the proposed exposition. But, in a more profound sense, the people of the Columbia and Puget Sound basins are one, and with a natural development will not only remain united, but will have relations increasingly intimate. Nature has so ordained it.
This whole-souled co-operation in the proposed exposition is a glorious sign of the recognition of the community of interests that inheres in their physical unity. At any rate, let it be so interpreted and the exposition will have a mission and create an epoch. It will have a natural basis, address itself to natural problems, unite those in co-operation whom nature has joined, and result in increased strength and prosperity. The isolation of the Pacific Northwest from the rest of the world and the natural unity of the region create for it peculiar problems of transportation, markets, and manufacture.
Exhibits of their best products will be essential, but mere congeries of exhibits will not suffice. Investigation, carefully planned and assigned at once, to be carried through the intervening years and reported to congresses of industry, commerce, and transportation held in connection with the fair will accomplish these purposes. Every citizen whose experience and scientific method make him an authority in his line should be called on to contribute his part towards making this region serve man more richly. The scholarship of the country is available for help in solving these problems of ours. Such organizations as the Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Educational Association, the American Historical Association, and the American Economic Association can be brought here and their programmes adjusted to handle many of our peculiar problems.
Events are epochal as they are timely in opening the way for a natural and wider development of national life. Such was the work of Lewis and Clark. A region some
