REPORT
California
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Commission
GOVERNOR J. N. GILLETT, Commissioner.
J. A. FILCHER,
FRANK WIGGINS,
Governor’s Representatives.
1910
CALIFORNIA STATE BUILDING, SEATTLE EXPOSITION, 1909
Report of
GOVERNOR’S REPRESENTATIVES
for California at
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Sacramento, Cal., December 27, 1910.
To Hon. James N. Gillett,
Governor of California, and Ex-Officio Commissioner
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
Dear Sir:—
As your Representatives, charged with the details of California’srepresentation at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, held at Seattle,Washington, from June 1st to October 15th, 1909, inclusive, we takepleasure in submitting to you the following report of our work.
It was right that California should aid and participate in a WesternExposition, and it was wise to make the appropriation for the purposesufficient to insure a creditable representation of the State’s resources.Accordingly, on your recommendation, the Legislature of 1907, setapart from the General Fund the sum of $100,000, and authorized you,as Commissioner for California, through such Representatives as it mightbe your pleasure to appoint, to supervise the general expenditure of theappropriation in the erection of a suitable building on the Alaska-Yukon-PacificExposition grounds, and the collection and installationtherein of such an exhibit as would do credit to the State, and exemplifyin as striking and effective manner as possible the great varietyand superior quality of California’s products.
REPRESENTATIVES.
In accordance with the authority thus conferred it was your pleasureto appoint the undersigned to represent you in this work. You actedpromptly and gave your Representatives ample time to take advantageof the seasons to secure samples of everything necessary for acomplete display of the State’s resources. To this one fact is duelargely the greater completeness of the Seattle exhibit than any Californiahad previously made. You also relieved your Representativesof possible embarrassment by allowing them to appoint their ownassistants and fix their compensation and term of service. In the exerciseof this authority preference was given to those best qualified toperform the work required, and the term of employment depended onefficiency and good behavior. No help was hired that was not absolutelynecessary, and no one was kept on the pay-roll a moment longerthan his or her services were required. In short, it was our determinedpurpose from the start to try and secure maximum results at a minimumcost in every department of the work, to the end that the finaloutcome might be an improvement on any previous effort made byCalifornia of a similar character.
We considered this to be necessary, not only in deference to ourown reputation, but more particularly for the credit and benefit of theState