The Jewel City | Page 3

in the Italian Pavilion The Pavilion of Sweden
Pavilions of Argentina and Japan (2) The New York State
Building--Pacific Photo and Art Co. California Building Illinois and
Missouri (2) Massachusetts and Pennsylvania (2) Inside the California
Building Oregon and Washington (2) Aeroplane Flight at Night

The Jewel City

I.
Motive and Planning of the Exposition

The Panama Canal a landmark in human progress--Its influence
through changes in trade routes San Francisco determines, in spite of
the great fire, to celebrate its completion--Millions pledged in two
hours-- Congressional approval won--The Exposition built by
California and San Francisco, without National aid--Only two years
given to construction-- Fifty millions expended.

Human endeavor has supplied no nobler motive for public rejoicing
than the union of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Panama Canal
has stirred and enlarged the imaginations of men as no other task has
done, however enormous the conception, however huge the work. The
Canal is one of the few achievements which may properly be called
epoch-making. Its building is of such signal and far reaching
importance that it marks a point in history from which succeeding years
and later progress will be counted. It is so variously significant that the
future alone can determine the ways in which it will touch and modify
the life of mankind.
First of all, of course, its intent is commercial. Experts have already

estimated its influence on the traffic routes. But these experts, who can,
from known present conditions, work out the changes that will take
place, that are already taking place, in the flow of commerce on the
seven seas, cannot estimate the effect those changes will have on the
life of the people who inhabit their shores. Changes in trade routes have
overwhelmed empires and raised up new nations, have nourished
civilizations and brought others to decay. From the days when
merchants first followed the caravan routes, nothing has so modified
the history of nations as the course of the roads by which commerce
moved. Huge as was the Canal as a physical undertaking alone, it is not
less stupendous in the vision of the effects which will flow from it.
In this vision, the Western shore of the United States feels that it looms
largely. No small part of the benefits of the Canal are expected to fall to
the Pacific States. Long before it was completed, the minds of men in
the West were filled with it. Its approaching completion appealed to
everyone as an event of such tremendous significance as to deserve
commemoration. Thus when R. B. Hale, in 1904, first proposed that the
opening of the waterway should be marked by an international
exposition in San Francisco, he merely gave expression to the thought
of the whole West.
The Canal is a national undertaking, built by the labor and money of an
entire people. It is of international significance, too, for its benefits are
world-wide. The Exposition thus represents not only the United States
but also the world in its effort to honor this achievement. San Francisco
and California have merely staged the spectacle, in which the world
participates.
An international exposition is a symbol of world progress. This one is
so complete in its significance, so inclusive of all the best that man has
done, that it is something more than a memorial of another event. It is
itself epochal, as is the enterprise it commemorates. It bears a direct
relation to the Canal. The motive of the Exposition was the grandeur of
a great labor. Completed, it embodies that motive in the highest
expression of art.
It took eleven years to prepare for and build the Exposition. The first
proposal in 1904 was followed by five years of discussion of ways and
means. Two years were occupied in raising the money and winning the
consent of the Nation, and then four years more in planning, building,

and collecting the exhibits. The first plans were interrupted, but not
ended, by the most terrible disaster that ever befell a great city--the fire
of 1906, which wiped out the entire business portion, with much of the
residence section, of San Francisco, and destroyed hundreds of millions
of wealth. Before that year ended, and while the city was only
beginning its huge task of rebuilding, it again took up its festival idea.
A company was formed, but, until reconstruction was largely out of the
way, it was impossible to do more than keep the idea alive.
In October, 1909, the idea began to crystallize into a definite purpose.
In that month President Taft, at a banquet at the Fairmont Hotel,
declared that the Canal would be opened to commerce on January 1,
1915. That announcement gave the final impulse to the growing
determination. The success of the Portola celebration