Says the report: "They have made no advancement
whatever, but have done absolutely nothing but eat, drink, smoke and
sleep."
Social and political questions like this point to a vast field of
inquiry. For its proper cultivation the exposition provides data
additional to those heretofore available. They should be used as far as
possible upon the spot. At least, they can be examined, collated and
prepared for full employment. To this end, meetings and discussions held
by men qualified by intellect and study to deal with them are the
obvious resort. There is room among the two hundred judges for some such
men, but the juries are little more numerous than is required for the
examination of and report on objects. For more abstract inquiries they
will need recruits. These should be supplied by the leading
philosophical associations of this country and Europe. The governments
have all an interest in enlisting their aid, and the Centennial
Commission has done what in it lay to promote their action. Ethnic
characteristics, history, literature, education, crime, statistics as a
science, hygiene and medicine generally are among the broad themes which
are not apt to be adequately treated by the average committee of
inspection. So with the whole range of the natural sciences.
Dissertations based on the jury reports will doubtless be abundant after
a while, but those reports themselves, being limited in scope, will not
be as satisfactory material as that which philosophic specialists would
themselves extract from direct observation and debate upon the ground.
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