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