REPORT OF MR. HILL.
63
of the collective exhibition gives opportunity for display, and draws the attention of the public to it in a way that the individual exhibitors could not separately. Should our citizens take, as it is to be hoped they will, a prominent part in the United States Centennial Exposition, this plan is worth consideration by our various classes of manufacturers.
Upon the organization of the Commission, one of the first points which demanded the attention of its members was the manner in which they could best fulfil their duty in respect to the examination of the Exhibition, and their report upon the same. A very slight acquaintance with the Exposition made it sufficiently evident that it would be w T holly useless to attempt, personally, a detailed examination of the different groups of the Austrian classification. How utterly impossible the enormous size of the Exposition rendered this undertaking, is shown by the work of the juries. Most of the important groups were subdivided among various sub-juries, so that in fact there were eighty-one actual parties who entered upon the jury-work. These juries threw themselves into their labors with the utmost energy, yet many of them were more than two months in the examination of their special groups. Another consideration with the Commission was this : that a valuable examination could only be made in the different groups of persons who were specialists, as it were, and who entered upon the work with a previous knowledge of the art. For these reasons they determined, as has been stated in the report of the Chief of this Commission, to employ so far as they could find them at hand, and as far as the appropriations *ff the State would permit, persons in the work who would answer to the description of specialists in the various departments. In addition to the reports thus engaged, the uuder- S1 gned will only call attention to some general considerations 'which the study of the Exposition suggested, and which s eem to him worthy of notice. And first, of the comparative condition of the arts in the United States and in other countries. On this point, it may be said that in all practical matters,—in machinery, in agricultural tools, perhaps in the preparation of articles of food,—in the groups from Y. to so far as matter is concerned, and not the style or