or programs.

The range of features was wide as human thought, but in most cases were built around and to include the celebration's pioneer caravan,

New York Herald Tribune (Population Ipswich-Hamilton. Mass., 8,073)

"50,000 CHEER ACTORS STAGING COLONIAL TREK AT IPSWICH. MASS."

Circleville. Ohio (Population 7,049)

"Crowd Estimated at 20,000 for Big Parade, Pageant"

Fort Wayne, Indiana (Population 105,300)

"60,000 GIVE TROUPE HOOSIER GREETING"

Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)(Population Marietta 15,261)

"60,000 SHOUT AS PIONEERS LAND AT MARIETTA"

Newark. Ohio (Population 30,641)

"PIONEER CARAVAN TAKES CITY"

"28,000 Cheer Celebration—Stadium Packed"

Youngstown, Ohio (Population 174,200)

"80,000 HAIL PIONEERS HERE IN BIG PARADE CITY PUTS ON ITS GREATEST CELEBRATION"