8 THE HISTORY OF THE CONGRESS 



NEW YORK, January 19, 1903. 

 President Nicholas Murray Butler, 



Chairman Administrative Board of World's Congress at 

 The Louisiana Purchase Exposition: 



Dear Sir, The undersigned, appointed by your Board a committee on the 

 scope and plan of the proposed World's Congress, at the Louisiana Purchase 

 Exposition, have the honor to submit the following report: - 



The authority under which the Committee acted is found in a communication 

 addressed to its members by the Chairman of the Administrative Board. A 

 subsequent communication to the Chairman of the Committee indicated that the 

 widest scope was allowed to it in preparing its plan. Under this authority the 

 Committee met on January 10, 1903, and again on January 17. The Committee 

 was, from the beginning, unanimous in accepting the general plan of the Admin- 

 istrative Board, that there should be but a single congress, which, however, might 

 be divided and subdivided, in accord with the general plan, into divisions, depart- 

 ments, and sections, as its deliberations proceed. 



PLANS OF THE CONGRESS 



As a basis of discussion two plans were drawn up by members of the Committee 

 and submitted to it. The one, by Professor Munsterberg, started from a compre- 

 hensive classification and review of human achievement in advancing knowledge, 

 the other, by Professor Small, from an equally comprehensive review of the great 

 public questions involved in human progress. 



Professor Munsterberg proposed a congress having the definite task of bringing 

 out the unity of knowledge with a view of correlating the scattered theoretical and 

 practical scientific work of our day. This plan proposed that the congress should 

 continue through one week. The first day was to be devoted to the discussion of 

 the most general problem of knowledge in one comprehensive discussion and four 

 general divisions. On the second day the congress was to divide into several 

 groups and on the remaining days into yet more specialized groups, as set forth 

 in detail in the plan. 



The plan by Professor Small proposed a congress which would exhibit not 

 merely the scholar's interpretation of progress in scholarship, but rather the 

 scholar's interpretation of progress in civilization in general. The proposal was 

 based on a division of human interests into six great groups: 



I. The Promotion of Health. 

 II. The Production of Wealth. 



III. The Harmonizing of Human Relations. 



IV. Discovery and Spread of Knowledge. 

 V. Progress in the Fine Arts. 



VI. Progress in Religion. 



The plan agreed with the other in beginning with a general discussion and then 

 subdividing the congress into divisions and groups. 



As a third plan the Chairman of the Committee suggested the idea of a congress 

 of publicists and representative men of all nations and of all civilized peoples, 

 which should discuss relations of each to all the others and throw light on the 

 question of promoting the unity and progress of the race. 



After due consideration of these plans the Committee reached the conclusion 

 that the ends aimed at in the second and third plans could be attained by taking 

 the first plan as a basis, and including in its subdivisions, so far as was deemed 

 advisable, the subjects proposed in the second and third plans. They accordingly 

 adopted a resolution that "Mr. Miinsterberg's plan be adopted as setting forth 



