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 department of activity should not be suffered to pass by unimproved. What could be more natural in the stimulating and thought-provoking atmosphere of an exposition 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 exposition? 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.