The Commission received communications and personal visits almost daily from persons interested in the success of the exposition, urging that some official action be taken to improve the existing advertising arrangements.  So insistent became the demand for greater publicity that the president of the Commission addressed the following letter to the Exposition Company, suggesting the importance of properly advertising the exposition throughout the country.

    JULY 20, 1904.

DEAR SIR:  By direction of the National Commission, I respectfully call your attention to the apparent need for an extension and enlargement of the publicity feature of the exposition.

The zeal and efficiency of the press of the city of St. Louis has demonstrated what may be done in the creation of active interest by enlightened exploitation through the public press.  Within the range of the general circulation of the papers published in this city all features of the fair have been made known; but, unhappily, the journals of this city, like those of all other cities, enjoy general circulation only in a limited area.  Beyond the line of the special influence of the local press the extensive proportions and interesting details of the fair do not appear to the Commission to have been made known to the general public, to the extent or in the manner calculated to inspire the interest and secure the attendance warranted by the extraordinary merits of the great educational force here installed.  In the opinion of the Commission this delinquency does not arise from any lack of devotion to the public welfare by the press of the country at large.

The munificent recognition of the fair by the General Government attracted national attention.  The invitation extended by the President of the United States, under authority of law, to the nations of the earth to participate in the exposition, supplemented by the cordial cooperation of our diplomatic and consular representatives abroad, secured the most extensive foreign participation ever accorded to any like undertaking.  Moved thereto by the example of the National Government, the States, Territories, and dependencies of the United States joined in the exposition with unparalleled generosity and enthusiasm.  The groups of palatial buildings erected by the foreign governments and by the States and minor subdivisions of our country, together with the exhibits installed in the exhibition palaces provided by the company, bear the amplest testimony of their earnest desire to make the exposition a pronounced success.  The splendid exhibit installed here by the government of the Philippine Islands rises to the proportions of an exposition on its own account.

The buildings are completed, the exhibits are installed, and the exposition has been in progress for substantially three-sevenths of its allotted period.  The faith of the management in