was allowed to die at the end of the session.

Soon after formulating the plan for the exposition Mr. Hale changed the
date from, 1915 to 1913, to make it coincide with the four hundredth
anniversary of the discovery by Balboa of the Pacific.

In 1906 came the earthquake and fire. The next few years San Franciscans
were busy clearing away the debris and rebuilding. It was predicted that
the city might recover in ten years, and might not recover in less than
twenty-five years.

Nevertheless, in December, 1906, within nine months of the disaster, a
meeting was held in the shack that served for the St. Francis Hotel, and
the Pacific Ocean Exposition Company was incorporated.

In three years the city recovered sufficiently to hold a week's
festival, the Portola, and to make it a success.

Two days afterward, in October, 1909, Mr. Hale gave a dinner to a small
group of business men, and told of what had been done toward preparing
for the Exposition. They agreed to help.

Shortly afterward a meeting was held at the Merchants' Exchange. It was
decided that an effort should at once be made to raise the money and to
rouse the people of San Francisco to the importance of the project of
holding the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in
1915.

As many as twenty-five hundred letters were sent to business men, asking
if they favored the idea of holding an exposition. Out of about eight