THE HISTORY OF THE CONGRESS 31 



Full of energy, activity, and wealth, you have before you perpetual progress, and 

 what, up to this, your youth has not allowed you to give to the world, you will 

 surely be able to give in the future. Use freely all the treasures of civilization, art, 

 and science that centuries have accumulated in the old world, and especially in 

 my beloved Italy; fructify them with your youthful initiation and with your 

 powerful energy. By so doing you will contribute to peace, and then we may say 

 with truth that we have prepared your route by the work of centuries; and like 

 unto those who from old age are prevented from following the bold young man 

 of Longfellow in his course, we will accompany you with our greetings and our 

 alterable affection. 



By my voice, the native country of Columbus, of Galileo, of Michelangelo and 

 Raphael, of Macchiavelli and Volta, salutes and with open arms hails as her hope- 

 ful daughter young America, thanking and blessing her for the road she has 

 opened to the sons of Italy, workmen and artists, to civilization, to science, and to 

 modern research and thought. 



The Chairman of the Administrative Board, President Nicholas 

 Murray Butler, of Columbia University, was prevented by illness in 

 his family from being present at the Congress, and in place of the 

 address to have been delivered by him on the idea and development 

 of the Congress and the work of the Administrative Board, President 

 William R. Harper, of the University of Chicago, spoke on the same 

 subject as follows: - 



I have been asked within a few hours by those in authority to present to you 

 on behalf of the Administrative Board of this International Congress a statement 

 concerning the origin and purpose of the congress. It is surely a source of great 

 disappointment to all concerned that the chairman of the board, President Butler, 

 is prevented from being present. 



Many of us recall the fact that at the Paris Exposition of 1889 the first attempt 

 was made to do something systematic in the way of congresses. This attempt was 

 the natural outcome of the opinion which had come to exist that so splendid an 

 opportunity as was afforded by the coming together of leaders in every depart- 

 ment of activity should not be suffered to pass by unimproved. What could be 

 more natural in the stimulating and thought-provoking atmosphere of an exposi- 

 tion than the proposal to make provision for a consideration and discussion of 

 some of the problems so closely related to the interests represented by the exposi- 

 tion? 



The results achieved at the Paris Exposition of 1889 were so striking as to lead 

 those in charge of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893, to organize 

 what was called the World's Congress Auxiliary, including a series of congresses, 

 in which, to use the language of the original decree, " the best workers in general 

 science, philosophy, literature, art, agriculture, trade, and labor were to meet to 

 present their experiences and results obtained in all those various lines of thought 

 up to the present time." Seven years later, in connection with the Paris Exposition 

 of 1900, there was held another similar series of international congresses. The 

 general idea had in this way slowly but surely gained recognition. 



The authorities of the Universal Exposition at St. Louis, from the first, recog- 

 nized the desirability of providing for a congress which should exceed in its scope 

 those that had before been attempted. In the earliest days of the preparation for 

 this Exposition Mr. Frederick J. V. Skiff, the Director of the Field Columbian 

 Museum, my nearest neighbor in the city of Chicago, took occasion to present this 

 idea, and particularly to emphasize the specific point that something should be 



