Concomitant with industrial progress is social development. The policy of engaging in foreign wars in order to prevent or to pacify domestic unrest may have been wise if not humane, but the time for such a policy has passed. That government is strongest whose subjects are intelligent and contented. Contentment follows the employment of intellectual faculties, in the development of natural resources, and in the production of those activities that result in greater comforts of living and higher planes of thought. The bringing together in a Universal Exposition of the best that all civilized countries have produced, opens to all who participate new lines of thought, better methods and better appliances, and, therefore, conduces to the material benefit of every country participating. It promotes universal economy of human endeavor by enabling the countries taking part to determine through a comparison of their exhibits the lines in which they can produce the best results. The economy of the world for saving time and energy by the adaptation of physical and intellectual forces to pursuits in which they are most effective, is a profitable study for nations, as it is for individuals. Hand in hand, however, with such occupation should go the cultivation of the taste for the beautiful, and an abounding conviction that man is his brother's keeper and has an inalienable obligation to better the condition of his fellows. The International Exposition whose dedication you honor by your presence, was conceived in an effort to commemorate a great achievement which has proven a potent factor in increasing our wealth and sustaining our institutions and perpetuating our independence. The interest manifested by the governments and people whom you represent in pledges of participating has been encouraging and helpful in the highest degree, and we are glad of the opportunity to express our deep gratitude. Your coming enables us to show you the scope of the undertaking we have launched. Our plans are ambitious and our hopes high, but we are energetic and untiring, and with your recognition and assistance we expect to carry to a successful consummation an enterprise which will not only assemble the natural resources of the earth and bring together the best products of human skill, but will be the occasion for eliciting the expression of the best thought and for classifying and systematizing all human knowledge.