Secretary of State, was designated to fulfill that task. His report was
laid before you by my message of June 14, 1898, with the gratifying
result of awakening renewed interest in the projected display. By a
provision in the sundry civil appropriation act of July 1, 1898, a sum
not to exceed $650,000 was allotted for the organization of a commission
to care for the proper preparation and installation of American exhibits
and for the display of suitable exhibits by the several Executive
Departments, particularly by the Department of Agriculture, the Fish
Commission, and the Smithsonian Institution, in representation of the
Government of the United States.

Pursuant to that enactment I appointed Mr. Ferdinand W. Peck, of
Chicago, commissioner-general, with an assistant commissioner-general
and a secretary. Mr. Peck at once proceeded to Paris, where his success
in enlarging the scope and variety of the United States exhibit has
been most gratifying. Notwithstanding the comparatively limited area
of the exposition site--less than one-half that of the World's Fair at
Chicago--the space assigned to the United States has been increased from
the absolute allotment of 157,403 square feet reported by Mr. Handy to
some 202,000 square feet, with corresponding augmentation of the field
for a truly characteristic representation of the various important
branches of our country's development. Mr. Peck's report will be laid
before you. In my judgment its recommendations will call for your early
consideration, especially as regards an increase of the appropriation to
at least one million dollars in all, so that not only may the assigned
space be fully taken up by the best possible exhibits in every class,
but the preparation and installation be on so perfect a scale as to
rank among the first in that unparalleled competition of artistic and
inventive production, and thus counterbalance the disadvantage with
which we start as compared with other countries whose appropriations are