thereto, the President's proclamation reading as follows:

Whereas notice has been given me by the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition Commission, in accordance with the provisions of
section 9 of the act of Congress, approved March 3, 1901,
entitled "An act to provide for celebrating the one hundredth
anniversary of the purchase of the Louisiana Territory by the
United States by holding an international exhibition of arts,
industries, manufactures, and the products of the soil, mine,
forest, and sea in the city of St. Louis, in the State of
Missouri," that provision has been made for grounds and
buildings for the uses provided for in the said act of Congress:

Now, therefore, I, William McKinley, President of the United
States, by virtue of the authority vested in me by said act, do
hereby declare and proclaim that such international exhibition
will be opened in the city of St. Louis, in the State of
Missouri, not later than the first day of May, nineteen hundred
and three, and will be closed not later than the first day of
December thereafter. And in the name of the Government and of
the people of the United States, I do hereby invite all the
nations of the earth to take part in the commemoration of the
purchase of the Louisiana Territory, an event of great interest
to the United States and of abiding effect on their development,
by appointing representatives and sending such exhibits to the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition as will most fitly and fully
illustrate their resources, their industries, and their progress
in civilization.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the