50 years ago in Expo history: Just ‘a trade fair put on by a bunch of merchants’? An environmental speaker’s hot take stirred rebuke

A Sierra Club speaker derided Expo ’74 as a “trade fair put on by a bunch of merchants.”

He made this remark at an American Plywood Association meeting in Tacoma. He was immediately rebuffed by the vice president of the association, who called it “spitefully nonsense.”

“The Sierra Club ought to have the good sense to recognize that the exposition is responsibly dedicated by government and working citizens to environmental improvement,” the association official said. “It’s too bad they don’t.”

He noted that Expo ’74’s theme was “celebrating tomorrow’s fresh new environment.” Environmental groups, however, had criticized the fair because participation was priced out of their range. Many of the pavilions were sponsored by large corporations.

From 100 years ago: Painter Harry Rosenberger fell 40 feet while painting the smokestack of the Spring Shingle Mill on North Madelia Street.

His rope supports evidently burned through and catapulted him off the smokestack. A can of paint was tossed up in the air, and it “fit down snugly over his head,” covering him with paint but perhaps saving his life. The heavy bucket “prevented injuries to Rosenberger’s head.”

He suffered a broken leg and possible internal injuries.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1895: British author and poet Oscar Wilde loses a libel case against the marquess of Queensberry, who accused him of homosexual practices.