Many of us, who five years ago stood on the sunbaked mesa in the park, arid then and unattractive, and watched our esteemed friend, the Honorable John Barrett, representing the President of the United States, turn the first spadeful of earth, saw in that practical act the promise of a day when our fondest dreams would come true. That day has now dawned. The Exposition is completed and the finished product is even more beautiful than our dreams.

In throwing open our gates, which is equivalent to announcing that San Diego has become the host of the nation and of the world, the officers and directors of the Panama-California Exposition and the people of this community extend a hearty welcome not only to the people of the states which make up this Union, but to the people of the entire world. And it is to the thousands who will come to San Diego from all parts of the world that the exposition will look for support in this great undertaking. For the kind interest already displayed by different sections of the country and a debt of thanks is due, and this debt we hope to pay by a liberal hospitality in dealing with the vast armies of visitors who will come to our gates.

Our thanks also are due to the officials and commissioners of the various groups of California counties and the several Western states for the beautiful buildings that have been erected on these grounds and for the splendid exhibits that have been arranged. These buildings and these exhibits will go far in making the Exposition representative in its scope and will bring to the minds of visitors from the East the varied opportunities and possibilities of the vast empire that lies west of the Missouri river.

The presence of so many distinguished persons on this occasion, the personal representative of the President of the United States, the personal representative of the King of Spain, the several Senators, the Governors of many states or their personal representatives, and the Mayors of many Western cities, indicate the wide interest manifested in this Exposition, which expresses the ideals of modern America and the great West. To these distinguished guests and the thousands of persons they represent, we extend a most cordial welcome. At the same time expressing our sincere thanks for the aid given us by the sovereign states of Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, Nevada and Kansas, whose buildings and exhibits go far toward making the Exposition complete.

On this auspicious day, which sees the fulfillment of many high hopes, we must be excused if we felicitate ourselves on what has been wrought in what was, less than a decade ago, one of the less important cities in the United. States. No more fitting occasion than this could be found to congratulate the city itself and the band of loyal San Diegans through whose unselfish and untiring efforts the Exposition has become a splendid reality. It is not necessary to mention these individuals by name. The list would be too long, for practically every citizens has felt a personal interest in the success of the undertaking, and men and women from all walks of life have not hesitated to give of their time and money in the supreme effort San Diego has made to fulfill a tremendous responsibility.

The work is finished. Far-seeing men planned a big project; other far-seeing men with wide experience have executed those plans, changing, elaborating and meeting obstinate conditions that could not have been contemplated in the original designs. In the meantime, the people of this community stood by with rare patience, encouraging by their moral and financial support the builders of the Panama-California Exposition. And to this municipality, the average men and women of San Diego, who, after all, are the real builders of the Exposition, too much praise cannot be given, and to them the officials of the Exposition extend their deepest thanks. The absence of adverse criticism has made the task a pleasure, so much so that what might have been a irksome duty became a happy obligation. And it might be safe to say that the men who built this Exposition, from the highest official to the humblest workman, took joy in the work.

And what does it all mean? What does it mean to San Diego city and county? What does it mean to Southern California? What does it mean to the entire Southwest? It means that a vast new era has dawned upon this privileged land, this vast territory lying west of the Rockies and south of the Canadian Line, for the purpose of this Exposition was not selfish in that it desired only the development of San Diego. Indeed, the purpose was bigger and finer, being nothing less than the helping of all California, all the southwest, and indeed all of the west to realize itself. It was meant to call the attention of the world to the possibility of millions of acres of land that have been peculiarly blessed by nature and that have awaited through the centuries the touch that will transform them into the paradises of the Western hemisphere.

The Panama-California exposition was conceived as a fitting method of celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal, an undertaking which has astonished the world, an achievement which has been the dream of adventurers, travelers, pioneers and scientists for nearly four hundred years. This gigantic task has been accomplished, a waterway has been carved through the backbone of the hemisphere and the far points of the earth have been brought closer together because the continent has been separated and the earth’s two vast oceans made one. The heritage of the ages has fallen to this favored coast and the dwellers on the Pacific slope suddenly find themselves the custodians of commercial possibilities never dreamed of by any people.

In order fully to grasp these opportunities the San Diego exposition was conceived and carried to completion. It was deemed wise to call the attention of the entire United States in a striking manner to the tremendous latent possibilities in the millions of acres of undeveloped territory which is rightly called the back country of the Pacific slope. Today that country is barely tapped and a careful analysis of government figures show that there is approximately 44,000,000 acres of arable land in the southwest that can be converted into rich farm lands. Some 8,000,000 acres are under partial cultivation, the revenue from which in farm products alone is $143,000,000 a year. With the cultivation of the present undeveloped land this revenue can be increased from farm products alone to the astonishing figure of $743,000,000 yearly. This has been the inspiration of the makers of this Exposition, the building of an empire where millions of human beings can be prosperous and happy in the new era which is dawning for the West.

Has any city ever been confronted with a more stupendous project? Has any city every more nobly responded to the task than has San Diego? Is it too much to hope that this official opening of the Exposition is but the harbinger of greater activities when this city shall become the center of vast activities, activities that mean the creating of conditions for the growth of the human family along wiser and more liberal lines? Is it too much to hope that settlers will come from all parts of the United States and Europe to make a teeming garden of the now waste places of the southwest?

The back-to-the-land movement is now more than a phrase. Experiments are being made in all parts of the country for the best means of wrestling the maximum of results from the soil with the minimum of effort. These experiments are proving of wonderful value. The science of agriculture, as taught in colleges and universities, has revolutionized the methods of developing the land. The southwest will profit by all these efforts and when men turn their eyes to the place where land is still available, they will look toward the west for agricultural comfort and fortune as the pioneers turned to California in the ‘40’s in the mad romantic quest for gold. Greater value than gold will be taken from the soil by the better trained and more systematic pioneers who will till the teeming acres of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico and Montana.

And so a new kind of exposition has been builded. Not an exposition of results so much as an exposition of promise. We have attempted to show the visitor to this Exposition, not the products of industry but the processes by which the products are made. There is no haphazard piling up of exhibits, but you will find the fruits and flowers and vegetables of California actually growing, as on the thousands of ranches throughout the state. You will see a model orange grove with the trees full of the golden fruit. You will see tractors, plows and harvesters at work on the land. You will see cereals and grasses sown and grown in the field. You will see not only the actual work in a citrus orchard but the operations of farming on a large scale.

And these things will constitute the appeal to the man with sufficient brawn and brain who will be inspired to work the virgin miles of the land of the great Southwest. It will be these things that will cause men to invest their money in growing of grapes, of fruits, of timber forests, of nuts of all kinds, of pasture lands for the nourishment of large herds of sheep and beef, of the creating of large poultry farms and dairy projects. This is our boast, that we have arranged an exhibition of living and working enterprises which must become the inspiration of all who are tired of the futile grind of city life and who will turn to the west to work out the realization of their hopes and aspirations. From these new pioneers of the future will the great southwest be built and make of San Diego, California, and the great West, a new and better center of civilization.

Not only is the opening of the Panama Canal commemorated by the cross to this coast, which in those early days meant the coming of civilization. Although apparently slow in coming to its own, striking deep roots and rearing wide branches, with the substantial growth of a vast oak, the history of the Pacific coast is coincident, synchronous with the history of the Atlantic seaboard and, except for ineffectual raids of the Norsemen in the eleventh century, the history of development along the Pacific is earlier than that of the Atlantic.

Over 400 years ago, Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and "stared at the Pacific." In 1542 an expedition under Juan Cabrillo sailed north in search of new lands and eventually anchored in the Harbor of the Sun. Later came Viscaino, whose party explored the west coast before Champlain navigated the St. Lawrence, before Hudson entered what is now New York harbor, and before the Pilgrims had established their English colony at Plymouth.

But these men, although bringing with them some elements of the culture of Europe, were, for the most part, daring spirits of adventure, whose mission was not so much to build as to discover. But with one of them, with Portola, came a humble but gallant priest, and with him came the seed out of which has grown California and practically all of the Pacific coast civilization. This priest, whose labors at the time seemed so futile, has since become the most prominent figure in the history of the state.

The name of Fray Junipero Serra is one to stir men’s hearts to nobler efforts in all parts of the civilized world. He has a part in the glory of the coast and is especially cherished in San Diego where his little band began to make headway among savage conditions and where his first mission was erected.

It was here that the first mission was finished, which became the starting point for the series of missions that stretch the length of the state along El Camino Real. From that expedition the famous friar never returned, but his spirit remained and today the kind of Christianity he represented, the Christianity of labor and self-sacrifice, is symbolized in the noble group of buildings which have been erected on this site.

These buildings of this Exposition have not been thrown up with the careless unconcern that characterizes a transient pleasure resort. They are a part of the surroundings, with the aspect of permanence and far-seeing design. They might endure for a century and still appear the things of beauty which they are. Time will hallow them with its gentle touch. Here is pictured in this happy combination of splendid temples, the story of the friars, the thrilling tale of the pioneers, the orderly conquest of commerce, coupled with the hopes of an El Dorado where life can expand in this fragrant land of opportunity. It is indeed a permanent city and every building fits into the picture.

The idea of the exposition came to the people of San Diego like an inspiration, and with what seemed the power of a magic wand, not only the spirit, but the entire outward aspect of our city underwent a change. By that inspiration we have increased our population nearly threefold. We have transformed what was a town into a city. Hundreds of homes have been erected in new residential sections. The occupied area of the city has spread in all directions. Waste places have been made beautiful habitations where thousands of people live under pleasant conditions. Modern schools have grown up, as if by magic, with educational facilities that compare with the best in the world.

What was some 650 acres of arid and unsightly mesa and canyon land has been made over into one of the most beautiful parks in the country. Scores of new streets have been laid out, graded and paved. New systems of lighting and sewage have been completed. And what is of more importance than all else is the work commenced to develop our harbor and waterfront, to make of it a port which must some day be the city’s greatest single asset when the commerce of a peaceful world will come to the shores of the Pacific.

What are the lessons to be learned from an exposition of this nature? The chief lesson is in beholding what can be accomplished by any community which will work in harmony toward a common ideal. The ideal, in this case, was the creation of an exposition totally different from any hitherto held. This achievement has been brought about in the face of unbelievable difficulties. At first there was nothing more than the intention of building a fair. There was but little money in sight and it seemed impossible that the vast sum necessary for its realization could be obtained. But the splendid optimism of San Diego has triumphed and what only a few years ago seemed an impossibility is now a living reality. This is the principal lesson of the exposition, that with a good working organization anything can be accomplished. The San Diego exposition will remain a type of what can be accomplished as well as an inspiration for future endeavors.

The Exposition might also be pointed out as a pattern for the development of future Southern California counties. Here the desire for beauty and the practical working out of such a community went hand in hand, with the result that the aesthetic results obtained are practical results, results possible of repetition by any community that will set before itself an ideal and will work willingly for its realization. It is not too much to predict that Southern California communities will take this lesson to heart and build in the future with the idea of obtaining practical beauty values.

Many of the buildings of the fair will be permanent and remain an asset of great value to the future of San Diego. They will exist in the years to come not only as a memory of San Diego’s great fair but as distinct ornaments of the city. This will be especially true of the noble quadrangle of buildings of which the California state is the dominant feature. With the establishment of the museum of ethnology and archaeology San Diego has the beginning of one of the most important museums in America. Future explorations will fill these halls with rare specimens of prehistoric man, and ultimately the city by the Harbor of the Sun will become the Mecca for scientists from all parts of the world.

From day to day American archaeology and ethnology are assuming more importance in the comprehensive science of man, and the aborigines who lived millenniums ago west of the Rocky Mountains are assuming larger significance in the speculations of investigators. With the nucleus already established, said to be the best in the west, our museum must sooner or later be of national, if not of international importance.

In the collection of specimens now installed the entire history of man as far as at present learned, is displayed. The various races and tribes whose history and traditions run back before the beginning of the Christian era, are shown by actual specimens that have been exhumed after centuries from the soil of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Central and South America.

We have sought, and, I believe, we have succeeded, through this exposition to create an effect, an atmosphere, if you please, that will come as a revelation to the visitor. He will see here the life of California epitomized. He will see home life as it is lived nowhere else under such pleasant conditions. He will see the flowers and the fruits of the west as well as a bewildering variety of unusual trees. He will glimpse in a short sojourn the result of a half century of struggle with stubborn conditions. He will realize that Californians have not been working in vain, and that they have made no exaggerated claims for the land they love. And above all he will carry back to the east the glorious message of promise that is the heritage of California and the West.

The gates of the exposition are open. San Diego invites the world to the Panama-California exposition.

Calendar of Army and Navy Events for Year 1915

January

1. Opening of Exposition. Salutes from guns aboard all naval craft in the Harbor of the Sun, also from guns at Fort Rosecrans. Hundreds visit harbor to view big warships. U. S. S. San Diego and nine torpedo boat destroyers.

6. Lieutenant Joseph Carberry, pilot, carried Lieutenant Walter Christie, as passenger, breaking American altitude record for pilot and passenger by ascending 11,690 feet. He descended at the rate of 1,000 feet a minute, the fasted voltplane every recorded in this country.

8. U. S. S. Maryland arrives from Mare Island.

10. Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce parade. Army, Navy and Marine Corps participate.

11. Two new tractors arrive at North Island for use of army aviators.

14. Battleship Oregon complement cut for canal voyage.

17. San Francisco guests escorted through Fair by Military and Naval arms of the service.

18. Gunboat Yorktown arrives for lengthy stay.

20. Marines reviewed by President Davidson, H. H. Timkins, Rear Admiral Sebree and Major McKelvy.

30. Seventy men enlisted in the Navy during the month of January in San Diego.

February

1. Flotilla consisting of destroyers: Whipple, Paul Jones, Truxton, Perry and Preble are scheduled for practice in San Diego harbor.

2. Major Fay issues final lineup for big parade, ending with celebration at the Fair.

6. U. S. S. Colorado was selected to succeed U. S. S. San Diego as flagship of the Pacific Fleet.

6. Marines reach port after wild voyage. Cruiser Chattanooga brings thirty-three men for flagship in San Diego.

13. San Diego given an unusual treat when the first squadron of U.S. Cavalry passes in review before President Davidson of the Exposition.

14. First U.S. Cavalry Band departs for Monterey Station.

27. Sergeant P. Ocker of the First Aero Squadron ascends 10,000 feet in the air. Spectators are thrilled by sight.

March

5. Rear Admiral Howard becomes a full-fledged Admiral.

13. Lieutenant B. Q. Jones establishes American sustained flight for two passengers: 7 hours, 5 minutes.

16. Members of Congressional party take cruise about harbor and inspect fortifications at Rosecrans.

27. Hope is abandoned for F-4, as rescue ships fail to lift helpless craft from bottom, near Honolulu.

28. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, enters harbor on torpedo boat destroyer Paul Jones. He said that the full Atlantic fleet was coming to San Diego.

30. Vice President Marshall and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, visit the Fair escorted by Mayor O’Neall, Captain Rifenberick, aide to President Davidson, Lieutenant Commander Bartholf, aide to Vice President Marshall, Captain Lyman, President Davidson, Admiral Howard, H. O. Davis, Colonel Pendleton, Lieutenant Colonel Davis and Honorable Seth Lowe of New York.

April

7. Sham battle held on the Fair Grounds by Cavalry and Marines for Lubin Movies.

13. Aviators Lieutenant Byron Q. Jones and Lieutenant Thomas De Witt Milling leave for Mexican line.

14. Cavalry pay tribute to Congressman Kettner. Spirited review of four troops honor Congressman on his arrival at the Cavalry Camp.

15. Rear Admiral Pond arrives and ridicules "Mined Bay" story.

17. Senator Week of Massachusetts inspects Marines.

18. U.S. Cruiser New Orleans ordered to Turtle Bay for inquiry.

18. Rear Admiral Charles F. Pond flies with Raymund Morris in hydroplane at North Island.

24. Cavalry Review at Tractor Field, Exposition Grounds.

May

3. Commander H. J. Zeigmeier relieves Lieutenant Commander Edward H. Dodd as Commander of the First Pacific Destroyer and Submarine Flotillas.

8. Military men hold field meet at Fair.

17. "Admiral’s Sweep" made by U. S. S. Colorado in channel off Santa Fe wharf. Captain Ashley H. Robertson turns his 13,000-ton cruiser without changing speed.

18. U. S. S. Colorado brings Marines back to San Diego.

22. Parade led by Colonel J. H. Pendleton as Grant Marshall for Ad Club of San Diego. Cavalry, Artillery and Marines participate.

June

8. Marine rifle march on North Island --- winning team in doubt.

9. Fair pays tribute to Admiral Howard. "Admiral Howard Day" celebrated by all branches of service at Exposition.

15. Lieutenant Arthur Christy executes triangular flight 3,000 feet in the air over North Island.

16. Naval Recruiting Record smashed in San Diego.

17. 1,400 men sail on board U. S. S. Colorado for Tobari Bay, including three companies of marines.

18. U. S. S. Chattanooga ordered by radio from U. S. S. Colorado to proceed to mouth of the Yaqui River.

20. United States assembles war supplies. Haste marks bow at Yaquis. Auto trucks ordered south.

21. U.S. Marines arrive at Guaymas aboard U. S. S. Colorado.

24. Marine landing considered unnecessary.

July

3. Army Aviator Lieutenant B. Q. Jones loops the loop four times in succession.

10. Cavalry boys guests of Viriginia Brissac and Johnny Wray at Spreckels Theater.

16. First American Aero Squadron formed. Richmond Blues visit San Diego’s Exposition.

26. Army fliers leave for Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Fifteen officers, ninety enlisted men.

27. Different branches of the service escort "Teddy" to U. S. Grant Hotel.

31. Target practice at Fort Rosecrans by 30^th and 115^th Companies witnessed by many San Diegans.

August

1. Rear Admiral Fullam thanks San Diego for kindness to Middle by radio from battleship Missouri.

5. Captain C. M. Condon leaves Fort Rosecrans for duty with military staff college at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

14. Veterans of Spanish-American War, Coast Artillery Corps, Cavalry, sailors from U. S. S. Colorado, Marines and National Guard of California, parade.

15. Ball at Hotel del Coronado for Admiral Thomas Benton Howard.

20. Two Companies, National Guard of California, 5^th and 8^th fire at Fort Rosecrans, making good scores. First Cavalry Troops, B and M, under Captain George V. H. Moseley leave for Calexico.

21. Cruiser Raleigh arrives at San Diego on way to Mexican waters to relieve Cruiser Cleveland.

22. Thousands of children visit U. S. S. Colorado. Fifth and Eighth Companies, Coast Artillery Reserves, return from Fort Rosecrans.

24. Rear Admiral Cameron McRae Winslow to relieve Admiral Howard about September 1, 1915.

September

4. Mexicans attack U.S. aviators, Lieutenants Morrow and Jones and troops at Brownsville, Texas.

5. 5. Torpedo boat destroyers, cruisers and gunboats to hold target practice from October, 1915 to, April, 1916 off San Diego.

6. Oscar A. Brindley, military aviator school instructor at North Island, saves Tiny Broadwick and himself by exception skill during fight with the elements at the Exposition.

9. Captain Townsend F. Dodd, U.S.A., ordered to Brownsville, Texas. He holds American record for flying with passenger. Army, Navy and Marine parade for Admission Day, Colonel Pendleton, Grand Marshall.

13. Admiral Cameron McRae Winslow relieves Admiral T. B. Howard as commander-in-chief of the United States Pacific Fleet. Ceremonies conducted aboard U. S. S. Colorado. U. S. S. San Diego becomes flagship of Pacific Fleet.

    Major General George W. Goethals, builder of the Panama Canal, visits Panama-California Exposition. Reception by President Davidson and Officers of Army, Navy and Marine Corps. General Goethals reviewed the Marines at 4:00 p.m. and at 5:00 p.m. delivered an address on the Panama Canal at the Spreckels Organ.

16. Ex-President William Howard Taft visits Exposition. Escorted from train to Exposition by one of the largest Military and Naval parades of the year. Reviewed troops from steps of Sacramento Building.

17. Lieutenant Walter Taliaferro establishes a new American sustained flight record, remains aloft 9 hours and 48 minutes.

18. "Marine Day" at the Exposition. Dancing in the evening at Organ Pavilion. Music by Marine and Coast Artillery Bands.

Simon Levi, U. S. Grant, Jr., A. G. Spalding, L. S. McLure, Ralph Granger, Fred Jewell, John H. Gay, William Clayton, John D. Spreckels, C. L. Williams, Arthur H. Marston, Julius Wangenheim, Lyman J. Gage, J. W. Sefton, Jr., L. A. Blochman, D. F. Garrettson, F. W. Jackson, C. E, Grosbeck and George Burnham. These were the men who started the Exposition on its way.

On September 10 of the same year, the directors met and elected the following officers: President U. S. Grant, Jr., first vice president; John D. Spreckels; second vice president, A. G. Spalding; third vice president, L. S. McLure; fourth vice president, G. Aubrey Davidson; temporary secretary, F. G. Spaulding; and director-general, D. C. Collier. Later L. G. Monroe was chosen secretary. On January 10, 1910, at the first annual meeting, these officers were reelected and F. W. Jackson was made treasurer.

To fill vacancies caused by resignations, the following men who are not now on the board of directors were chosen during the four years of the Exposition’s history: January 10, 1910, L. R. Armstrong, W. R. Rogers; March 27, 1911, E. W. McKenzie, John F. Forward, Jr.; January 10, 1912, H. L. Miller; January 10, 1913, John E. Beal.

After taking the presidency on November 23, 1911, upon the resignation of U. S. Grant, Jr., D. C. Collier resigned on January 10, 1914; and G. Aubrey Davidson was selected to succeed him. The other officers elected with President Davidson and who are in office now that the Exposition is open are: First vice-president, John D. Spreckels; second vice-president, F. J. Belcher, Jr.; third vice president, H. H. Jones; fourth vice-president, George Burnham; secretary, H. J. Penfold; treasurer, F. W. Jackson.

The present directors of the Exposition are as follows:

R. C. Allen, Lucius R. Barrow, F. J. Belcher, Jr., L. A. Blochman, George Burnham, William Clayton, D. C. Collier, G. Aubrey Davidson, C. W. Fox, D. F. Garrettson, Percy Goodwin, F. W. Jackson, H. H. Jones, M. F. Heller, W. F. Ludington, Arthur H. Marston, J. W. Sefton, Jr., W. A. Sloane, John D. Spreckels; C. L. Williams and Julius Wangenheim.

Four years ago, when assurance was given that the dream of centuries was to become true --- that the Isthmus of Panama would be pierced by a waterway that would be completed in 1915 --- the very proper suggestion was made by a public-spirited resident of San Diego that this city, as the nearest port to the new avenue of commerce, and the one that would chiefly profit from it, should celebrate that world event by a great Exposition. The plan found favor at once. It has been forwarded by the tireless labor of San Diego’s citizens in all walks of life, by liberal subscriptions from the people of this and other communities, and by substantial pecuniary aid voted by the residents of this city. At the outset it was agreed that there should be no attempt to hold what is usually termed a "World’s Fair." It was realized that if the San Diego celebration of the canal opening was to be made an unqualified success, there must be a radical departure from the "World’s Fair" idea. The latter has been so often borrowed from the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876 that the very terms had become hackneyed. In a work, the original "World’s Fair" idea had been overworked and people were tired of it. Hence, San Diego’s decision to arrange a display that should be totally different from any previous ones and as attractive as it was different.

The Exposition that is open today is the result of strict adherence to that plan. While no effort has been spare to show materially the development, resources and prospects of the great Southwest, there has been intelligent endeavor to paint the picture with harmonious coloring. The artistic treasures of even the desert have been reproduced, and the wealth of nature’s gifts in his unrivaled climate have been lavishly displayed. Nor have the material adjuncts that will appeal most strongly to the homeseeker been omitted. The California and the great Southwest of this generation are portrayed at this Exposition as never before. And the visitor, coming, perhaps, from outside this state, will hardly know which to admire most --- the evidences of potential wealth for all who will seek it, or the beautiful environment in which they are displayed at Balboa Park.

But it is not the design here to enter into a description of the Panama-California Exposition. It is described in detail very graphically elsewhere in these columns this morning. It is the purpose rather to congratulate San Diego upon the triumphant success of the great endeavor on which the people of this city have devoted time and money during the past four years. And it may not be amiss to suggest to them that their success is the more notable because it has been achieved in the face of obstacles that would have deterred a less resolute community from going forward with its plan. Thanks too are due to the outside communities that have contributed so materially toward making the Exposition the attraction that it is. San Diego owes much to them, and although the debt may not now be paid, it will certainly not be forgotten.

And to all who have labored to make the Panama-California Exposition a success --- San Diego’s people and those of other communities --- The Union extends felicitations on the splendid results, and hearty New Year’s greetings.

San Diego Union, January 1, Special Section, II, 2:1-4. Exposition Beautiful Opens Gates to World, by D. C. Collier. . . . Pluck and perseverance have triumphed. The Panama-California Exposition in San Diego is a reality --- a grand and glorious reality. Our dream of five years ago has come true, and the time is here for congratulations. Let us congratulate ourselves at the eve of pregnant years to come.

San Diego now presents to the world such an Exposition as never before was built. The claim of those who originated it, that it would be unique and that it would have a charm and present an atmosphere never before attained by any exposition has been fully carried out. Such an Exposition has been built in San Diego that no thought of comparisons can come into the minds of its visitors; no thought of anything except how beautiful and delightful it is.

From the very moment of its conception there has been no doubt in the minds of those most intimately concerned with its progress regarding the success of this Exposition. It was founded on a rock. It was an Exposition with a clearly defined purposes; that purpose being to demonstrate to the world the great possibilities in the development of the Pacific states, the great region lying between the Rockies and the ocean to the west, and to show that San Diego, because of her geographic situation, her climate, her harbor, her soil, and her people, was destined to play a most important part in that development.

States Respond Bravely

The states lying west of the Rockies, the peoples of the various countries that will have closer social and commercial relations with these states because of the opening of the Panama canal, and manufacturers an dealers in such wares and commodities as will find a market in these states were all asked to participate in San Diego’s Exposition and there response has been generous and hearty. Exhibits have not been made at San Diego by governments, purposeless exhibits like those seen at other expositions, where the holding of lavish entertainments was the sole object, but the state of California has provided for this Exposition, the most beautiful and substantial exposition building ever built on any exposition grounds, and the counties of California has provided other buildings and exhibits of the products of the soil of California presented in a way that has never before been attempted. The states of Washington, Montana, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico all have built elaborate exhibit palaces and placed in them exhibits of their products, their commerce and their social life.

The San Diego Exposition has collected and presents an exhibit of the early life of the two Americas, the like of which has never before been seen in the world. It is an exhibit worth going half way round the world to see.

Amusement features have been secured for the San Diego Exposition more elaborate and more interesting than every seen at any of the expositions of the past.

Above and beyond all is the horticultural display presented by the Exposition itself, nothing more nor less than a perfect demonstration of what California is and what California can do. Its architecture, its setting, and its adornment will entrance the visitors to this Exposition, will grip them in their first vision of it, and hold them enthralled forever. They will never forget it; never will the picture be effaced from their minds; and when they must go away from San Diego, they will take away with them a longing for all the things that the San Diego Exposition means to him who would really live, that sometime will bring them back to San Diego, just to live.

World Invited to See

And so the really big thing is that San Diego has builded this Exposition. There is the wonder of it, and there is the thing that will bring back to San Diego payment many times over for all of the money and the energy, the trails and the tribulations that have been expended upon it. First, the visitor will marvel at its beauty and its magnificence; its quality and its real worth, and then will come the thought that a little city, way off in one corner, has done this, and the visitor will ask himself: What sort of people are those of San Diego who can conceive of such a thing and build it?

But because the Exposition is builded, we of San Diego must not sit back in calm content and say, "There it is, come and see it." We have yet a great work to do, all through the year 1915. We have invited the world to come and see what we have done; now we must see that those who come are properly and well entertained. It is not enough to point the way to the Exposition gates, when the visitor comes to San Diego. San Diego, herself, is on display. In many and various ways, and in fitting and appropriate ways, San Diego must say to all the visitors in 1915, "You are welcome here, we are glad to have you come" --- and prove it.

Looking on while San Diego has been building her Exposition, the people of the world have said, What a splendid spirit of cooperation and steadfastness the San Diego spirit is! Soon these people will be among us, and it is for us to show them that this spirit has not been broken with the completing of the Exposition, but that it has been strengthened and that it embraces also hospitality and the open heart.

San Diego Union, January 1, 1915, Special Section, II, 3:1-7. Director-General H. O. Davis writes article about the Panama-California Exposition as the first purely constructive Exposition.

San Diego Union, January 1, 1915, Special Section, 3:2. Inspired Pen Has Revitalized Old Spanish Story.

San Diego Union, January 1, 1915, Special Section, 3:7. Most Perfect Rose to Be Chosen at Potpourri Gardens. . . . Just each of the marine camp on the lower plateau is the potpourri rose garden, of which Mrs. Jessie C. Knox is in charge. Mrs. Knox is attempting to show what can be done in the development of an entirely new industry in California, supplying this country with a potpourri which at present is made largely in Europe.

A contest, which Mrs. Knox intends to hold during the year, to determine which is the most perfect rose, promises to do a great deal for rose culture in the United States. Other contests she is conducting include on in ceramics for the jars to contain the potpourri. There are numerous entries from different parts of the country.

San Diego Union, January 1, 1915, Special Section, 3:8. History of Exposition. . . . The birthday of the San Diego Exposition can be considered as September 9, 1909, when, at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, G. Aubrey Davidson proposed that the first port of call should hold the official celebration of the opening of the greatest waterway in history. The suggestion was taken up immediately, and so rapidly did the plans get underway that, in July of the following year, the groundbreaking ceremony was held.

The first official spadeful of earth was turned four and one-half years before the dawn of 1915. Construction work, however, did not begin on a considerable scale for more than a year afterward ,when the Administration building was erected, and gradually the arms of the engineers began reaching down what is now known as El Prado. The difficulties with which the builders of the Exposition had to cope are too well known to need reviewing for the people of Southern California.

Several months after the Exposition was chartered, and actually underway, San Francisco decided in favor of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and went to Washington in search of government recognition. Immediately there was a disagreement between the two California cities. New Orleans sought to take advantage of that Western division by stepping in and rallying about itself the support of the North and East, in order that New Orleans might have the 1915 world’s fair. In order to keep the great event on the Pacific coast, San Diego withdrew voluntarily and gave cordial support to San Francisco. The result was the starting of a world’s fair at San Francisco, based on ideas which had prevailed to a greater or lesser degree at world’s fairs of the past.

Expositions Differ

It remained for San Diego to originate something and, although the two cities are 500 miles apart, it was recognized as certain that two events of identical type could not draw as well as two of different types. Hence, San Diego set about to create something new and something different. The result of that determination is seen and heard and actually felt throughout the grounds of Balboa park. The architecture, of course, is entirely different. The gardening treatment is quite as different from fairs of the past. In all likelihood there never will be again any finer, handsomer architecture than is visible in San Diego.

The scope of the Exposition is different. The form of its exhibits and concessions is different; even the series of special events are different from special events at previous fairs. The effort has been to show the Eastern tourist that the American West has such an infinite variety that two great expositions can be held at the same time without clashing with each other, and without duplication of each other’s efforts.

At the outset, of course, it was expected that there would be extensive foreign participation. Colonel D. C. Collier, the first president of the Exposition, and perhaps the one man in San Diego without whom the Exposition could never have been held, devoted his entire time to the cause of getting state participation, and later, foreign participation. His travels through Central and South America are recalled, as well as those in Europe. For a time his labors seemed to be attended by considerable success, but eventually it became obvious that the foreign participation of San Diego would be the participation of foreign industrial leaders, rather than of governments. The largest of these exhibits was the Japanese, which, in fact, is looked upon today as the most important industrial exhibit Japan has ever made.

Placing of Buildings

In the latter half of 1914 people began to see that the lack of extensive government participation was not an unmixed evil, for San Diego had learned not to expect it. If there had been any such expectation, there would have been disappointment, for the war had changed everything. The foreign industrial exhibits persist without any disturbance.

With the decision to build the Exposition in the 1400-acre Balboa park came on the discussion as to exactly where the buildings would stand and what should be the treatment of the grounds. The landscape architecture firm of Olmstead [sic] Bros. made a considerable start. Bertram Goodhue, the architect of the west group of buildings, comprising the California and Fine Arts buildings, made his plans for the entire colony. And then came Frank P. Allen, Jr., director of works, and changed the Exposition in many important details.

Probably there is none of the many unique features of the Exposition more unique than the success in opening it not only on time, as announced five years ago, but also opening it free of debt --- a feat which is almost without parallel in exposition history, and in itself a rare tribute to the financing and managing ability of the people of San Diego and those whom they selected to build and operate the Exposition.

Representative Exhibits

In the same way, under great discouragement due in great part to the war, and the fears the was inspired in the minds of industrial leaders, the Exposition went ahead and secured probably as fine an array of American exhibits as have been gathered together --- not the largest array, to be sure, but quite as representative as could be found. The competitive ideas in the exhibits were abandoned years ago in San Diego, and, instead of competition, the exhibitors were furnished with real service. The entire field of industry was gone over carefully by experts, leaders in that industry selected, and then these leaders were given the opportunity to get an exhibit. The individual exhibitor recognized in this policy the genuine service to himself, because he would be able to show his manufactures without having the visitor distracted and wearied by a similar display made by several other industrial leaders in the realm of business. The attention of the visitors is kept keen and the benefit to the exhibitor is consequently at a maximum.

Working with a limited amount of money, and with the firm intention to open free from debt, the Exposition’s outlay in every department was not nearly as great as it might have been. More money could have been used to good advantage, but the limited money on hand was made, simply because it was limited, to do twice as much work as it would ordinarily have done. The operating force has been kept at a minimum, and salaries generally have been at a minimum. Many of the officials who have done most gallant work have done so without any reward or hope of reward, but purely out of zeal to do their best for San Diego and the American West. That is another impressive feature of the Exposition --- the devotion to a cause bigger than was the cause of any previous world’s fair.

City to Benefit

San Diego as the first port of call should benefit materially from the Panama canal. That was one idea in many the Exposition had, and from the celebration itself San Diego should benefit materially, but that is not the prime purpose. The bigger, broader and better purpose is to assist materially in the development of the whole West --- San Diego’s back country, if that expression may be used. The benefit to San Diego is indirect. The benefit to the Western states is certain, for the great aim has been to show the tourist from other parts of the country and from other parts of the world, what there is in the new country on each slope of the Rockies, that holds definite opportunity for the settler. That settler may be a farmer, or a merchant, or a manufacturer, or an artisan. Whatever he may be, he can find in the Western empire work for him to do, if he has the heart and the brains and the hand to do it.

The great effort is, perhaps, to build up the agriculture in the West; to cultivate the 44,000,000 acres of undeveloped land, potentially just as good as that now being developed and cultivated, just as the present 8,000,000 acres are being cultivated, to turn the desert into a garden and mere resources into revenue producing investment. In seeking to help itself, San Diego seeks to help the West more.

This today is generally realized, and the support which the exhibiting states are giving San Diego establishes another record in exposition history. It is an Exposition of a new type, and the best type the world has ever seen. And this has been done by the smallest city which ever held a Fair of such dimensions --- a city which started the building with only 35,000 inhabitants --- a city which was told the plan was hopeless and could not be carried out, a city of boundless energy and boundless future.

San Diego Union, January 1, 1915, Special Section, 4:1-3. Architectural Gems of Old Spain Revived. . . . Probably no single feature of California, outside the majestic natural wonders of the state, has attracted more interest than the old Spanish missions, which extend from San Diego de Alcala to San Francisco de Solano. Probably no other spirit of architecture is so completely in harmony with the California landscape. Certainly none is associated more definitely with the rare old Spanish traditions which still live in California’s life of the present day, and yet there has been a singular neglect of the Spanish-Colonial type of building in the construction of new buildings along the coast. This circumstance was fully realized by the management of the San Diego Exposition five years ago, when plans were being made for the buildings which should stand on top of the lofty mesa which looks down over the sea and back over the canyons to the mountains.

The Exposition might have gone ahead and erected buildings of Greek or Roman type, or other conventional types which have appeared at all world’s fairs of the past. Beyond a doubt the results would have been beautiful for all buildings are beautiful when they are set in the gorgeous landscape which is possible in California as a whole, and in Southern California in particular. Beautiful the result might have been, but nothing would have been created. Consequently, the Exposition adopted a different plan, and now offers to the world something which is not only wondrously beautiful, but also is creative in that it has brought about a genuine renaissance of the glories of Spanish art and architecture, and something which is productive of a very great appeal to the romantic tendencies which linger in the most prosaic.

Plunge Into Past

The impression of the architects who have seen the Exposition in the city at the far southwest, is that there has been revived an art which should have been revived decades ago, but which now re-created, is destined to take on new life and strength and to last for many years to come.

The visitor comes up to the edge of Balboa Park from the wharves or railway station, passing en route buildings typical of a twentieth-century city, the rattle of street cars and the hum of modern industry fills the way. He bursts through a grove of palms and finds himself at the end of the quarter-mile Puente de Cabrillo. He crosses this impressive viaduct and comes to the great stone gateway, not spick and span as though it had been built especially for this occasion, but softened by the sandblast and chipped here and there to bring about the appearance of antiquity; it is just such a gate as might have stood at the portal of a city in old Spain of two or three or four centuries ago.

He passes through the gateway and immediately the hum and bustle of the twentieth century die away. At one side is an impressive cathedral, copied in many essential details from the magnificent cathedral at Oaxaca, Mexico. At the other side is a plain old mission of the California type, and right away is noticed one of the extraordinary features of this Spanish-Colonial architecture, for the ornate cathedral faces squarely into the somber old mission and yet there is no clashing and no discord. This probably is not true of any other school of architecture. Down El Prado the visitor walks between rows of black acacias, set in verdant lawns, on each side beyond the lawns is a thick hedge of poinsettia, its crimson flashing brilliantly against the green of the coprosma and the other shrubs. Just beyond this hedge rises the long Spanish arches which line the arcade, stretching from La Puerta del Oeste clear along El Prado.

Here is another old mission of the California type, and over across the canyon a mission of the older New Mexico type, quite as much Indian as Spanish. Down this way is a building of the pure municipal type seen today in all Spanish-American cities. Here is a rustic residence, and there an urban palace. A great building with colored cornice introduces its interesting Moorish feature. Another building at the end of the Isthmus introduces the Moorish arabesque and minaret and other features which have been adopted in some measure by Spanish-America itself.

Variety at Every Turn

Everything is Spanish-Colonial, and yet there is variety sufficient to lend fresh charm to the view. There are openings in the long arcades which lead into quiet patios whose calm is broken only by the plashing of a fountain of Pan. There are rose-covered gateways leading into pergolas which dot the broad lawns adjoining the buildings and stretching back to the brink of the canyons. There are curious exedras in the botanical gardens, there are stone balconies looking over the gulches which have been planted with a might variety of semi-tropical plants. These canyons furnish a most important feature of the general landscape. One reason for the extraordinary results which San Diego has brought about with a limited amount of money is that Balboa Park, as it was when the Exposition started, supplied a site which is quite incomparable in exposition work. The great mesa occupying the center of the 1,400 acre park is cut by deep ravines whose contour furnishes admirable opportunity for the development of most appealing treatments. The canyons, to be sure, like the mesa, a matter of four years ago, were of hard-baked adobe in which grew nothing except cactus and sage and chaparral. By the liberal use of dynamite, by plowing and harrowing and incessant watering, these canyons have been made to bloom into a succession of great gardens which probably have no peer anywhere in the country.

The height of the bridge has been accented by the use of Italian and Monterey cypress. Beyond the zone where these trees are used is a wealth of eucalyptus and acacia. Some of the trees are the varieties which bear the brilliant crimson and golden blooms. The end of the canyon has been devoted entirely to a variety of palms, also there are palms used extensively elsewhere in the canyon treatment. The brilliant cannas and the soft gray of the acacia baileyana and some of the rarer grasses have been used to add further color

Rare Flowers Soften Lines

Not only was San Diego endowed at the outset with this admirable site for the Exposition, which could not have been bought for millions, but also it was endowed with the quite invaluable gift of climate, a climate which is the same the year around, it knows no frost, nor torrid heat, and it allows the most amazing riot of hundreds of varieties of trees and shrubs and clambering vines and small blooming plants. Over all the arcades sweeps this display of vines, with the purple bougainvillea used dominantly along El Prado, with roses used in this patio, clematis in that, and jasmine and honeysuckle elsewhere. The effect of this floral display is of great importance. Probably no other single feature at the Exposition is of more importance. It must be remembered that the majority of visitors to San Diego in 1915 will be Northerners and Easterners who have no conception of the glories of Southern California’s climate and the amazing heights of beauty to which the California flora mount.

There is another point which impresses mightily the architect and engineer who likes to see full value received. There has been little of previous world’s fairs more genuinely depressing than the sight on the day after the fair closed, when the tearing down of the buildings began. The structures at San Diego have been built to stay --- that is, those structures which are entitled to permanency. The smaller structures along the Isthmus, being erected purely for amusement, will be torn down immediately, but all the other buildings will stand for many years to come. The great west quadrangle, for example, dominated by the California State building, is built entirely of steel and concrete and will be used in years to come to house the museum exhibits which have been donated to the Exposition with the definite understanding that they would remain as long as the building itself stands.

Building Reverts to City

The wealth of rare flowers in the Botanical building is assembled for permanent use, as that building, too, is of steel and concrete. The administration building, the fire station, the hospital, and the other service buildings are for permanent park uses. The great music pavilion, which stands at the lower end of the Plaza de Panama, is of the same steel and concrete construction, and becomes the property of the city immediately after the Exposition is terminated. All of the other buildings are of staff and plaster, but these perishable materials are placed on a firm backing of metal lath. Furthermore, the entire absence of frost and sudden changes of temperature and gales and drenching rains from this particular section of the San Diego valley makes certain a much greater degree of permanency than would be possible anywhere else. The life of these buildings is figured at from twenty to thirty years with proper treatment of the staff each year. The great Puente de Cabrillo, which cost approximately $150,000, is also, of course, of permanent construction, and is of genuine interest from a purely engineering standpoint as the first example of reinforced concrete construction of the cantilever unit type on so large a scale.

The supplementary features which have been introduced by the Exposition management to carry out the Spanish ideas are in a rare spirit of harmony. For example, not only are the buildings purely Spanish, but the guards and attendants at the Exposition throughout 1915 are attired as conquistadors and caballeros, the bandsmen are dressed in Spanish uniform, the dancing girls who appear in the Plaza de Panama and at different points along El Prado are Spanish dancing girls, in the bright costumes of old Spain, presenting the dances of the Spanish capital of four centuries ago. Some of the fiestas, which will rank as special events, are the fiestas of the Spanish-American countries. Thus in the field of special events are the religious ceremonies of the Aztecs and Toltecs, and the other ancient red races. These displays then figure as more than special events because they are inseparably associated with the architecture itself. Very little is left to the imagination of the visitor save the feat of transporting himself backward three or four centuries and recalling that this magic city on the mesa is the city that was dreamed of by Cabrillo four centuries ago and by the succession of conquistadors and padres who followed after. It is an Exposition beautiful in appearance and in spirit alike.

San Diego Union, January 1, 1915, Special Section, 4:2-3. Tourists protected by uniform scale.

San Diego Union, January 1, 1915, Special Section, 4:6-7. Counties and Western States Housed in Noble Structures. . . . With the main exhibits of the Exposition designed to show to the visitor the opportunities of the American West, the leading states of the West have erected imposing buildings to carry on the lessons taught in its general features. It is their task to show what each state has to offer. Most of the buildings are located on the lower plateau and are almost the first to strike the eye of the visitor, whether he comes from El Puente Cabrillo or along El Paseo to the south gate. Two of the states have placed their exhibits elsewhere --- Nevada, whose exhibit is placed in the heart of the outdoor display along the Alameda, and California, whose imposing $250,000 building stands close to the west approach, its great tower and dome dominating the architectural scheme of the whole grounds and visible for many miles.

The California building, however, is not devoted to a display of the state’s resources, as this has been left to the buildings erected by the individual groups of counties, of which there are five.

The Sacramento Valley and the mountain counties display their varied resources in a building at the north end of the Plaza de Panama. The building is one of the finest on the grounds, palatial in character. Along the front is a line of imposing pillars, back of which is a deep alcove, which forms an entrance to the building itself. Within the great hall, the woodwork of which is entirely of burned pine, are gathered the wonderful resources of the valley and mountain districts of the north part of the state. There are some unusual features, such as the jars which apparently support the weight of the central exhibit. Around the walls and in the alcoves are broad benches and a thick growth of permanent plants.

Counties Represented in Fine Buildings

The middle portion of the state is represented by the San Joaquin Valley Association, whose building in the east side of the lower end of the plaza is probably the best on the grounds of the municipal type, familiar in Spanish America. Here has been devised an extraordinary mural decoration scheme. The workers, men and girls from the valley, having arranged unique designs in grains and grasses to cover the panels and ceiling of the building. Colored photographs set forth the various industries of the San Joaquin Valley.

The third large group of counties, comprising the southern section of the state, have erected an imposing building near the south gate, and back of that building they have laid out one of the most important displays on the grounds. The building itself opens into the formal garden through which one walks to get to the citrus orchard on the other side of the Calle Colon. Here in this orchard are the many varieties of citrus fruit: the orange, lemon, grapefruit, kumquat, tangerine, and a row of astonishing trees, in the trunks of which have been grafted numerous varieties of citrus fruits. These varieties are seen growing well under conditions which are almost incomprehensible to the visitor from northern climes.

Across the Alameda from the citrus orchard is the model intensive farm, which demonstrates what can be done in a small tract of five acres or even less, and how a man can make a good living for himself and family, and save money besides. In the center of the model farm are shown many of the fruits of California, including the peach, apricot, fig, olive, apple, cherry, alligator pear and a few walnut trees. Here, too, is shown the full-bearing vineyard.

Smaller Groups Participate

Two smaller groups of counties are also represented, Kern and Tulare, whose graceful building lies across the Esplanade from the San Joaquin Valley building, close by the entrance to La Via de Los Estados and Alameda and Santa Clara, whose building is directly across the highway leading down into the state plateau. Here, too, are shown the resources which these sections offer the man who wishes to live in California. The visitor will realize after a tour of the buildings, the extraordinary resources of the Golden State, whose industries are almost as numerous as the industries of the entire United States.

At the entrance of the lower plateau begins the succession of state buildings. The first is Kansas, whose appropriation was not sufficient to give anything like the display the Kansas commissioners indicate they would like to give at this new type Exposition. With the limited funds on hand, however, was erected a small pavilion, where the visitor can at least get an idea of some of the principal features of Kansas life.

Beyond is the Utah building, surmounted by two large cupolas in red tile and four smaller pinnacles grouped about them at the corners. Next is the structure of the state of Montana, assisted by former Senator William A. Clark, whose personal gift of $10,000 materially increased the scope of the exhibits. Directly across the way is the Washington buildings, so constructed that the rear balcony overhangs the canyada which itself leads out from the Canyon Cabrillo. Washington has laid especial stress on its forestry exhibits.

Old Mission Copies

The last of this row is the New Mexico building, a replica of the ancient mission on the Rock of Acoma. One is immediately impressed by the quaintness of the exterior, which shows the manner in which the Spanish settler utilized Indian ideas and Indian materials in building. For example, there are no rounded arches, such as came into California at a later period. The links are generally straight. The towers and walls are thicker at the bottom than at the top, this being due to difficulties in building with adobe.

The Nevada building, lying between the Standard Oil building and the Lipton tea plantation, is another imposing Spanish structure in which the rounded arch continues to play a dominant part. The original intention was to have Nevada occupy the space between the Utah and Montana buildings, but owing to the advanced state of the gardening at the time Nevada was ready to build, the state consented to place its exhibit on the Alameda.

San Diego Union, January 1, 1915, Special Section, 4:7-8. The Outdoor Organ. . . . An outdoor organ, probably the largest of its kind in existence, presented to the San Diego Exposition by John D. Spreckels, will be one of the most beautiful permanent features of the city. Situated at the lower end of the Plaza de Panama, the organ is housed in a great vaulted structure 75 feet high, from which branch curved colonnades terminating in square exedras, with a total span of something over 300 feet. The entire structure is built of steel and concrete throughout, but the effect of marble is given by the concrete pillars which form a double line along the colonnade.

The structure at the center, where the organ itself is built, is in reality nothing more than a sounding board, constructed with such close attention to acoustic properties that it is expected to throw the sound of the full tones the full length of the Plaza de Panama, which stretches a thousand feet to the north. No covered auditorium has been built. The extraordinary climate of Southern California makes it possible to have the audience seated on benches scattered about the plaza and in the cloisters and arcades of the mission buildings adjoining.

Cost of Great Organ Pavilion $100,000

A gorgeous display of semi-tropic California flora clambers over the colonnade of the organ pavilion. Past the west end of the colonnade leads La Via de los Estados, the boulevard which winds about the plateau where the different state buildings are situated. Past the east end of the colonnade leads another path, which touches the edge of the Canyon Espanol and then winds back into the Plaza de Panama, and so continues down El Prado, the main highway of the Exposition Beautiful. From the walk along the colonnade is obtained a view across the deep canyons and across the roofs of the city to the harbor, to the strand of Coronado, to Point Loma with its bristling guns of Fort Rosecrans and the domes of the Theosophical Homestead, and far beyond the great Pacific. It is a panorama which can inspire the best in music, just as it inspires the best in painting and literature.

The organ pavilion is the last of the main structures in the Exposition grounds to be completed. Its total cost will approximate $100,000, of which $33,500 is the cost of the organ itself. A considerable amount of the cost is in the art stone which makes up the front of the building. The formal dedication will come on this New Year’s morning, when a festival program of classical music will be given.

Throughout the year this organ will be used for regular and special events. It will come into its most important use probably in the late spring when the Mendelssohn Choir of Toronto is expected to visit the coast and spend a full week in San Diego. A few weeks later the famous Tabernacle Choir from the Mormon temple will visit the Exposition, and, while a number of Utah citizens are holding special ceremonies in the Utah building, on the lower plateau, the great choir and orchestra will be contributing their services in the Plaza.

Famous Choirs Coming

The tentative program for the visit of the Mendelssohn Choir includes the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to furnish the instrumental music during the tour.

Another highly important musical feature of the year will be the programs furnished by the Exposition band, which has been organize during the past summer and has been giving weekly concerts at the Exposition grounds during the period before the actual opening. This is a band of thirty pieces, under the direction of Peter J. Frank, who has had considerable experience in California music festivals. The bandsmen are attired in Spanish uniform, and not only make an exceedingly gay appearance in the bright plaza, but also furnish an interesting piece of detail in the general Spanish harmony scheme which pervades the entire Exposition.

The guards and attendants are caballeros and conquistadors, the dancing girls are Spanish dancing girls, every building is a Spanish-Colonial building, and even the gardens and patios are laid out after Spanish designs.

One more musical feature is of genuine interest. This is the incidental music which accompanies the Aztec and Toltec ceremonials which will make up quite the most interesting series of events which the Exposition has planned. For several months the ethnological libraries of the country were scoured for full information about the ancient ceremonies of the red races who existed in the western continent long before the coming of the white man. The result is a series of scenarios based on the rituals of the Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayas and Incas. It is a lamentable fact that the same people who by omnivorous reading and genuine good taste have learned to love the folklore of Greece and Rome and Assyria and Scandinavia and Germany know practically nothing of the equally rich lore of the first Americas.

Deities’ Terrifying Names

The names of Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilpochtli mean absolutely nothing. It might be mentioned that there are other gods and demi-gods of the ancient red races with names of a much more terrifying character. The names are no more terrifying than the rituals which their followers celebrated. One of the particularly interesting ceremonies which is scheduled for presentation next year --- with a few revisions at the requests of the actors --- is the sacrifice scene, in which the victims are fastened to the altars, past which march the priests, who, with the aid of a sharpened flint, slit open the breasts of the victims and remove their hearts. The hearts are then bounced violently on the stone pavement, and, from the elasticity which they show, the priests make auguries.

The information obtained from the scientific libraries has furnished the pageant matters of the Exposition with what they believe to be scientifically accurate data not only as regards the dramatic episodes and the costumes, but also the dance steps and the incidental music, instrumental and choral. The program includes sixty-three of these episodes, which allows for the presentation of one new one each week and a few new ones at various times in the year, in addition to various repetitions which will be necessary for the more striking episodes. This is probably the most important original work in this field which the San Diego Exposition has undertaken.

(Note: There is not record that ceremonials of the type described above were ever performed at the Panama-California Exposition.)

Hawaiian Musical Features

Even in the field of amusements, there is musical work which is entitled to consideration. More particularly important is that in the Hawaiian Village, which will be in charge, so far as music is concerned, of Ernest Kaai, who for several years has ranked as the principal musical personage in the Hawaiian Islands. Kaai is bringing with him fifty-three natives, a considerable number of whom are chosen entirely for their musical ability. Instead of presenting merely a quintet, such as has been presented at various times in this country on tour, he had chosen a large number of natives whom he has brought in, not from Honolulu nor the other coast states, but from the back country, where the pure Hawaiian still exists. Some of the oddities which he promises are the nose flute players. He, of course, makes no claim to music of a high technical character, but wishes rather to present music which is typically Hawaiian and which he considers the best in the field of genuine folk song.

There is also a large Indian village, one of the largest concessions on the Exposition grounds, and there, too, will be a good deal in the way of folk music of the Southwest Indians. It will be remembered that numerous American composers, among them Charles Cadman, have made extensive use of Indian themes for the composition of "white man’s music." Many of these themes and others of equal interest will be heard under natural conditions, remaining "red man’s music."

At various times in the year, of course, there will be visiting bands and orchestras, the most important of which are the Mormon Choir and the Mendelssohn Choir.

California Building

Science and Education Building

Indian Arts Building]

Painted Desert

A few years after the discovery of the western continent by Columbus, there started the succession of expeditions from the old world into the new and the transplanting of European ideas and customs. The strange land whose eastern shores were washed by the Atlantic was looked on as entirely savage, and as rapidly as could be done its customs and ideas were exterminated.

In a vague way the average person knows that in Central and South America once lived the Aztecs and Incas; that the former were mighty warriors and the latter mighty builders; that among them loomed up a few dominant figures in many ways the peers of their white conquerors. But that knowledge is vague and hazy. The student knows much more. The San Diego Exposition has undertaken the task of bringing that knowledge to the layman, to enable him to learn that the ancient peoples were the peers of their contemporaries in other lands in many fields, certainly in the practical arts, and in not a few of the fine arts.

The story of that effort goes back for a long distance, almost the dawn of the Exposition planting, before construction began. Negotiations were started with the Smithsonian Institute, the School of American Archaeology, and other scientific bodies, arranging for cooperation and a distribution of expense. The first condition was that the invaluable archaeological specimens collected should remain the property of the public after the 1915 Exposition has passed on and had become a memory.

Feared Ancient Gods

And so expeditions set out, one into the deserts of the southwest, among the ancient pueblos, another to the north among the haunts of the coast Indians of centuries past, and two others into Central and South America. That which went to Guatemala brought to civilization perhaps one of the most striking groups for display.

Far back into the interior this party voyaged, away from the railroad, away from the highway, away from the footpaths, and into the depths of a tropical jungle, where the thick growth shuts out the sight of the sky and of a companion twenty feet away, where even the natives feared to go, for in the wild country still roamed, they said, the spirits of the old red warriors. Some of the more imaginative has seen the humming-bird feathers on the ankle of Huitzilopochtli, the ancient god.

More concerned with the possibilities of fever than of encountering Huitzilopochtli and the priests of Quetzalcoatl, the exploring scientists pushed their way through to the spot where once stood Quirigua. There it still stood. The palms had grown through the roofs of the temple, and the beasts and birds had made their homes in the ancient altars, but the city was there, and the great statues were there, some tilted by a collapse of the foundation, some flat on the ground and partly buried in underbrush, some still erect. The hieroglyphs could be traced easily, but the key to the language was gone.

With the best means available, the explorers had carried with them full equipment for the making of casts from the statues which were too heavy to be moved. No ordinary plaster was used, but instead the glue mold, whose impressions are so accurate that the finest hairlines of the hieroglyphs are retained, and transferred to the final cast with ease. The result in many cases better than the original, for discoloration is absent.

Most of the statues are of red sandstone, carved from a single gigantic block. The weight of the largest is about 100,000 pounds. The materials for casting merely the surface weighed 15,000 pounds, an indication of the seriousness of the undertaking.

Transportation Difficult

Eventually the casts of the necessary matter were made, while artists in the party made rough drafts of the city itself for the making of later models. These was more difficulty in getting the fruits of the trip out of Quirigua than there had been in the exploration and the gathering of the material, and more than once were their profound wishes that the Incas still lived and would exercise their lost arts of engineering to effect the arduous labors of transportation. Some day the chronicles of that expedition will be narrated in full, and much will be added to the literature of travel.

The Peru party has uncovered much more of interest. The coast party had gathered relics of the coastal tribes and assembled them for shipment to San Diego. The desert party had struck rich veins and when the assembly was completed for the exhibits it had gathered, it was found there were 5,000 specimens of ancient pottery and weaving and examples of other arts of rare ethnological value.

All of this lot of 5,000 were distinct and they comprise what is considered as the best collection of Americana in this field, not excepting the famous exhibit of the Field Museum in Chicago. In addition, there were duplicates, numbering up to several hundred, and these were classified and sold in part --- for enough to cover the entire expense of the expedition. Other collections of duplicates were sent to Yale, to the Canadian museum, to the Swedish museum, and in exchange San Diego received archaeological material it could not otherwise have obtained.

The California building at the Exposition, the $250,000 structure erected by the state, to stand for all time, houses no exhibit of industrial and commercial resources as is generally the case. That so far as California is concerned is left to the buildings of the various country groups of which there are five, representing all sections. The state building is a museum, and in it are housed many of the most striking of the ancient Indian exhibits. There has been in mind the realization that just as the Panama canal, whose opening the San Diego Exposition celebrates, will open the new world to commercial development, so it must open it to scientific research. San Diego has sought in the realm of science to stimulate that development, just as in the realm of commerce it has sought to stimulate commercial development.

Serra Statue on Facade

The frontispiece of the ornate cathedral structure is of quite as much interest to the historian as the artist. At the top stands the statue of Fray Junipero Serra, to whose labors was due in great measure the real start of civilization on the coast of what is now the United States. At one side stands Cabrillo, the discoverer of 1542, beneath a bust of his patron Charles V, At the other is Philip III of Spain. Below is a bust of Portola, the first governor of Alta California, and another of Vancouver, the first English explorer of the west coast. At the extreme bottom stands de ‘Ascencion, the chronicler, and across the arch is Fray Jaume, the first white martyr. It is a pictorial history of the American west coast.

Within the great carved doors, lining the corridor, is a replica of the Farnham frieze, the separate panels portraying signal events in early American history --- American in the broader sense. There are other panels of earlier days, cast from the originals which were wrought by Aztec and Inca, Maya and Toltec. The Cross of Palenque, for example, is shown and the woodcarving from Tikal, and an occasional carved tablet bearing a portrayal of religious or royal ceremony. A succession of them leads the visitor into the main rotunda, and there, looming up beneath the vaulted ceiling, are the great monuments which were recovered from the buried cities in a stately array about the room.

About the walls and in the balconies are casts from some of the famous doorways and accurate models of the ancient cities of the old America, at Uxmal and at Chichen-Itza. Deep in the surface are carved the hieroglyphs whose key is still lost, saved that by frequent appearance, the calendar system has been partially deciphered and some of the dates are discernible. The system was not the Gregorian calendar; this is certain. The months were lunar months and the weeks were of six days, but they were apparently accurate intercalary arrangements.

Much to Be Learned

Some dates in 400 and 40-year cycles, with shorter periods of five years and one year, are found to be in the neighborhood of 4,000 years, but from what date the system of calculation started is still a total mystery. Points like this and the deciphering of the hieroglyphs will furnish subjects for interesting research for many years to come. The careful outlining of racial characteristics furnished equally engrossing material for ethnological research. The men are found to have been bearded, unlike most of the North American Indians, and the prominent noses and lips and full faces contain further suggestions as to the source of the original stock.

The advanced state of the ancient arts is clearly shown. The painstaking care in the sculpturing cannot be ignored, nor can the symbolism back of the artist’s work. The average citizen will discover that the little known mythology of the ancient redman was quite as rich as that of the nations of the other world, that the gods and goddesses have many of the same human traits, that the heroes performed deeds just as thrilling, that the tribal ceremonies were just as spectacular.

Incidentally, another division of the Exposition was set to work in the principal scientific libraries in search of date abut these ceremonies, and from the months of labor devised a series of pageants duplicating the ancient rituals, some of them dating back thousands of years before the coming of the white man.

The field is still fallow for decades of study, as shown by the scanty knowledge now in the hands of scientists. One of the explorers exhibited a picture of an ancient cliff dwelling in ruins.

"That dates back several hundred years, " was hazarded.

"Several thousand," corrected the archaeologist. "See how the front of the cliff has crumbled and fallen. That pile of debris was once the front part of the cliff-dwelling and the approach up the side of the cliff. I am not a specialized geologist and I do not know how long it would take that great mass of stone to disintegrate and crumble into powder. If you will tell me that, then I will tell you when that dwelling ceased to be used. And that is only a start. I would not be able to tell you for how many centuries it was occupied before the final abandonment."</