In this age of keen rivalry among nations for mastery in commerce, the doctrine of evolution and the rule of the survival of the fittest must be as inexorable in their operation as they are positive in the results they bring about.  The place won in the struggle by an industrial people can only be held by unrelaxed endeavor and constant advance in achievement.  The present extraordinary impetus in every line of American exportation and the astounding increase in the volume and value of our share in the world’s markets may not be attributed to accidental conditions.

The reasons are not far to seek.  They lie deep in our national character and find expression year by year in every branch of handicraft, in every new device whereby the materials we so abundantly produce are subdued to the artisan’s will and made to yield the largest, most practical, and most beneficial return.  The American exhibit at Paris should, and I am confident will, be an open volume, whose lessons of skillfully directed endeavor, unfaltering energy, and consummate performance may be read by all on every page, thus spreading abroad a clearer knowledge of the worth of our productions and the justice of our claim to an important place in the marts of the world.  To accomplish this by judicious selection, by recognition of paramount merit in whatever walk of trade or manufacture it may appear, and by orderly classification and attractive installation is the task of our Commission.

The United States Government building is approaching completion, and no effort will be spared to make it worthy, in beauty of architectural plan and in completeness of display, to represent our nation.  It has been suggested that a permanent building of similar or appropriate design be erected on a convenient site, already given by the municipality, near the exposition grounds, to serve in commemoration of the part taken by this country in this great enterprise, as an American National Institute, for our countrymen resorting to Paris for study.

I am informed by our Commissioner-General that we shall have in the American sections at Paris over 7,000 exhibitors, from every State in our country, a number ten times as great as those which were represented at Vienna in 1873, six times as many as those in Paris in 1878, and four times as many as those who exhibited in Paris in 1889.  This statement does not include the exhibits from either Cuba, Puerto Rico, or Hawaii, for which arrangements have been made.

A number of important international congresses on special topics affecting public interests are proposed to be held in Paris next summer in connection with the exposition.  Effort will be made to have the several technical branches of our administration efficiently represented at those conferences, each in its special line, and to procure the largest possible concourse of State representatives, particularly at the Congresses of Public Charity and Medicine.