Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/220



The Lewis and Clark Centennial movement was launched by the late L. B. Cox through the medium of the Oregon Historical Society. The president of the society was called upon to submit a name and legend for the proposed centennial observance. But the relations of this society with the fair can not normally end at this stage of the project's development.

The motive of the exposition is fundamentally an historical one. The best results, processes, and tendencies of modern industry and commerce are to be exhibited, and these are to-day based on science; so, if the central ideas of the fair the historical and scientific are to be upheld, and if the fair is to have unity of purpose, it would seem that the Historical Society must assume a most important part in its further development. This, however, involves no essential connection with the management or material organization of the exposition.

The fair, as the observance of the centennial anniversary of a great event, will be up to its occasion only if it suffices to introduce us into a new epoch. Centennial anniversaries are sources of inspiration, and, fitly observed, they effect a measure of advancement like that accomplished by the achievement commemorated. But no such transformation can be wrought by any magnificence of exhibits in architectural, aesthetic, and industrial arts that directors-general may organize, if the people have no part further than supplying a small portion of the materials and of passively viewing the displays. In order that the fair may mark an epoch in the development of the Pacific Northwest, the thinking and investigating representatives of the people must from now on be planning their part of this project with the same care that Lewis and Clark did theirs, and then must carry it through with the same indefatigable persistence as did they. And what is more natural than that the spirit expressed in the proposed memorial exposition should stimulate, harmonize, and give purpose to all patriotic impulse for the next four years? And thus the event, the fair itself, as a consummation, will actually usher us into a new era we have prepared ourselves