. Gillespie, Corps of Engineers, United States
Army, is authorized and directed to perform the duties of Secretary of
War during the temporary absence from the seat of Government of the
Secretary of War and the Assistant Secretary of War.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

PRESIDENT McKINLEY'S LAST PUBLIC UTTERANCE TO THE PEOPLE, BUFFALO, N.Y.,
SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1901.

_President Milburn, Director General Buchanan, Commissioners, Ladies
and Gentlemen_:

I am glad to be again in the city of Buffalo and exchange greetings with
her people, to whose generous hospitality I am not a stranger and with
whose good will I have been repeatedly and signally honored. To-day
I have additional satisfaction in meeting and giving welcome to the
foreign representatives assembled here, whose presence and participation
in this exposition have contributed in so marked a degree to its
interest and success. To the Commissioners of the Dominion of Canada and
the British colonies, the French colonies, the republics of Mexico and
Central and South America and the commissioners of Cuba and Puerto Rico,
who share with us in this undertaking, we give the hand of fellowship
and felicitate with them upon the triumphs of art, science, education
and manufacture which the old has bequeathed to the new century.
Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world's
advancement. They stimulate the energy, enterprise and intellect of the
people and quicken human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and
brighten the daily life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of
information to the student. Every exposition, great or small, has helped
to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is always educational, and
as such instruct the brain and hand of man. Friendly rivalry follows,
which is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspiration to useful
invention and to high endeavor in all departments of human activity.
It exacts a study of the wants, comforts and even the whims of the
people and recognizes the efficiency of high quality and new pieces to
win their favor. The quest for trade is an incentive to men of business
to devise, invent, improve and economize in the cost of production.

Business life, whether among ourselves or with other people, is ever a
sharp struggle for success. It will be none the less so in the future.
Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy antiquated
processes of farming and manufacture and the meth