PROCEEDINGS 241
Joint Session, Saturday, April 2,
10:00 A. M., Ohio State
Museum, Harlow Lindley, Presiding
The first speaker of the Saturday
morning session was the
executive director of the Federal
Government's Northwest Ter-
ritory Celebration Commission, Mr. E. M.
Hawes. A resume
of his extemporaneous remarks follows:
THE HISTORICAL PROGRAM OF THE NORTHWEST
TERRI-
TORY CELEBRATION COMMISSION.
By E. M. HAWES
I have had to qualify as an expert on
oxen, building of boats, and as
a pilot, trying to get out of the
mudhole last night. However, the caravan
is now on its way. It left West Newton a
day ahead of time in order to
get out of the river, it having the
lowest water in years. Perhaps it will
interest you to know that we shoved them
off the last rocks at eight o'clock
last night; they were due in Pittsburgh
at nine o'clock.
I do want to say and Dr. Lindley knows
it--It was our hope that
Governor White would come instead of
myself. It isn't easy to tell you,
but I am not going to do any bragging
about what I am doing. The Gover-
nor, as chairman of the Commission, is
trying to make about six towns a
day, so I am here. I asked Dr. Lindley
this morning about phases which
would be most apt to interest a meeting
of this sort. He thought the edu-
cational phase of it, and particularly a
statement of our program. I hope
you will bear with me. I can talk it for
twenty-four hours a day.
We purposely set out to make it
different. We are trying to take the
show to the people. We are not asking
the people to go to one area.
Marietta is one of the 169 points where
the caravan will show. Twenty-
four million people are within an hour's
automobile ride of the Northwest
Territory Celebration. There is no
partiality shown to any community.
There may be some here from those towns.
To give an illustration some
of the towns in the State, both publicly
and privately, have said that Ma-
rietta was getting a great slice of the
appropriation. The appropriation
was for $100,000, the smallest amount
ever made for a program of this
kind; but it is the exact amount for
which we asked. We are trying to
have more historic pageants at a cost
which the people can stand. The
best way to teach the people history is
through pageants, celebrations. The
actual fact is that Marietta is not
getting one five cent piece. We are
treating them all exactly the same.
During the winter we have turned
away twice as many people as could get
into the halls. They showed in
West Newton to 6000, and West Newton is
a town of 3000 people. Last
time they had an outdoor show.
Now let us talk about the program. I am
very sincere, very earnest
in saying that we did not set out to
build a Dallas, a Cleveland, Chicago.
or San Diego. We are trying to get it to
the people. We all want to
know how the United States really came
about. School histories do not
tell it to you. You men know that. We
figured there should be a con-
siderable program. We decided in a
rather crude way to start with the
A.B.C. books and from there on up. The
first was the map which has
been distributed to some three million
people. It is particularly for chil-
dren but a great many adults find it
interesting as well.