[LB048404], Letter from Alfred Ord Tate to Berrien County Horticultural Society, April 4th, 1891
https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/LB048404
Transcription
April 4, 1891. A.J. Knisely, Esq., Secretary, Berrien County Horticultural Society, Benton Harbor, Michigan. Dear Sir:- Mr. Edison has received your letter of 26th ultimo, with which was enclosed copy of a resolution passed at a recent meeting of the Michigan State Horticultural Society, protesting against the opening of the Word’s Columbian Exposition on the Sabbath. In regard to your statement to the effect that the Chairman who drew up aforesaid resolution informed you that the American Inventor mentioned therein as having closed his Laboratory at the late Paris Exhibition on Sunday, is Mr. Edison, and in reply to your question as to whether the same is true, Mr. Edison has instructed me to say to you that he does not know whether the statement referred to is true or not; if the Edison Paris exhibit was not open on Sundays, Mr. Edison does not know why his representative closed it’ it was certainly not on religious grounds, nor on an order from Mr. Edison. The latter believes in opening Expositions on Sundays, to allow working men and their families to visit them, and in his opinion the Managers of the World’s Fair would make a great mistake should they decide to close the Exposition on Sundays. Yours very truly, (Signed A.O. Tate) Private Secretary.