From Our Owx San Francisco, Apr. 25 the March 28 issue, of the orth-China Daily News" ther appeared an article from this iter which compared the. port of Tos Angeles with Shanghai, in which reference' was made' to. the proposal for holding an exposition Shanghai. The. "Herald" for that week has just come to my liliand, and T was delighted to see thay Mir. G. A. Bena, who did a great deal in promoting the idea, fas" informed your readers that the exhibition idea is not dead," and thay he 1s "elaborating a plan Which will entirely dispose. of all Criticisms regarding the, financial Success of the enterprise T have just interviewed one of the prominent San Franciscans who hada good deal to do with the famous 1915 exposition held he and. was somewhat surprised to earn that at the time that event was first. mooted in San Francisco there was some doubtfulness as whether it could be made a paying Venture; yet there has never been any event here—unteas it was the calamity. of 1906—which advertise fed this. port in all the corners. of the world as did that. exposition, As a rule it takes far more than the imagination of the average man to liza the success of an affair proposed in San Fran-loro, and which could be organized carried through in Shanghai With "signal success if. everybody Dut his shoulder to the wheel.
Inthe present state of China trade, Tadmit that the hard-headed Dusiness man, used to looking at both sides of the ledger at the same time, may be inclined to question whether such an enterprise could te made to produce profits, Some may say that even if- an exhibition ould be organized merely to pay its way they would lend their support to the venture, but, basing heir opinion on the present. trend of affairs in China, they feel inelinced to believe that success could not be assured. Others may say, us they' did Fast summer at a meeting libeld to discuss the matter, that cooperation among the various chambers of commerce and the Chinese commercial bodies would be impos sible. Others, again, while desizing fo see an event. of the kind "put over," do not understand how gr exhibitions are floated, and. fore are no, interested.
Tt needs the true enterprising spirit. Tt needs ce-operation among fall nationalities. Tt needs long and sustained initial organized service, Jduring which time expenses should be cut to the irreducible. It needs strict ce-operation among foreign-Jers, the same fine international team work that you have in the Municipal Council, but it needs, even more than that, absolutely unselfish ce-operation between foreigners of, all nationalities and the Chinese chambers of commerce and the bigger Chinese hongs, Personally I see obstacle. If it can be done, Shanghai should be able to do it. There are in Shanghai some of the, brightest commercial minds that have ever left the Western hemisphere—that is saying a great deal, but it is undeniably true; imbued with the feasibility fof the enterprise and the determination to bring it into materialization, Shanghai has men who can do it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.