{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:effect-of-worlds-fair",
  "slug": "effect-of-worlds-fair",
  "title": "Effect of the World's Fair on the Human Race",
  "subtitle": "On the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition.",
  "excerpt": "On the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago — what world's fairs are for, and what they can do for the progress of the human race.",
  "year": 1893,
  "volume": 12,
  "category": "Essay",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/effect-of-worlds-fair/",
  "wordCount": 1497,
  "body": "THE Great Fair should be for the intellectual, mechanical, artistic,\npolitical and social advancement of the world. Nations, like small\ncommunities, are in danger of becoming provincial, and must become\nso, unless they exchange commodities, theories, thoughts, and ideals.\nIsolation is the soil of ignorance, and ignorance is the soil of\negotism; and nations, like individuals who live apart, mistake\nprovincialism for perfection, and hatred of all other nations for\npatriotism. With most people, strangers are not only enemies, but\ninferiors. They imagine that they are progressive because they know\nlittle of others, and compare their present, not with the present of\nother nations, but with their own past.\n\nFew people have imagination enough to sympathize with those of a\ndifferent complexion, with those professing another religion or speaking\nanother language, or even wearing garments unlike their own. Most people\nregard every difference between themselves and others as an evidence of\nthe inferiority of the others. They have not intelligence enough to put\nthemselves in the place of another if that other happens to be outwardly\nunlike themselves.\n\nCountless agencies have been at work for many years destroying the\nhedges of thorn that have so long divided nations, and we at last are\nbeginning to see that other people do not differ from us, except in the\nsame particulars that we differ from them. At last, nations are becoming\nacquainted with each other, and they now know that people everywhere are\nsubstantially the same. We now know that while nations differ outwardly\nin form and feature, somewhat in theory, philosophy and creed,\nstill, inwardly—that is to say, so far as hopes and passions are\nconcerned—they are much the same, having the same fears, experiencing\nthe same joys and sorrows. So we are beginning to find that the virtues\nbelong exclusively to no race, to no creed, and to no religion; that the\nhumanities dwell in the hearts of men, whomever and whatever they\nmay happen to worship. We have at last found that every creed is of\nnecessity a provincialism, destined to be lost in the universal.\n\nAt last, Science extends an invitation to all nations, and places at\ntheir disposal its ships and its cars; and when these people meet—or\nrather, the representatives of these people—they will find that, in\nspite of the accidents of birth, they are, after all, about the same;\nthat their sympathies, their ideas' of right and wrong, of virtue and\nvice, of heroism and honor, are substantially alike. They will find that\nin every land honesty is honored, truth respected and admired, and that\ngenerosity and charity touch all hearts.\n\nSo it is of the greatest importance that the inventions of the world\nshould be brought beneath one roof. These inventions, in my judgment,\nare destined to be the liberators of mankind. They enslave forces and\ncompel the energies of nature to work for man. These forces have no\nbacks to feel the lash, no tears to shed, no hearts to break.\n\nThe history of the world demonstrates that man becomes What we call\ncivilized by increasing his wants. As his necessities increase, he\nbecomes industrious and energetic. If his heart does not keep pace with\nhis brain, he is cruel, and the physically or mentally strong enslave\nthe physically or mentally weak. At present these inventions, while they\nhave greatly increased the countless articles needed by man, have to\na certain extent enslaved mankind. In a savage state there are few\nfailures. Almost any one succeeds in hunting and fishing. The wants are\nfew, and easily supplied. As man becomes civilized, wants increase; or\nrather as wants increase, man becomes civilized. Then the struggle for\nexistence becomes complex; failures increase.\n\nThe first result of the invention of machinery has been to increase the\nwealth of the few. The hope of the world is that through invention man\ncan finally take such advantage of these forces of nature, of the weight\nof water, of the force of wind, of steam, of electricity, that they will\ndo the work of the world; and it is the hope of the really civilized\nthat these inventions will finally cease to be the property of the few,\nto the end that they may do the work of all for all.\n\nWhen those who do the work own the machines, when those who toil control\nthe invention, then, and not till then, can the world be civilized or\nfree. When these forces shall do the bidding of the individual, when\nthey become the property of the mechanic instead of the monopoly, when\nthey belong to labor instead of what is called capital, when these great\npowers are as free to the individual laborer as the air and light\nare now free to all, then, and not until then, the individual will be\nrestored and all forms of slavery will disappear.\n\nAnother great benefit will come from the Fair. Other nations in some\ndirections are more artistic than we, but no other nation has made\nthe common as beautiful as we have. We have given beauty of form to\nmachines, to common utensils, to the things of every day, and have thus\nlaid the foundation for producing the artistic in its highest possible\nforms. It will be of great benefit to us to look upon the paintings and\nmarbles of the Old World. To see them is an education.\n\nThe great Republic has lived a greater poem than the brain and heart of\nman have as yet produced, and we have supplied material for artists and\npoets yet unborn; material for form and color and song. The Republic is\nto-day Art's greatest market.\n\nNothing else is so well calculated to make friends of all nations as\nreally to become acquainted with the best that each has produced.\n\nThe nation that has produced a great poet, a great artist, a great\nstatesman, a great thinker, takes its place on an equality with other\nnations of the world, and transfers to all of its citizens some of the\ngenius of its most illustrious men.\n\nThis great Fair will be an object lesson to other nations. They will see\nthe result of a government, republican in form, where the people are the\nsource of authority, where governors and presidents are servants—not\nrulers. We want all nations to see the great Republic as it is, to study\nand understand its growth, development and destiny. We want them to know\nthat here, under our flag, are sixty-five millions of people and that\nthey are the best fed, the best clothed and the best housed in the\nworld. We want them to know that we are solving the great social\nproblems, and that we are going to demonstrate the right and power of\nman to govern himself. We want the subjects of other nations to see\naland filled with citizens—not subjects; aland in which the pew is\nabove the pulpit; where the people are superior to the state; where\nlegislators are representatives and where authority means simply the\nduty to enforce the people's will.\n\nLet us hope above all things that this Fair will bind the nations\ntogether closer and stronger; and let us hope that this will result in\nthe settlement of all national difficulties by arbitration instead of\nwar. In a savage state, individuals settle their own difficulties by\nan appeal to force. After a time these individuals agree that their\ndifficulties shall be settled by others. This is the first great step\ntoward civilization. The result is the establishment of courts. Nations\nat present sustain to each other the same relation that savage does\nto savage. Each nation is left to decide for itself, and it generally\ndecides according to its strength—not the strength of its side of the\ncase, but the strength of its army. The consequence is that what is\ncalled \"the Law of Nations\" is a savage code. The world will never be\ncivilized until there is an international court. Savages begin to be\ncivilized when they submit their difficulties to their peers. Nations\nwill become civilized when they submit their difficulties to a great\ncourt, the judgments of which can be carried out, all nations pledging\nthe co-operation of their armies and their navies for that purpose.\n\nIf the holding of the great Fair shall result in hastening the coming of\nthat time it will be a blessing to the whole world.\n\nAnd here let me prophesy: The Fair will be worthy of Chicago, the\nmost wonderful city of the world—of Illinois, the best State in the\nUnion—of the United States, the best country on the earth. It will\neclipse all predecessors in every department. It will represent the\nprogressive spirit of the nineteenth century. Beneath its ample roofs\nwill be gathered the treasures of Art, and the accomplishments of\nScience. At the feet of the Republic will be laid the triumphs of our\nrace, the best of every land.—The illustrated World's Fair, Chicago,\nNovember, 1891.\n"
}