We are going to New York tonight and from there, in {company} with the New York Architects of the Exposition, tomorrow to Chicago. We are exceedingly pressed to get our {drawings} done and other preparations made in time for this conference and it has been quite impossible for us to give the time we would like to before we go to your article. What you send us is but a desultory collection of dislocated memoranda, many of them repetitions, and it would appear to me a great feat to work out a coherent and orderly article from them in the time you will have.

I will try to go over the paper and make suggestions on its margins while on the train and send it to your house early tomorrow morning.

Among points to be made I did think are these:-

It’s a vast complicated and most difficult undertaking. No one could be expected to take it all in and see at once the grand fundamental conditions of success and place the different elements of success in due relation & subordination one to another. It was a necessary result of the manner in which the Commission & the Directory were composed that at first the most conflicting notions of what should be aimed at and of the proper methods of proceeding should exist. To the public & especially that portion of the public [288]predisposed to fault-finding; it was inevitable that such preliminary discussion as was absolutely essential to a good start, should have the appearance of a prolonged, useless and wasteful wrangle. (There must be a good deal more of it). Considering what diametrically opposite opinions were held by different men of weight; how warmly they were {represented}, it is quite wonderful how frank debate has been effective in overcoming difficulties and securing cooperation in a broad policy. A great deal remains to be discussed; wide differences still appear, but there has been great progress and out of all the row the fact appears unquestionable that the enterprise is one of great popular interest, especially in all the West; that this interest of the West will give it some very distinctive qualities; that the pride of the people of Chicago is strongly interested to make the affair creditable to the city, and that their action for the purpose will be liberal and hospitable. Wise, able and energetic men are already secured and at work in various departments and that progress is being made cautiously and thoughtfully.

I shd say that your {memoranda} gave me too much prominence {generally}, considering how it has {been compiled}. The one thing that {…} instruction to the public in {…} is that we have not {come here} for advantages for gardening {or for} native display, which many wld suppose to be our only care as Landscape Architects; have urged a site as far as possible of such advantages—a desert place of drifting sand and water—simply out of respect for the one feature of natural—purely natural—beauty, in which there can be no display of our professional skill, the Lake.

I would suggest that you be cautious in speaking of plans as if anything had been decided beyond a few general ideas. We are still engaged only on “studies” rather than plans, these being presented tentatively to aid in advancing discussions. There will yet be much discussion before even outlines can be considered as finally determined.

It is doubtful whether any use will be made of the Plaisance for the Exhibition. Economy requires as snug and compact an arrangement as will answer the purpose.

To many foreigners if not to many Americans Chicago itself will be the most interesting exhibition of the Fair. The manner in which it has been built up and of the novel and great local difficulties overcome in securing for it a decent equipment. The manner in which the site of the Exhibition will be built up out of a swamp will add to this characteristic interest of the city. It is as in keeping with the {entire} history of the city that, in order to {provide} the esthetic value of a view over the Lake, the difficulties in these and horticultural disadvantages of building up a site out of a swamp divided by barren sand dunes should have been disregarded. The boldness of the proposition is quite in line with that so successfully carried out of {screwing} up thousands of houses in order to get their front doors above a satisfactory level for streets. (See article on Chicago in Johnsons Cyclopedia).

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I am obliged to close now but I think that I have written all I had intended.

Yours Truly