relations that follow are conducive to mutual benefit.  They efface prejudice, they broaden sympathies, they deepen and widen the foundations of human progress.

The civilization of past ages would have experienced no overthrows if they had been based on intelligence of the masses and had been imbued with broader humanity which distinguishes and ennobles the fraternal spirit of the twentieth century.

The cycle of one hundred years, whose close we have just passed, incomparable as it was in the discovery and the invention and the application of forces and methods in the physical world, and remarkable as it was for an advancement in every line of thought and research, will be surpassed and distanced by the new century upon which we have entered if the material potentialities and the intellectual faculties of mankind can be utilized and trained toward a common end, and that end the uplifting of the human race and the promotion of its happiness.

Concomitant with industrial progress is social development.  The policy of engaging in foreign wars in order to prevent or to pacify domestic unrest may have been wise if not humane, but the time for such a policy has passed.  That government is strongest whose subjects are intelligent and contented.  Contentment follows the employment of intellectual faculties, in the development of natural resources, and in the production of those activities that result in greater comforts of living and higher planes of thought.  The bringing together in a Universal Exposition of the best that all civilized countries have produced, opens to all who participate new lines of thought, better methods and better appliances, and, therefore, conduces to the material benefit of every country participating.  It promotes universal economy of human endeavor by enabling the countries taking part to determine through a comparison of their exhibits the lines in which they can produce the best results.

The economy of the world for saving time and energy by the adaptation of physical and intellectual forces to pursuits in which they are most effective, is a profitable study for nations, as it is for individuals.  Hand in hand, however, with such occupation should go the cultivation of the taste for the beautiful, and an abounding conviction that man is his brother’s keeper and has an inalienable obligation to better the condition of his fellows.

The International Exposition whose dedication you honor by your presence, was conceived in an effort to commemorate a great achievement which has proven a potent factor in increasing our wealth and sustaining our institutions and perpetuating our independence.

The interest manifested by the governments and people whom you represent in pledges of participating has been encouraging and helpful in the highest degree, and we are glad of the opportunity to