C O N C L U S I O N.



A fitting conclusion of the affairs of the Trans-Mississippi and International
Exposition, in connection with and following the final meeting of the Board of
Directors, and carrying out the directions of said meeting was the meeting of
the President and all members of the Executive Committee with the committee
appointed by the directors to secure and present suitable Gold Medals to the
President and members of the Executive Committee.  The meeting was held in Room
130 of the Millard Hotel at noon of Wednesday, September 10th, 1902.  In this
room some hundreds of meetings of the Executive Committee had been held and it
was chosen because of this fact for the place of formal presentation of the
medals authorized in recognition of their long, faithful and unremunerated
services to the Exposition.  There were present Mr. Gurdon W. Wattles,
President.  The Executive Committee as follows:

Mr. Zachary T. Lindsay, Chairman.
Mr. Edward Rosewater
Mr. Freeman P. Kirkendall
Mr. Edward E. Bruce
Mr. Abraham L. Reed
Mr. William N. Babcock,

and the medals Committee, as follows:

Mr. John A. Wakefield, General Secretary.
Mr. Gilbert M. Hitchcock, Director.
Mr. John C. Wharton, Director.

A formal luncheon was served, after which, Mr. G.M. Hitchcock as a one time
member of the Executive Committee arose and addressed the medal recipients as
follows:

Mr. Ex-President and Gentlemen:

I suppose we may properly term ourselves ex-directors of the late
Trans-Mississippi Exposition and I am sure no corporation ever dissolved in the
city of Omaha more happily and more creditably than the one which we closed at
the last meeting of the Board of Directors.  At that meeting after listening to
all reports and reviewing the situation, the Board of Directors assigned to Mr.
Wakefield, Mr. Wharton and myself the very pleasant duty of securing and
presenting to the President and each member of the executive committee, a medal
in recognition of distinguished and honorable service to the Exposition and to
Omaha.

In fulfilling this agreeable duty, I believe I can properly say that this
committee represents, not only the Board of fifty directors of the Exposition,
but also the six thousand stock holders, and over and above them the whole
people of this community.  These directors, these stockholders and this
community generally tender to you, Gentlemen, in this little souvenir a slight
recognition of your honorable, able and self-sacrificing services, covering a
period of several years.

The Trans-Mississippi Exposition was the product of serious conditions.  At the
time the Exposition idea was incubated, and at the time this community formed
the resolution to hold an Exposition, Omaha was suffering from the effects of
the panic of 1893, the crop failure of 1894, as well as the depression of 1895,
and it was the effort to recover from these misfortunes which led the people of
Omaha to resolve to hold an Exposition.  At that time Omaha called upon her
best citizens as a state calls upon its soldiers in time of war.  You,
Gentlemen, responded.  President Wattles and each member of this committee who
became the head of an important department of the Exposition, laid down for a
time the burdens and ambitions of private life and took up the burdens and
responsibilities of public service.  You came to the relief of this community
when men of courage and ability were needed, and patiently, persistently, in
the face of discouragements, and in spite of the greatest obstacles, You, as
the responsible officers of this great undertaking, worked it out,- not to an
ordinary success, but to a miraculous achievement.  When the Exposition was
closed, viewed in the light of all past Expositions, it had been a wonderful
success, financially and artistically, but in the light of more recent events,
particularly in the light of the sad experience of the Buffalo Exposition, the
Trans-Mississippi Exposition has been magnified until its success, by
comparison with the Buffalo failure, seems almost a miracle.

It would be invidious and serve no good purpose, and it would be also somewhat
presumptuous for me as the spokesman for this committee to attempt comparisons
or to raise distinctions as to the respective value of your services.  Each of
you was the head of a great department of this large enterprise.  Each of you,
at one time or another, bore the brunt of the struggle.  At one time it fell
upon the department of Exhibits; at another time upon the department of
concessions and privileges; at another time upon the department of
transportation; at another time upon the department of buildings and grounds;
at another time upon the department of publicity and promotion; and we
painfully remember how frequently it fell upon the department of ways and
means.  Each officer sustained his part and fulfilled his duties individually,
and when the Executive  Committee met and the heads of all departments were
united, the committee spoke as one man and exercised the great powers of the
Exposition with substantial harmony and effect.  Had any single department
failed, or had the head any single department faltered, the great enterprise
would have been seriously damaged.  But the patience, persistence, ability and
energy displayed by each and all combined to bring about the splendid result.

I am sure, however, that no member of the Executive Committee will question for
a moment the propriety of my remarks when I particularly specify the great
services of the president of this Exposition, who met constantly with the
executive committee, and shared in the labors of the head of each department,
and fulfilled the duty of each in his temporary absence and who, in season and
out of season, subordinated and sacrificed his personal interests and his
private affairs that a great Exposition of which he was the head, might
succeed.  Had failure come, we cannot question that upon the shoulders of the
president would have been placed much of the responsibility for disaster simply
from the fact that he occupied first place in the organization, and in the day,
therefore, of its great and final success and in the awarding to your,
Gentlemen, of these mementos of the long fight and great triumph, it is but
proper to give first place to the president who worked with you so effectively.

Gentlemen, I now call upon Mr. Wharton to make proper delivery of the medals
ordered for you by authority of the Board of Directors.
occupied first place in the organization, and in the day, therefore, of its
great and final success and in the awarding to your, Gentlemen, of these
mementos of the long fight and great triumph, it is but proper to give first
place to the president who worked with you so effectively.

Gentlemen, I now call upon Mr. Wharton to make proper delivery of the medals
ordered for you by authority of the Board of Directors.

Mr. John Wharton spoke as follows:

Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Executive Committee:

It is with great pleasure that we gather round this festal board to day, not
only to partake of the delectable viands set before us, but also to perform the
pleasing duty enjoined by the Board of Directors of the Trans-Mississippi
Exposition, of presenting golden medals to you, Mr. President and Gentlemen
constituting the Executive Committee of the Board as an expression of their
high appreciation and that of the public as well, for the faithful, unselfish
and efficient services rendered by you in carrying to a successful culmination
the mighty and stupendous enterprise known as the Trans-Mississippi and
International Exposition in the Year of Our Lord, A.D. 1898.

The magnitude and the importance of your Herculanian efforts grow upon us as we
contemplate the adverse circumstances under which you undertook the enterprise,
and the environments which enthralled you as the work progressed.  But by your
genius and tenacity you brought order out of chaos, producing the "White City"
situated upon either bank of the tranquil and placid waters of the lagoon,- a
marven of beauty and symmetry, the like of which has never been equaled in the
Exposition world.

Omaha, situated as she is, the gateway of the great Northwest, determined to
demonstrate to the world her strategic position and to produce in beautiful
profusion the products of this vast agricultural area which lies west of the
Mississippi River.  After this resolution had been made, the memorable panic of
1893 came upon us, with its blighting effects paralyzing the industries of the
country to such an extent that dearth and stagnation in business were
everywhere manifest.  Following in close succession came the drouth of 1894 and
1895 causing still further disaster and calamity to the marts of trade and the
cessation of business enterprises.  But, Sirs, you went nobly on, nothing
daunting your courage or impeding your efforts, bringing forth that splendid
exhibit of the products of the Northwest, arranged with such delicacy and
perfection of design, housed in buildings of such marvelous  architectural
beauty and lighted with such a refulgent blaze of electricity that the millions
who beheld it involuntarily exclaimed.- "Oh, what a dream of beauty!"  Yes
indeed, it was "a dream of beauty," the memory of which can never be effaced.





The victories of peace are as great as those of war.  Grant had his Appomattox
and Rear Admiral Dewey his Spanish fleet, but their sacrifices, patriotism and
loyalty were not greater than your sacrifices, or the patriotism that you
exhibited in bringing to perfection the mighty and stupendous enterprise
committed to your hand.  You labored long and well.  You sacrificed your own
business interests, leaving the management of your banking and financial
institutions, wholesale houses and cosmopolitan journals; demonstrating to the
people your patriotism and loyalty for the public good, and with universal
accord the people have viewed the results of your labors and have said,- "Well
done, thou good and faithful servants."

It has been the custom of nations and people to bestow medals and degrees of
honor upon those who have rendered valiant, heroic and distinguished services
to their country, or because of sacrifices have become benefactors of their
race.  We approve and commend the practice, and in conformity with that
established custom, and by direction of the Board of Directors of the
Trans-Mississippi Exposition, I have the pleasure of presenting to you,
President Wattles and to you,  Messrs. Lindsey, Rosewater, Kirkendall, Bruce,
Reed and Babcock, these beautiful gold medals, (handing to each his respective
medal) as a slight token of our high appreciation of the faithful efficient and
heroic services rendered by you in bringing to such a glorious culmination the
industrial Exposition of 1898.  Your success was not merely an artistic one,
but it was a financial one as well, returning as you did ninety cents on the
dollar to every stockholder who invested in the enterprise, and that too when
industrial paralysis and financial depression were sweeping over the commercial
world like the Simoon from Desert, blighting industry and deadening enterprise
like a pall, dearth and depression rested upon us.  Yet in the midst of all
this you triumphed,- triumphed because of the personal sacrifices you made,-
because of your unswerving honesty in the management of the undertaking, and
your unalterable determination to crown with glorious success this enterprise,
conceived in weakness and brought forth in such marvelous beauty and
excellence.  As time shall roll on and the Macauley of Future years shall
record the history of industrial Expositions, he will render even greater
praise to you for your loyalty, your discerning thought and mature judgment and
your honest management of this Exposition.

We present these medals, not for their intrinsic value but as a testimony of
our regard and appreciation.  Let them be kept by you and your posterity as
souvenirs, reminding you and them of the faithful services rendered by you in
connection with the Industrial Exposition of 1898.

The medals, beautiful products of the goldsmith's art, are 14k gold, about four
inches in length by one and three quarters inches wide.  The face of the medal
bears a figure of victory with wings and arms outstretched, standing at the
portals of the Hall of Fame, in its uplifted right hand a horseshoe wreath of
Laurel leaves, in the extended left hand a scroll, having engraved thereon this
sentence,- "Gloria action-es cinxit" (Glory surrounds his conduct.)  At the top
of the medal in raised letters appear the words, "Omaha" and below the figure,
in blue enameling, the words, "Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition.
1898."  On the reverse side is engraved in script the words, "Unanimously voted
by the Board of Directors in appreciation of Honorable and Self-sacrificing
Services to the Exposition.  The medal proper hangs pendant below two bars, on
the topmost of which appears the name of the recipient and on the second the
words, "President" or "Executive Committee" as the case required.

After a brief season of inspection of the medals and pleasant comment thereon
and thereabout, Mr. Lindsey, Chairman, called upon President Wattles to make
response to the presentation addresses.  With deep feeling and evident emotion
Mr. President responded in these words:

Gentlemen of the Presentation Committee, Mr. Chairman, and Members of the
Executive Committee:

A feeling of sadness comes over me as we meet for the last time in this
familiar room to receive these beautiful medals and listen to the words of
praise and commendation so lavishly expressed by the Presentation Committee. 
For myself and for the Executive Committee, I thank you most heartily, and
through you, I thank the Board of Directors for this appropriate expression of
their esteem and appreciation.  We will each of us value these beautiful medals
beyond price, and through our lives they will be preserved as reminders of the
confidence and good will of our fellow workers in the enterprise fraught with
many difficulties but crowned with unparalleled success.

It was almost seven years ago that the first steps were taken in the
preliminary work of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, and
those first efforts were difficult in many respects.  Many prominent business
men in the community not only refused their support but ridiculed the
enterprise and those connected with it.  Those were dark days, and it took
great moral courage to pull against the tide of public opinion, which seemed to
hesitate at so great an undertaking.

It was nearly five years ago that this Executive Committee was organized and
began its meetings in this room.  Here has been the scene of many heated
arguments, and here have been settled many of the vital questions which meant
so much for the success or failure of the enterprise.  How well these questions
were settled the final success tells the story.  As I look back on the many
differences of opinion and on some of the unpleasant experiences, I sometimes
wonder if they were not all for the best, and I believe but for these
differences we might have made many mistakes we avoided.  I have heard our plan
of organization criticized, and at times during the Exposition I questioned
whether or not it was the best.  This plan of dividing the responsibility among
several heads of departments was proposed by myself, as I was willing and
anxious to distribute the burdens and I am now willing to divide the honors
equally between myself and the members of this committee.  The only additional
credit I claim is on account of longer service.  I took up the work as a public
duty and simply did my best at all times and under all circumstances.  Each
member of the Executive Committee did the same, and as I now look back on what
was accomplished, I do not think the plan of organization could have been
improved.



As we meet for the last time as a committee to receive these honors so
generously bestowed, I can say with a heart filled with gratitude to this
Presentation Committee, that we thank you again for your kind words and for
these beautiful medals, and to the members of the Executive Committee, I wish
you one and all prosperity and happiness throughout your lives.

Picture of a stage with curtain down

finis