Figures are dry reading. But these few statistics are necessary to show what manner of city is this Western metropolis in which the greatest exhibition of the world’s industry is to be held. How the city was selected has already been told. The conditions on which the work was carried forward may be well explained in the words of W. T. Baker, the President of the Local Board of Commissioners: “The Act of Congress, approved April 25th, 1890, providing for the Exposition, states in the preamble that ‘such an exhibition should be of a national and international character, so that not only the people of our Union and this continent, but those of all nations as well can participate.’ And to carry out this intention the Congress provided two agents to do its will. The first is a commission consisting of two Commissioners from each State and Territory in the United States, appointed by the President on the nomination of the Governors of the State and Territories respectively, and eight Commissioners-at-Large appointed by the President. The board so constituted was designated the World’s Columbian Commission. The duties of the Commission relate to exhibits and exhibitors, or, as stated in the act, ‘to prepare a classification of exhibits, determine the plan and scope of the Exposition, appoint all judges and examiners for the Exposition, award all premiums, if any, and generally have charge of all intercourse with exhibitors and representatives of foreign nations.’ “The other agent recognized by the Act of Congress is the World’s Columbian Exposition, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Illinois. This corporation had to do mainly with ways and means, the erection of buildings, the maintenance, protection, and policing of the same, the granting of concessions, the collection and disbursements of all its revenues, and fixing the rules governing the Exposition. It is composed of upward of 28,000 stockholders, and is controlled by a board of forty-five directors. Those directors have been chosen from among the active business men of Chicago, and are every one of them men who have made an honorable success of the pursuits which they have followed in finance, commerce, and manufactures, and are giving their time and their best energies to the success of the Exposition. Their names are many of them known wherever American commerce has been permitted to extend. The Board of Directors is divided into thirteen standing Committees having jurisdiction over the several departments of the commission, and the directory and all expenditures are directed and scrutinized by them as closely as is done in the private affairs of the best managed mercantile establishments.