THE HISTORY OF THE CONGRESS 19 



Washington equipped with clerks and stenographers under- the charge 

 of Dr. Newcomb, who devoted the greater portion of his time for the 

 next six months to the many details connected with the selection 

 of foreign and American speakers and chairmen. The meeting of the 

 Administrative Board in New York in December, and a similar 

 meeting with the Organizing Committee held at the St. Louis Club on 

 December 28, were given over entirely to perfecting the personnel of 

 the programme. Great care was exerted in selecting the chairmen 

 of the departments and sections, inasmuch as they must be men of 

 international reputation and conceded strength. For the secretary- 

 ships younger men of promise and ability were selected, chiefly from 

 university circles. Both the chairmen and secretaries served without 

 compensation. 



The work of the late winter was a continuance of the perfecting of 

 details, and at a meeting of the Administrative Board held in New 

 York in February, 1904, a final approval was given to the programme 

 and the speakers. The imminent approach of the Exposition and the 

 work of the college commencement season made it impossible for 

 further general meetings, and on June 1 the Organizing Committee 

 was constituted a committee with power to fill vacancies in the pro- 

 gramme or to amend the programme as circumstances might demand. 

 All suggestions with reference to details were to be made directly to 

 the Director of Congresses, upon whom devolved from this time for- 

 ward the entire executive control of the Congress. 



ASSEMBLY HALLS 



The highly diversified nature of the Congress and the holding of 

 one hundred twenty-eight section meetings in four days' time ren- 

 dered necessary a large number of meeting-places centrally located. 

 The Exposition was fortunate in having the use of the new plant of 

 the Washington University, nine large buildings of which had been 

 erected. Many of these buildings contained lecture halls and assembly 

 rooms, seating from one hundred fifty to fifteen hundred people. 

 Sixteen halls were necessary to accommodate the full number of 

 sections running at any one time, and of this number twelve were 

 available in the group of University Buildings; the other four were 

 found in the lecture halls of the Education Building, Mines and 

 Metallurgy Building, Agriculture Building, and the Transportation 

 Building. The opening exercises, at which the entire Congress was 

 assembled, was held in Festival Hall, capable of seating three 

 thousand people. In the assignment of halls care was taken so far as 

 possible to assign the larger halls to the more popular subjects, but it 

 often happened that a great speaker was of necessity assigned to 

 a smaller hall. Two of the halls also proved bad for speaking owing 

 to the traffic of the Intramural Railway, and there was lacking in 



