The administrative board and the organizing committee have discharged their onerous and responsible tasks with signal fidelity and ability, and the success that has rewarded their efforts is a lasting monument to their wisdom. The management of the Exposition tenders to them, collectively and individually, its grateful acknowledgments. The membership in this congress represents the world's elect in research and in thought. The participants were selected after a careful survey of the entire field; no limitations of national boundaries or racial affiliations have been observed. The Universal Exposition of 1904, the city of St. Louis, the Louisiana territory whose acquisition we are celebrating, the entire country, and all participating in or visiting this Exposition are grateful for your coming, and feel honored by your presence. We are proud to welcome you to a scene where are presented the best and highest material products of all countries and of every civilization, participated in by all peoples, from the most primitive to the most highly cultured--a marker in the progress of the world, and of which the International Congress of Arts and Science is the crowning feature. May the atmosphere of this universal exposition, charged as it is with the restless energies of every phase of human activity and permeated by that ineffable sentiment of universal brotherhood engendered by the intelligent sons of God, congregating for the friendly rivalries of peace, inspire you with even higher thoughts--imbue you with still broader sympathies, to the end that by your future labors you may be still more helpful to the human race and place your fellow men under yet deeper obligations. Director Frederick J. V. Skiff was then introduced by the President as representing the Division of Exhibits, whose untiring labors had filled the magnificent Exposition palaces surrounding the Festival Hall with the visible products of those sciences and arts, the theory, progress, and problems of which the Congress was assembled to consider. Mr. Skiff spoke as follows:-- The division of exhibits of the Universal Exposition of 1904 has looked forward to this time, when the work it has performed is to be reviewed and discussed by this distinguished body. I do not, of course, intend to convey the idea that the international congress is to inspect or criticise the exhibitions, but I do mean to say that the deliberations of this organization are contemporaneous with and share the responsibility for the accomplishments of which the exhibitions made are the visible evidences.