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Page 1: Sunset magazine
Page 2: Sunset magazine

Staging the Big ShowAn 1M;,}. Story of

WAat I. Go;ng on

B.A;n,} tA. Scen•• at

tA. 'Panama-Ca/;forn;a

Expo.;t;on at

San D;tgo

T AST fall the general manager and the.lJ directors of the biggest concern manu-

facturing agricultural implementscame to San Francisco, towing an appro­priation of a -hundred thousand dollarsfor an exhibit. They saw the rising wallsof the City of Color by the Golden Gate,nodded beaming approval, cut the rope, leftthe appropriation and departed-due east.

San Diego lies six hundred miles duesouth of San Francisco. San Diego like­wise was building an exposition; San Diegoalso wanted an appropriation for an ex­hibit from the biggest concern manufactur­ing agricultural implements. When thedirectors headed due east, ignoring theexistence of the second exposition, SanDiego rolled up its sleeves, took a deepbreath and began manipulating the leversuntil its joints cracked.

San Diego succeeded, pulled the generalmanager of the biggest agricultural-imple­ment concern back across the continent.He came, without his directors, without an

ByWalter v: Wo.1r.l1ce

A"tAor ofSmo~.r-n""h 0 .. tr... P""ifjc;

Li". Wir.r.

flJu.trat,,} w;tAOff,c;aJ PAotograpJ..

appropriation, but with an exceedinglyactive prejudice. He did not want to come.To his mind the trip was a waste of time,and he did not hesitate to say so when hereached the office of the Director General.His firm was spending a hundred thousanddollars on an exhibit covering 25,000 squarefeet of floor space at the Big Fair; he couldsee no reason why the claims of the SanDiego exposition should not have beenturned down politely by correspondence.

The Director General smiled. That isone of his peculiarities, this friendly, dis­arming, quiet smile forever breaking outbeneath the cropped red mustache. Also,he talked, quietly, in an even, level,friendly voice. And he talked to the point,talked straight business.

When the general manager of the Inter­national Harvester Company departed fromSan Diego he left behind him a reservationfor 120,000 square feet of space. In Chi­cago he put the case before his directors.They authorized him to sign a contract

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Staging the Big Show: Walter V. Woehlke 337

for 240,00(1 square fee~ of space. Also, theyauthorized him to erect a special exhibitbuilding at San Diego; furthermore, theyauthorized him to plant an orchard inwhich to demonstrate the use of the imple­ments under actual field conditions. Thebuilding is now ready; the orchard blos­somed this spring, is being irrigated andcultivated regularly.

You know and I know that times werehard last fall; we both know that individualfirms as well as nations held back lastyear, trimmed sails, cut expenditures.How, then, did the Director General withthe freckles, the red mustache and thefrank, boyish smile succeed in opening thepurse and arousing the exhibit enthusiasmof a skeptic implement manufacturer at atime" when the com-belt farmers were re­newing their notes?

The answer is very simple.He took the manufacturer upon a sta­

tilitical mountain and showed him thebiggest undeveloped market for agricul­tural implements in the United States;then he showed the manufacturer, provedit by the books, how the fair would open itsgates without a cent of debt, but with anice lump of cash left in the treasury;thereafter he took him through the groundsand showed him just how the Panama­California Exposition at San Diego was tohelp develop this potential market. Inhis talk the exposition chief left the moon­shine on the silvery bay, kept his feet onthe solid ground of cross-indexed, double­checked facts, and presented a businessproposition that landed the implementman's signature on the dotted line.

Skeptics by the score have traveled overthe same route with the Director General.All of them ceased scoffing after they hadseen and listened; went home thoroughlyconvinced that the fair in the southwestcomer of the country would not only bean assured financial success, but that itwould also have a pronounced effect uponthe character and management of futureexpositions, would give a tremendous stim­ulus to the growth of the Southwest.

Of skeptics there had always been aplentiful supply ever since San Diego in1910 proclaimed that it would hold atwelve-month exposition to celebrate theopening of the Panama Canal. It did notseem reasonable that a town of less than40,000 inhabitants, located at the end of a

branch line, should succeed in putting on ashow really worth while seeing, withoutmortgaging its last shirt and breaking itsfinancial back. Portland, with almost200,000 population, had been helped outby a fat appropriation from the state ofOregon for an exposition of much smallersize than the projected San Diegan enter­prise. Seattle had 270,000 people when itundertook its fair, yet Seattle raised only$1,200,000 and was $600,000 in debt whenthe gates were opened. How could littleSan Diegb, barely one-sixth of Seattle'ssize, expect to finance and carry throughan exposition of greater magnitude? Itseemed preposterous.

But San Diego did it! San Diego bysubscriptions and municipal bond issuesraised three million dollars without goingbeyond the city limits, thanks to D. C.Collier, the enthusiast whose boundlessfaith and energy started the ball rollingand kept it going. Collier's efforts financedthe exposition; Frank P. Allen, Junior, theman who built Seattle's fair, looked afterthe physical features of the project, plannedthe grouping and design of the buildings,got ready to transform the barren slopes anddeep arroyos into a fairyland of tropic foliage.Eighteen months ago the blue-prints wereready for the builders-but the spirit, theexact, specific purpose of the projected ex­position had not yet materialized.

San Francisco's Exposition was universal,all-inclusive. It proposed to record, invisible, tangible form, the progress of civil­ization in all its phases; it was to be thefinal summary of man's past achievements.San Diego could not do the same thing ona smaller scale; San Diego could not evensegregate Latin America and chronicle itsachievements, because the South Americanrepublics would be represented at bothfairs. Never was the need of a distinct,outstanding individuality, of a differentiat­ing purpose more pressing than at SanDiego eighteen months ago.

A rancher supplied the individuality,furnished the purpose, solved the problem.They made him Director General, put theexposition into his hands as a reward. Itwas this rancher who landed the Inter­national Harvester Company for the big­gest exhibit ever made anywhere by anindividual firm.

H. O. Davis, the man with the quietvoice and the boyish smile, did not seek

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Sunset, the Pacific Monthly

the office. He would still be raising blue­blooded stock at Yuba City if the super­visors of Sutter county, California, had nQtappointed him exposition commissioner,charged with the duty of arranging thecounty's exhibit at the two Californianfairs. In this capacity the rancher-he wasa newcomer in California, having sold hismanufacturing business in Chicago onlya few years previously-came to SanDiego, bubbling over with ideas thatattracted the attention of Allen, the builder.Allen asked the rancher to stay; Collier,father of the exposition, made him assist­ant to the president and went abroad.Within a few months the board of directorsappointed the newcomer Director General,discharged all committees except the execu­tive committee, gave the new chief a freehand and told him to carry out his ideas;to build an exposition with a constructivepurpose.

That purpose was the settlement of thestill unproductive arable lands in theSouthwest quarter of the United States,the acceleration of agricultural develop­ment in San Diego's potential trade terri­tory, an area that comprises a millionsquare miles covering the southern part ofCalifornia, all of Arizona, western Texasand New Mexico, a part of Colorado, thesouthern half of Utah and Nevada. Inthis territory the Panama Canal willenable San Diego to lay down goods for lessmoney than it costs to ship them from themanufacturing points in the East or Europe,across the continent by rail.

"Holy Gila Monsters!" said the Illinoistourist. "Do you mean to say th~t thereis anything worth developing in that coun­try? Why, it's drier than a Kansas townafter a revival campaign. How much roomfor real farms, not cattle ranches, is therein that desert country? You got to shewme the green spots."

No one knew. The Director Generaldid not know. But he proposed to find out.Hiring a corps of statisticians he investi­gated every county, every valley and plaincontaining more than fifteen hundred culti­vated acres in the territory. He enumeratedevery acre, irrigated or dry-farmed, in theregion, determined the principal productsof every valley, the rate at which produc­tion had grown between lC)O<) and 1913,compiled data on the rainfall, the lengthof growing season, on transportation and

educational facilities. Above all he ascer­tained how mu~h raw land was left in everycounty or valley that could be made pro­ductive either by irrigation or by dry­farming methods, checking and verifyingthe figures thus collected most carefully.

The totals obtained in this painstakingsurvey surprised the Director· General.They showed that in 1913 eight millionirrigated and non-irrigated acres were pro­ducing crops in the Southwest; they alsoshowed that this territory in addition con­tained forty-four million acres of untilledagricultural land, and water enough toirrigate almost half of this immense area.

In Western Canada less than twentymillion acres are in cro~ this year. Thesetwenty million acres, WIth a short growingseason and rigorous winters, have pulleda hundred thousand American farmersacross the line every year for a decade;these twenty million cultivated acres havebuilt the cities of Winnipeg, Calgary, Ed­monton, Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albertand a score of lesser towns. In the South­west the survey showed that forty millionvirgin acres were available for settlement,half of them susceptible to irrigation andspecialized intensive cultivation. Therewas room for 700,000 new farms, for afarm population of five millions over andabove the total present population of1,600,000 souls. In the establishment ofthese 700,000 new farms a billion dollars'worth of lumber would be needed for build­ings and fences; they would require at thestart twenty million dollars' worth of plowsand harrows, twenty-six million dollars'worth of rakes, over a hundred milliondollars' worth of pumps and engines. Forfarm equipment, tools and implements,for building material, furniture and house­hold necessities, those 700,000 new farmswould offer an initial market worth fivebillion dollars to the manufacturers. Wouldthey go after this business with an exhIbitat San Diego?

Having compiled these detailed dati,Director General Davis did not begin hiscampaign for exhibits until March first ofthis year. On that date he sent out sixhigh-class salesmen to present the statisticsand arguments to a selected list of manu­facturers. Within ten weeks ninety percent of the available space was gone, con­tracted for by manufacturers whose eyeswere suddenly opened to the magnitude of

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Staging the Big Show: Walter V. Woehlke 339

the virgin field in the Southwest. The re­maining ten per cent did not go begging.The Director General was saving the spacefor emergencies, was actually turning downproffered exhibits.

The representative of a European gov­ernment came to apply for 16,000 feet ofspace.

"What did you intend to exhibit?"asked the Director General.

"We shall again show our famous lineof art bronzes," replied the commissioner,"the line that has made my country famouswherever it has exhibited."

"Have you anything else that you couldshow?"

The commissioner shook his head."Then I'm afraid I'll have to deny your

application. We have made it a rule toaccept exhibits only if the goods shownhave a market or can create a market inour territory, and for art bronzes there isDO demand." .

The commissioner arose, wide-eyed."Do you mean to say that I cannot ex­

hibit what I please at your exposition?"he cried. "That is an unheard-of thing!I have had the honor to represent mycountry for twenty-six years at expositionsall over the world, but this is the first timethat our exhibit has been declined. Do youreally mean to say that you refuse my gov­ernment space in which to exhibit its artbronzes?"

Davis disarmed the commissioner withhis famous smile, but stood his ground.The familiar line of art bronzes will notbe seen at San Diego.

And when the commissioners of states,counties and districts arrived with theirexhibit plans, they ran full tilt into thatsame inflexible determination to have aconstructive exhibition. They were askedto put up exhibits of real value to thevisitors, exhibits that would visualize theopportunities in the Southwest at a glance.It was the Director General's idea to havea large-scale wall map part of every state'sor county's exhibit. This map was to showevery railroad line, the accurate dimensionsof every town, every mile of road and itscharacter, every school-house in its rightlocation, every forty-acre field of grain,alfalfa and other field crops, every orchardand vineyard. In addition, these mapswere to show not only the available areaof irrigable virgin land and its location, PHOTOGRAPH BY STINEMAN

In ,,11 its details the San Diego Exposition give. atrue picture 01 Spalll.h architecture

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PHOTOGRAPH BY 8TIN£MAN

The Director General hWi censored the exhibIts. In the Southpm Countles' building. as In every other building,the displays wl11 be not onb Instructive. of practical value. but will combine truth with noveltY

but the character of this raw land, thequality of its soil, its adaptability to theproduction of alfalfa, fruits or vegetables.The Director General opposed the indis­criminate exhibition of embalmed fruit,tall cornstalks, sheaves of grain and giantvegetables. He insisted upon a show thatwould furnish the visitor in a week withmore accurate, reliable information, witha better picture of agricultural conditionsand opportunities in the Southwest thanhe could hope to obtain through a year'sexpensive travel.

And he censored the exhibits. They hadto be not only instructive, meaty, of prac­tical value, but they also had to be true.Misleading exhibits were worse than noexhibits at all, the Director General in­sisted. He gained his point. The old-timeboom stuff, the yodeling of the land specu­lator with the heat-treated, vanadium steelconscience will be conspicuously absent atthe Panama-California Exposition.

But the dancing girls will be there,thirty of them with castanets and tam­bourines imported bodily, castanets andall, from Barcelona, Seville and old Mon­terey, thirty sloe-eyed, nimble-footed se1i­Milas who will, without fee or price, gyrateto the rhythmic swing of Spanish melodiesbefore the palaces of the Prado, amid thebloom of the great Plaza, on the greenswardof the Avenida Internacional, in the cooltiled patios of the ancient Missions wherethe fountains splash musically and the

curved shadows of palm fronds sweepsilently Over the creamy walls. TheIsthmus will be there, larger, wider, biggerthan the Midway at Chicago, the Pike atSt. Louis. Already the longest, highest,dippiest, screamiest ra<;ing roller coaster inthis hilarious world is ready for business,the mysteries of dopy Underground Chinaare exercising their shuddery lure, on thePainted Desert real Navajo Indians arebuilding real hogars and quaint pueblos,rehearsing the weird rites of the SnakeDance against the background of the purpleCuyamaca Range. Because the San DiegoExposition will continue for twelve months,from New Year's to New Year's, the amuse­ment people, assured of fine weather andgood business for three hundred and sixty­five days, could afford to put up attrac­tions beyond the reach of short-time, rain­soaked, thunderstruck, heat-blistered ex­positions.

"But why this frivolity?" sniffed thetourist from Peoria, scratching the spotwhere the scalp lock used to sprout. "Whydancing girls and miles of thrillers at anexposition devoted to a serious construc­tive purpose?"

I submitted the pertinent question toChief Davis. Of course he smiled.

"It takes all kinds of people-and lotsof them-to make an exposition successful"he replied. "The primary constructivepurpose of our exposition assures us a se­lect attendance of serious people, but even

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Page 7: Sunset magazine

PHOTOGR"'PH BY ST IHE ..... N

.-\ Ilve-acre model ranch. complete to the climbing roses on the wIre fence. We.!> producing vegetables andberries this spring; tlfty varieties of fruit-tn..,s around the bungalow wl1I be blooming b)' February

the most purposeful individual loves torela.'t, to enjoy novel sensations, sights andexperiences. We want as many people aswe can possibly induce to come to see SanDiego, the Coast, the West. We wantcrowds, and in the attraction of great crowdsthe versatility of our amusements, thesplendor of our palaces, the beauty of ourgrounds, the wide diversity of interest weoffer are most important factors."

Novelty is the cornerstone upon whichthe success of any exposition is built. Themere size of Chicago's White City, the massand variety of its exhibits and amusements,the sham magnificence of its classic struc­tures, lifted it far above any precedingeffort. And since the World's ColumbianExposition the builders have found itextremely difficult to surpass the Chicagoclima."(. At San Diego, however, a newexposition note has been struck. It isbest expressed in the experience of the menwhose fantastic attraction was the strong­est money-getter on the St. Louis Pike.They came and asked for a concession.

"What kind of a show do you want toput on?" inquired the Director General.

The ...'isitors' chests expanded visibly."Creation!" they replied in unison.

"The biggest drawing card at the St. LouisE:tposition." And they leaned back to letthe announcement take effect.

"I'm sorry," replied the Director Gen­eral, "but you can't have any space unlessyou devise something different. Your at-

traction has become identified in the popu­lar mind with the St. Louis Exposition. Wecan't afford to imitate even if you woulddraw the crowds. Think up somethingfresh, something new and we'll welcomeyou with open arms."

Nor did the Director General limit thispolicy to the multitude of amusementdevices. With equal rigor he applied it tothe exhibits themselves.

"The time for the mere exhibition offinished products in a state of dignifiedrepose has passed" he explained. "Rowsupon rows of polished electric motors,stacks of beautiful fabrics, miles of com­modities, machines and products endlesslyrepeated weary the eye, tire the feet andbore the brain. The same thing can beseen any day in a department store, awholesale house or an art bazaar. We re­fused to have these lifeless exhibits in ourbuildings. We demanded action, novelty,interest-and we got it. We will exhibitprocesses, not the product alone. In ourtextile exhibit, eight looms installed bydifferent manufacturers will show the exactmethod of weaving various fabrics. Under­wear, hosiery, knit goods, woollen andcotton fabrics will be made right before thevisitor's eyes. We won't have an exhibitof Japanese art handicraft. We'll have thecraftsmen themselves carving in ivory,weaving the tall Formosan hats, beatingcopper, lacquering and enameling jewelry.Our traction engines won't stand in solemn

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COPYRIGHT 11114 BY P"'N"'MA.~C"L1FORNIAfXPOSITIO~

Some of th" buildings are of pennnnent concrete and steel. others are of smff-all<1-plnstllr, hilt the lIye cannotdiscern tbe dlfferencc. l'h" Arts and Cmfts structure, liJw all the .othel's, looks

as thollgh it had Ix..,,, huilt for the ages

rows like wooden horses; they'll be out ona hundred-acre field in active competition,each one trying to show that it can plowthe deepe~t furrow, haul the heaviest loadin the shortest time at the lowest cost.There will be life, action-movrment in allour exhibits. Seventy-five per cent oftheir number will show proc"sses of pro­duction or the use and application of theproduct. Those that do not lend them­selves to this treatment will be historicalin character, will show the evolution of theappliance from its crudest form to its pres­ent perfection. And there won't be endlessrepetitions. We have limitd every lineof industry, every branch of manufactur-

ing, to two exhibits, except, of course,agriculture and everything pertaining toit, in order to avoid monotony and tire­some duplications."

More than any e"1>osition ever held,San Diego is laying stress upon outdoorexhibits. A five-acre grove containingevery known variety of citrus fruits blos­somed this winter, its fruit will turn a deepgold before the gates are opened on NewYear's. A five-acre model ranch, completeto the climbing roses on the wire fence, wasproducing vegetables and berries thisspring; fifty varieties of fruit trees aroundthe model bungalow will be in bloor.1by February. Sheep will be sheared by

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COPYRIQHT ta14 BY PAJ\lAMA·eALIFOAJ\lIA EXPOSITION

Thp sumpluou< Ntr"lngs 01 the rich I~des. 88 In the entmnce to the Homl' F.eonomy building, produce a\>t'rl,,"t imitation 01 h"wII·'lOne ..tracts. so carelul nnr! p8h"tnklng has been the

modeling, l!O close the attention to fine detalill

electricity, cows milked by compressed air,fruit trees sprayed by gasoline, under thedeep blue sky the year around. And therewill not be a single "Keep Off the Grass"sign anywhere within the grounds.

A visit to the average exposition is nota vacation; it is hard, strenuous, albeitpleasant, work. San Diego's expositionv.ilI be restful. Green lawns have beenspread everywhere, winding paths leadthrough the groves of exotic trees, shadybelvederes with spacious seats have beenbuilt at a hundred points, exposed to thecool breath of the Pacific trades, offeringvistas of the city far below, of glinting bay

and blue ocean, of the Coronado islands'purple silhouettes on the far horizon. Allaround the exhibit buildings, green armsreaching into the spaces between them, is asea of multicolored foliage brought from thefar corners of the earth, of flowering shrubsand ornamental bushes whose odor andcolor are even now pervading the buildings.Strange combinations impossible in otherclimes are to be seen. Scotch heather isblooming in the shade of green-and-redpepper trees from Brazil. Slender cocoapalms from the South Seas and floweringsweet-scented acacias from Australia­there are twenty-seven varieties of them-

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344 Sunset, the Pacific Monthly

line the streets; bougainvilleas of deepestpurple, rising from green lawn, climb thecreamy walls of the palaces around thePlaza; bougainvilleas glowing with colorborrowed from the heart of the red flamecover the fa~des of other groups. Thegreatest botanical garden in all the world isbut a poor lifeless catalogue of single speci­mens compared with the wealth of massedplant life at San Diego's exposition. Andevery species of plant will be a living ex­hibit, plainly marked with its workadaycommon name and adorned with its stiltedscientific cognomen. For the nature loverSan Diego's exposition will be a source ofcostly delight, again and again he willdeposit his obolus at the gate to explorethe close ranks of the world's flora.

They are systematically spreading feedfor the feathered songsters; the scentedarroyos, the green slopes of the canyonsmay be filled with their melodies whenother bands begin to play. .

It takes a great deal of money to keep anexposition open and running twelve timesthirty days. Some of the recent showscould not keep going five months withouta deficit. San Diego, about as far from thegeographical center of population as it ispossible to get without dropping off themap, fully realized the magnitude of thetask ahead of its exposition management.To make the fair a financial success, morepeople had to be drawn through the gatesfrom a longer distance than at any previousexposition. And the visitors of the firstsix months must bring the crowds during

the last half of the show; they must be senthome so filled with enthusiasm that theirdescriptions will bring their friends to theSilver Gate. This enthusiasm, however,could not be aroused by an exposition of thehome-cooked variety. It must be novel,and it must have a foreign exotic flavor.Therefore San Diego built an expositionthat does not look like an exposition at all.

Some of the buildings are permanent,consist of reinforced concrete and steel;others are of the usual staff-and-plasterconstruction; but the eye cannot discernthe difference. They all look as thoughthey had been built for the ages. So care­ful and painstaking has been the modeling,so close the attention to the fine details,that the sumptuous carvings of the richfa~es produce a perfect imitation ofhewn-stone effects; real tile and imitationare used side by side, yet the uninitiatedcannot tell one from the other, and the tilefloors of the monastic patios would puzzleeven an expert.

In all its details the San Diego Expositiongives a true picture of the richest, mostbeautiful part of a Spanish colonial city.Even the pigeons are there, hundreds ofthem cooing in the towers of the palaces.The names of the streets, avenues andboulevards are all in sonorous Castilian;the gatekeepers, guards and attendantswill appear in Spanish costumes; Spanishdishes will be served in Spanish restaurants,even the advertising copy of the expositionwill be flavored and spiced with quotationsfrom the Spanish poets in the original.

PHOTOCoRAPH BY STIPlIEMAH

R>... I Intlialls from ~cw Mexico are building on the Pulnwu l>e..,rt real hUll"" und quaint puelJlo~

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COPYAIGHT tel. 8Y PAIII"W"-CAlIFOA"'I" EXPOSITIOk

B4!lor~ the palaces of the Prado thirty ,10<'-eyro seflnritos from SPRln wlll dance dally, without fee or price,to the rhythmic swing of castilian meloclles

To obtain the early visitor's enthusiasticcooperation, Director General Davis hasgone to extraordinary lengths. He isdetermined that every visitor shall receivefull value for every dollar he spends withinthe grounds. The contracts with the con­cessionaires dispensing food and drinkwithin the enclosure provide not only arigid regulation of rates and prices, but theyalso provide for a strict supervision of foodpreparation and service. Every kitchenwill be on exhibit; no partition can be usedexcept it be made of plate glass, All theice cream, candy and lemonade must bemade on the ground in full view of theaudience. Unclean, questionable or crookedattractions have been excluded, Everypossible precaution has been taken to pro­tect the visitor against fraud or deceptionwithin the grounds.

But the Director General has gone a stepfarther. The exposition management'sprotective hand will greet the visitor beforehe lands in San Diego, before he has reachedthe ~rounds,

"We have decided that the expositionshall not be used as a cloak behind whichextortion can be practiced," declared theDirector General-without a smile. "Wewill see to it that even during the monthsof the greatest crush every visitor can ob­tain a clean, comfortable room for a dollarand a half a day, for two dollars and a halfa day with private bath. We are now mak-

ing contracts with all hotels, rooming andapartment houses to fix their rates for theexposition year, this rate not to exceed theprice demanded during the height of thetourist season in an ordinary year. Underthe contract this rate cannot be raised, andevery room must have a card stating thisprice on display. The contract providesfor a penalty of a thousand dollars for vio­lation of its provisions, and the expositionstands ready to refund to every visitor theamount of the overcharge beyond the rateas contained in the published lists. Wewant the visitor to depart with a sweettaste in his mouth, and we are going to seethat he does,"

There was still another question on mymind. I hesitated to put it since it was noneof an outsider's business. But having theexperience of other expositions in mind Iblurted it out.

"How much money will you have toborrow on your gate to complete the expo­sition?"

The Director General seized his hat witha broadening of his smile. "Come on," hesaid, "let's see Frank Belcher. He ishandling the finances."

Like Davis, the chief, and Allen, theengineer with the genius for building,Belcher is a young man, with keen blackeyes and features cast in astern Roman mold,dealing out words as sparingly as he handsout dollars. He reached for a report sheet.

J4S

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Sunset, the Pacific Monthly

"To June first~he exposition has spenta little over a million seven hundred thou­sand dollars," he stated, tracing the columnof figures. "The cost estimate of the re­maining work-we haven't been fooled onany of our estimates yet, thanks to Allen­shows that every bill can be paid beforeJanuary first, nineteen fifteen, out of thefunds in sight. We'll open the gates with acool hundred thousand dollars left in thetreasury. Want to see the books? Allright, just as you say. Besides, we have nowon hand a fund of sixty thousand dollarsfrom the sale of concessions. The peanutand popcorn man, for instance, paid us tenthousand plus twenty-five per cent of his

gross sales. That fund is untouched, drawsfour per cent and is growing. We'll havemoney to lend instead of borrowing it."

I touched wood. The Director General'ssmile crept toward his ears. "Come aroundNew Year's eve and look over the books:'he invited. "And don't judge San Diegoby the standard of previous expositions.It isn't fair. We are all new in the business.We had no precedent to cling to. We wereforced to proceed on entirely new lines,make our own way irrespective of whatothers had done."

That is the reason why the Panama-Cali­fornia Exposition will be an unprecedentedsuccess.

A CREEDBy DAVID LESLIE BROWN

7jT'0 overlook unreasonableness, and to reverence

W fact; to avoid error, and to exalt right-doing;

to counsel when asked; to strike-and strike hard­

when a wrong is wilful; to see Divinity. in Man,

and seek God jn Nature; to be sincere; to be natural;

to be honest, and kind, and courteous; to be dignified,

confident, and determined; never to wrong friend

or foe-there's enough for a creed-and to keep

anyone busy I