during the past three years and the activity with which our inventions
and wares had invaded new markets caused much interest to center upon
the American exhibit, and every encouragement was offered in the way of
space and facilities to permit of its being comprehensive as a whole and
complete in every part.

It was, however, not an easy task to assemble exhibits that could fitly
illustrate our diversified resources and manufactures. Singularly
enough, our national prosperity lessened the incentive to exhibit. The
dealer in raw materials knew that the user must come to him; the great
factories were contented with the phenomenal demand for their output,
not alone at home, but also abroad, where merit had already won a
profitable trade.

Appeals had to be made to the patriotism of exhibitors to induce them
to incur outlays promising no immediate return. This was especially
the case where it became needful to complete an industrial sequence or
illustrate a class of processes. One manufacturer after another had to
be visited and importuned, and at times, after a promise to exhibit in a
particular section had been obtained, it would be withdrawn, owing to
pressure of trade orders, and a new quest would have to be made.

The installation of exhibits, too, encountered many obstacles and
involved unexpected cost. The exposition was far from ready at the date
fixed for its opening. The French transportation lines were congested
with offered freight. Belated goods had to be hastily installed in
unfinished quarters with whatever labor could be obtained in the
prevailing confusion. Nor was the task of the Commission lightened by
the fact that, owing to the scheme of classification adopted, it was
impossible to have the entire exhibit of any one country in the same
building or more than one group of exhibits in the same part of any
building. Our installations were scattered on both sides of the Seine
and in widely remote suburbs of Paris, so that additional assistants
were needed for the work of supervision and arrangement.

Despite all these drawbacks the contribution of the United States was
not only the largest foreign display, but was among the earliest in
place and the most orderly in arrangement. Our exhibits were shown in
one hundred and one out of one hundred and twenty-one classes, and more
completely covered the entire classification than those of any other
nation. In total number they ranked next after those of France