ST. LOUIS, May 26, 1903.

MADAM PRESIDENT:  I am directed by President Francis to inform you that the resolutions adopted by the board at a called meeting on May 2, 1903, with reference to participation in the award system, has been reported upon by the director of exhibits, Mr. Skiff, who states that his division has taken notice of the resolution, and will, in due time, prepare a list of those exhibits which are in whole or in part the labor of women.

    Respectfully, W.B.  STEVENS,
    Secretary.

At a meeting of the board, held in the Administration Building March 1, 1904, in response to a call by the president for a report from the committee on awards, Mrs. Hanger, chairman of the committee, said: 

This committee was named by Mrs. Manning after our last meeting, as follows:  Mrs. Hanger, Mrs. Knott, Miss Egan, Mrs. Porter, and Mrs. Hunsicker.  I happened to be here in January, and asked Miss Egan to go with me to see Mr. Skiff.  We waited two or three hours and saw Mr. Skiff about fifteen minutes.  It had been said there were 200 jurors to be appointed, and we would only have the appointing of 35 or 40 of them.  He assured us that the lists could not be made out as the exhibits were not installed.  He gave us some instructions in regard to the selection of jurors, saying that they must stand for intellectual ability; it did not matter how many people applied for appointment, we must be governed by that.

I had a letter from Mrs. Manning suggesting that I try again.  I wrote to Mr. Stevens and he communicated with Mr. Skiff, and later repeated to me the same thing.  We have had quite a number of names suggested, and I have written to the other members of the committee asking them to come here as soon as the exhibits are in place.  I hope we can hold that meeting very early, but until after that meeting I do not feel that we have anything to report.

In response to questions from members of the board as to whether Mr. Skiff was to be understood to mean that there were but 35 or 40 things to be exhibited at the exposition which were made in whole or in part by women, Mrs. Hanger said that Mr. Skiff said the board “would only have the appointing of 35 or 40 women—­that it was a matter of expense and that they must assist in keeping it down.”

This decision was a source of great disappointment to the board, as it has been shown most conclusively that scarcely anything is manufactured that women do not at least share in the production or process of its manufacture.  The act of Congress stated that there should be appointed by this board a member of every jury judging “any work that may have been produced in whole or in part by female labor,” and the members were averse to an abridgment of the authority vested in them by the wording of the act.