REPORT OP MR. ADAMS.
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preparing the contributions of any community for their proper display in an international exposition is now a profession in itself, which, among European nations, has been carried to a high degree of development. Almost every foreign government which participates has, among its agents, men whose experience dates back to the Prince Albert original of 1851, and who know just what ought to be done and exactly how to do.it. The organization effected by these men is as perfect as experience and familiarity with the work can make it. No progress in this direction has as yet been made in America. At Vienna, our authorities showed an utter inability to appreciate either the magnitude and complexity of the undertaking, or the labor and devotion necessary to bring it to a successful issue, while the course which ought to have been pursued was clearly indicated through the success of others. Our own failure both happily and forcibly illustrated almost every conceivable blunder which a people could commit.
The work of preparation for 1876 cannot commence too soon in the several states. It should have commenced already. The legislature now in session ought at once to decide upon the course which Massachusetts as a state proposes to take. If it decide to do nothing, then that decision should be final, and should on no account hereafter be reversed at a moment so late that action will be synonymous with failure. If, on the contrary, it is decided to enter into the affair with a local organization, the necessary provision for it should then immediately be made. Under no circumstances should our action be marked by hesitation, or by that tardiness which rendered barren the mission to Vienna. No action at all is better than action after the opportunity is lost. The simplest organization is the best, and to be efficient should be inexpensive. No cumbrous system of salaried commissioners, or* of honorary commissioners with perquisites, is either necessary or desirable. Those who are to represent the State have already been designated. So far as any state organization, as such, is concerned, their duties should be merely advisory; or, if it is thought proper or desirable to create another commission, then those appointed upon it should act simply as a board of unpaid trustees or directors, performing no executive duties themselves, but
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