to be fit, should be upon a scale in keeping with the best and the highest, and should be planned upon lines broad enough to take in every people and every clime.

A scheme so ambitious in its inception naturally had comparatively few advocates and encountered many antagonists and more doubters.  It could not be accomplished without the recognition and the aid of the General Government, which, for a time, it seemed impossible to enlist.  It was decided that the amount required to launch an undertaking so comprehensive should be the same as that paid for the empire which Jefferson purchased—­$15,000,000.  The Congress said to St. Louis, “When you have secured two-thirds of that sum, we will provide the remaining third.”  The conditions were accepted and fulfilled.

After three years of struggle the sinews had been secured—­the first step accomplished.  Two years have since elapsed.  During that period the work has been pushed in every State and Territory and possession of the United States, and in every civilized country on the earth.  The disappointments experienced and the obstacles encountered have but served to spur to renewed effort those who, from the inception of the movement, had determined to carry it to a successful consummation.

The further encouragement of the General Government on the provision for its own exhibit, the cooperation of 41 States and Territories and possessions of the United States, the pledged participation of 32 foreign countries are the results of vigorous domestic and foreign exploitation.  That, and what you behold here to-day in physical shape, we submit as the product of five years of labor, nearly four of which were devoted to propaganda and appeal and organization.

    The plan and scope, comprehensive as they were in the beginning,
    have never diminished at any stage of the progress; rather have
    they been amplified and enlarged.

St. Louis, with an ever-widening sense of the responsibility, and an ever-growing appreciation of the opportunity, has, up to this moment, risen to the full measure of the duty assumed.  The management of the exposition has never despaired, but with a realizing sense of the mighty task it has undertaken, and mindful of the limitations of human capabilities, with singleness of purpose and with personal sacrifice for which it neither asks nor deserves credit, has striven to meet the expectations of those whose trust it holds.

The Exposition Company makes its acknowledgments to those faithful and efficient officials whose intelligent service have contributed so much toward bringing the enterprise to its present stage.  The company expresses its obligation to the artists and artisans who have reared these graceful and majestic structures and whose labors have been inspired more by pride in the end to be achieved than by hope of material reward.