Should it prove to be possible to hold such an exposition in Russia, I am
confident that the results would be of incalculable benefit to our
commerce as well as to our general relations with this country.
Russia’s extraordinary progress in industrial enterprise opens a wide
field for our commerce, especially in all that relates to machinery,
manufactures, and transportation, a field in which we require to make
known our own development in order to reap the full benefit which ought
to accrue to us.
I regret that the time since my return has been insufficient to permit of
my first communicating with the Department before addressing this
tentative note to Count Mouravieff; but the advantages of such an
exposition to American interests here are so evident, and the reception
which the suggestion received from our representatives in Paris, with
whom I discussed the matter, was so fully in accord with the above that
I have felt justified in making the inquiry.
[Inlcosure.]
Mr. Hitchcock
to Count Mouravieff.
Embassy of the United States,
St. Petersburg, January 8 (20), 1899.
Your Excellency: Fully confident of your
excellency’s desire to promote in every way the historical relations
of friendship and the growing intercourse between my country and the
Empire of Russia, I wish to lay before your excellency a plan which
could not fail to increase the commercial intercourse between our
countries and consequently to promote international relations.
It has long been my opinion that an exposition of certain specialties
of American manufacture in Russia would be of great interest and
value, as exhibiting such
[Page 595]
progress as we have made in our development, for the study and
comparison of the Russian Government and people in their industrial
advance in similar lines which might well serve a useful end by
suggesting improved methods as well as stimulating enterprise and
inventive faculty. Such an exposition would include methods and
appliances for transportation both by land and by water, including
the most modern and improved devices in use in my country for
conveying passengers and merchandize at the lowest cost; machinery
of various sorts, agricultural, mining, and manufacturing, for
operation both by power and by hand; for the development of the
natural products which are to be found in such abundant variety in
this vast Empire, including their growth, such as cotton, flax,
grain, timber, the metals and other minerals, including coal and
petroleum and their byproducts; electrical apparatus and machinery,
both scientific and industrial; systems and apparatus for irrigation
and water supply, with their economical application; apparatus and
improvements used in preventing, controlling, and extinguishing
fires; methods and apparatus employed in sanitation, including the
canalization, or sewerage, of cities and towns, and the sanitary
equipment of public buildings and dwellings; systems of lighting and
heating; hand tools and implements which, while operated by the
mechanic’s hand, serve to lighten his labor, increase its
fruitfulness, and improve its results. In short, all of the various
processes and apparatus which the peculiar inventive faculty of my
countrymen have brought to bear upon our own industrial
development.
In considering how best such an exposition of American industries in
Russia could be brought about it occurred to my mind that following
the international exposition to be held in Paris in 1900 it would be
possible to bring to Russia practically the entire American exhibit,
and to this end I consulted with the director-general of our
American exhibit there, as well as with the representatives of many
of our leading intending exhibitors, all of whom I found to be
heartily in accord with the idea. Of course I was unable to make any
promises to them beyond the assurance that I would endeavor to
ascertain the views of the Imperial Government on the subject, and
this is the object of the present communication.
Should the idea expressed in the foregoing meet with your
excellency’s approval, my plan would be to obtain from the Imperial
Government a sufficiently large plot of ground, either at St.
Petersburg or Moscow, as would best serve the purpose of the
exposition, upon which should be erected suitable building or
buildings worthy of the purpose but keeping in view their temporary
character, the cost of which I would endeavor to have defrayed by my
Government, asking in return for such expenditure by my Government
and the American exhibitors such reduction in the rate of
transportation through Russian territory and such stipulations and
concessions with respect to customs dues and other conditions as
would operate for the success of the exposition and the mutual
benefit of the Imperial Government and the exhibitors.
I would point out to your excellency that the accumulation at Paris,
a point comparatively near at hand, adds a feature of feasibility to
the proposition which would be unlikely to occur at a future
time.
An expression of your excellency’s views on this subject before my
departure would be greatly desirable, in order that I may, if the
Imperial Government is in accord with the suggestion, take the
matter up immediately on my arrival in America, as the time is none
too early to commence the necessary preliminary steps, not only as
regards my Government, but with the proposed exhibitors, who would
require timely notice of such proposed enlargement into a dual
exposition.
I avail myself, etc.,
[Mr. Hitchcock left his post to return to the United States,
February 5, 1899.]
