No. 37.
Mr. Jay
to Mr. Hale.
Vienna, July 26, 1872. (Received August 13.)
Sir: * * * * *
Baron Schwarz said:
- 1.
- That he had reserved for the United States a space larger than [Page 56] had been allotted to them in the Paris Exposition of 1867. That this space would be kept for them until the latest possible moment before the opening on the 1st May, 1873, although they hoped for as early a decision as possible from the commissioner of the United States, as to the amount which would be required, and also the names, &c, of the exhibitors.
- 2.
- That the rule requiring articles exhibited to be first
approved by the commissioner representing the country of the
exhibitor, applied not only to works of fine art, but to all;
and the baron called my attention to the fourth of the “General
Directions for the Foreign Exhibitors and Commissioners,”
printed paper No. 20, a copy of which I hereto append:
4. Foreign governments are invited to appoint commissions, with whom the chief manager will stand in direct communication upon all affairs concerning the exhibition. These commissions will have to represent the interests of their countrymen in all questions relating to the exhibition, and do their best duly to carry out its programme. Their task will be more particularly to issue invitations to take part in the exhibition, to receive application for space, to decide on the admission of objects announced, and to take charge of the forwarding, exhibiting, and returning of the objects of the exhibition, in accordance with the regulations laid down.
The baron said that he would send me to-morrow a plan of the building, showing the space which had been allotted to the United States, and also some memoranda, showing what is doing toward the exposition on the part of the governments of Europe, of Egypt, and in the East. He entertains the hope that the United States will be fitly represented, and expressed great pleasure at learning that the President had named a commission. At his request, I gave him Mr. Yan Buren’s address, and he said he would write immediately to the Austro-Hungarian consul at New York, to wait upon him and give him every information.
Baron Schwarz also expressed his earnest desire that the United States Government would present at the Vienna Exposition a perfect representation of the system of common school instruction adopted in the United States, a system, the results of which, he said, had been so wonderful.
He had read with singular interest the report upon American popular education, recently published in Paris, and which had attracted so much attention upon the Continent; and he prayed me to believe that an exposition of that system, illustrated by a school-house and its appurtenances, and its statistical results, would be a matter of profound interest and importance, not only to Austro-Hungary, but to the eastern peoples who adjoin this empire.
In view of the rapid progress recently made here in education, and the unusual interest now felt in the subject, I respectfully recommend that this suggestion of the Baron Schwarz be submitted to the Board of Education at Washington, as worthy of careful consideration.
* * * * * *
I have, &c.,